Biblical Chaos Dragons – and Indo-European Ones

Författare

Ola Wikander

Summary, in English

One of the instances that have often been suggested as a possible link between Indo-European and biblical traditions and thought constructs is that of the battle against the dragon or sea monster – a special instance of the Chaoskampf motif. Suggestions in this direction have been put forth by Nicolas Wyatt and by Ajoy Kumar Lahiri, who have argued that Semitic traditions concerning the divine battle against aquatic monsters are somehow connected to or dependent upon Indo-European, or specifically Indo-Aryan, traditions of a similar nature. To be sure, the idea of a divine hero battling a serpentine monster is thoroughly ensconced both in the greater Old Testament world and in many ancient Indo-European cultures. In this paper, it is my purpose to discuss such possible links and evaluate them, and hopefully to add some ideas of my own.

At the conference, the paper was examined and discussed with me by Prof. Terje Stordalen.

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