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Chaoskampf

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Destruction of Leviathan

God vs the Leviathan, a well-known Chaoskampf

“ The Chaoskampf is an ancient motif from mythology, depicting a god who represents order, defeating a serpent - often a female and/or the god's ancestor - that represents chaos in order to gain control over the cosmos. The tale represents many things, such as the victory of order over chaos, the newer generations taking over the older, the patriarchy condemming and overthrowing the matriarchal society and demonized its mother goddesses into monsters for their male gods to defeat and claim dominance over. You know, that kind of stuffs. „
~ Matt Wright.

The Chaoskampf is a recurring motive across mythologies in which a god of war, storms, or heavens battles an evil force, who is usually either a god of evil, chaos, or is a dragon, serpent, or monster of the seas.

Overview[]

The motif of Chaoskampf (German for "struggle against chaos") is ubiquitous in myth and legend, depicting a battle of a culture hero deity with a chaos monster, often in the shape of a serpent or dragon. The same term has also been extended to parallel concepts in the Middle East and North Africa, such as the abstract conflict of ideas in the Egyptian duality of Maat and Isfet or the battle of Horus and Set.

The reason why a primordial sea monster can accurately be associated with a concept of "chaos" or "Chaoskampf" is due to various considerations: the first is that the sea monster is primordial or pre-creation and is the stuff upon which the cosmos are established; the second is that it is portrayed as monstrous in form, suggesting it is unlike other more benevolent anthropomorphic deities; the third is that it is associated with the watery deep and sea, which are inherently chaotic and dangerous; and lastly is it is located at the periphery of the cosmos from the perspective of humans and thus occupies a pole opposite from the ordered center.

Description[]

The origins of the Chaoskampf myth most likely lie in the Proto-Indo-European religion whose descendants almost all feature some variation of the story of a storm god fighting a sea serpent representing the clash between the forces of order and chaos. Early work by German academics in comparative mythology popularized translating the mythological sea serpent as a "dragon." Indo-European examples of this mythic trope include Thor vs. Jörmungandr (Norse), Tarhunt vs. Illuyanka (Hittite), Indra vs. Vritra (Vedic), Θraētaona vs. Aži Dahāka (Avestan), and Zeus vs. Typhon (Greek), among others.

In Mesopotamia Ninurta, the god of war and agriculture, was known to battle and kill the Anzû, a rebellious throne guardian of Enlil who tried to corrupt the world order with the Tablets of Destiny. Other monsters that Ninurta vanquished were Asag the mountain demon as well as the serpents Bašmu and Mušmaḫḫū.

The Chaoskampf would eventually be inherited by descendants of these ancient religions, perhaps most notably by Christianity. Examples include the story of Saint George and the Dragon as well as depictions of Christ and/or Saint Michael vs. the Devil (as seen in the Book of Revelation among other places and probably related to the God (or specifically Yahweh) vs. Leviathan and later Gabriel vs. Rahab stories of Jewish mythology).

Instances of Chaoskampf[]

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Image Sources[]

  • (Destruction of Leviathan.png) The Destruction of Leviathan by Gustave Doré
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