- rifice. We shall have to consider this significant formula
more closely in the last chapter. The most interesting parallels to this primitive myth are to be found in the literature of the Old Testament, as Gunkel[101] has brilliantly pointed out. It is worth while to trace the psychology of these parallels.
Isaiah li:9:
(9) "Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake as in the ancient days, in the generation of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?
(10) "Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep, that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?"
The name of Rahab is frequently used for Egypt in
the Old Testament, also dragon. Isaiah, chapter xxx,
verse 7, calls Egypt "the silent Rahab," and means,
therefore, something evil and hostile. Rahab is the well-known
whore of Jericho, who later, as the wife of Prince
Salma, became the ancestress of Christ. Here Rahab
appeared as the old dragon, as Tiâmat, against whose
evil power Marduk, or Jehovah, marched forth. The
expression "the ransomed" refers to the Jews freed
from bondage, but it is also mythological, for the hero
again frees those previously devoured by the whale.
(Frobenius.)
Psalm, lxxxix:10:
"Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain."
Job xxvi:12-13:
"He divideth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud.
