leviathan

I wrote here about St Cyprian's image of God overcoming death with a hook concealed in the body of Christ. The extraordinary drawing below derives from the Hortus Deliciarum - an illuminated work by the 12th-century abbess of the Hohenburg Abbey, Herrad von Landsburg - and it realises very much the same figure in graphic form. The creature at the bottom is Leviathan - the sea-monster of the Hebrew Bible and the text that I've placed beside the picture - it doesn't appear in the Hortus - is the speech by which God reminds Job of the extent of his power in the book of Job 41: 1-10:

Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? Or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?
Canst thou put an hook into his nose? Or bore his jaw through with a thorn?

Will he make many supplications unto thee? Will he speak soft words unto thee?
Will he make a covenant with thee? Wilt thou take him for a servant for ever?
Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? O wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?

Shall the companions make a banquet of him? Shall they part him among the merchants?
Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? Or his head with fish spears?

Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, do no more.
Behold, the hope of him is in vain: shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him?
None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me?

At the top of the drawing, God demonstrates exactly this power to 'draw out leviathan with a hook', and, as in Cyprian's image, the bait is Christ.  But along the line here are the heads of the patriarchs and this is appropriate for a drawing that stands between the Old and New Testament pictures, a sign of continuity and connection bridging the progressive stages of the covenant.