263 BEHEMOTH AND LEVIATHAN Job 40,24 may be an unmarked rhetorical question, as it is almost al- ways translated: “Can one take him by his eyes, by barbs pierce his nose?” This would mean that humans cannot capture the hippopotamus even by means of hooks in his eyes and nose. Or the sentence may be indicative: “By his eyes one can take him, by barbs pierce his nose”. This means that humans can do so. Hippopotami were often hunted in Egypt. Though it is possible that the author did not know this, the specificity of 40,24 suggests actual knowledge, for hippopotami were indeed caught with ropes and hooks in the nose and barbed harpoons 9. In this case, the verse is not de- scribing human helplessness before this creature but only its strength, which allows it to be subdued only in this brutal fashion and not in direct combat. If so, Behemoth resembles the powerful but mortal war horse. On the grounds that the author could be expected to know that hip- popotami are vulnerable to human attack, O. Keel argues that Behemoth is not the natural hippopotamus but rather the hippopotamus as the mytho- logical symbol of evil: Seth, undefeatable by humans 10. It seems to me, however, that while an Israelite might be aware of the basic symbolism of the hippopotamus to the Egyptians, the distinction that Keel draws would require a deeper understanding ― and acceptance ― of the Egyptian myth in its particulars, as well as the ability to distinguish between the Seth-hip- popotamus 11 and the identical creatures hunted by humans 12. Moreover, the hippopotami in the ritual scenes are depicted as ludicrously small be- fore Pharaoh. An Egyptian would realize that these proportions represent the supremacy of Pharaoh/Horus, but an Israelite chancing upon such a portrayal would not come away with awe at the hippopotamus’s might. Nor could the author assume that his readers would be aware of the sub- tleties of the myth, apply it to a battle between Yahweh and Seth, and then be shaken by reference to the human inability to defeat this divinity. In any case, even the Egyptians do not seem to have been troubled by the ex- istence of the chaotic god Seth, since his defeat by Horus was certain and re-enacted ritually. It is most probable that the Theophany describes a real hippopotamus, whose natural powers are enough to inspire awe. The hunt is described in T. SÄVE-SÖDERBERGH, On Egyptian Represen- 9 tations of Hippopotamus Hunting as a Religious Motive (Stockholm 1953) 11-14. For illustrations see KEEL, Jahwes Entgegnung, plates 74, 75b and 76. I can find no depictions of attacks on the hippopotamus’s eyes. Ibid., 132. Specifically, the ritual depictions adduced are Ptolemaic. 10 Ibid., Abb. 73. 11 Hunts by non-royal persons are found in 18th dynasty Theban tombs. 12 They are based on royal traditions but show private individuals hunting. Early scenes show real hippopotamus hunts with several individuals and hip- popotami. See SÄVE-SÖDERBERGH, On Egyptian Representations, 15, 11-12, 24. See also KEEL, Jahwes Entgegnung, Abb. 74, in which two men harpoon three hippopotami. © Gregorian Biblical Press 2012 - Tutti i diritti riservati