The Labbu Myth, “The Slaying of Labbu”, or possibly Kalbu Myth, depending on the reading of the first character in the antagonist's name, which is always written as KAL may be read as Lab, Kal, Rib and Tan, is an ancient Mesopotamiancreation epic with its origin no later than the Old Babylonian period. It is a folktale possibly of the Diyalaregion as the later version seems to feature the god Tišpak as its protagonist and may be an allegory representing his replacement of the chthonic serpent-god Ninazu at the top of the pantheon of the city ofEšnunna. This part is played by Nergal in the earlier version. It was possibly a precursor of the Enûma Eliš, where Labbu, meaning "Raging One" or "lion", was the prototype of Tiamat and of the Canaanite tale of Baal fighting Yamm.
Synopsis
Extant in two very fragmentary copies, an Old Babylonian and a later Assyrian one from the Library of Ashurbanipal, which have no complete surviving lines, the Labbu Myth relates the tale of a possibly leonine certainly serpentine monster, a fifty-league long mušba-aš-ma: Bašmu or sixty-league long MUŠ-ḪUŠ:Mušḫuššu, depending on the version and reconstruction of the text. The opening of the Old Babylonian version recalls that of Gilgamesh:
The cities sigh, the people... The people decreased in number,... For their lamentation there was none to...
The vast dimensions of Labbu are described. The sea, tāmtu has given birth to the dragon. The fragmentary line "He raises his tail..." identified him for Neil Forsyth as a precursor of a later Adversary, the dragon of Revelation 12:4, whose tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth. In the later version, Labbu is created by the god Enlil who “drew the dragon in the sky", to wipe out humanity whose raucous noise has been disturbing this deity's sleep, a recurring motif in Babylonian creation epics. Whether this refers to the Milky Way or a comet is not clear. The pantheon of Babylonian gods are terrified by this apparition and appeal tothe moon god Sîn or fertility goddessAruru who conscripts Tišpak/Nergal to counter this threat and “exercise kingship”, presumably over Ešnunna, as its reward. Tišpak/Nergal raises objections to tangling with the serpent but, after a gap in the narrative, a god whose name is abraded provides guidance on military strategy. A storm erupts and the victor, who may or may not be Tišpak or Nergal, in accordance with the advice given, fires an arrow to slay the beast. The epic fragments are not part of a cosmogony, Forsyth notes, as the cities of men already exist. F.A.M. Wiggerman found the myth's function as justifying Tishpak's accession as king, "as a consequence of his 'liberation' of the nation, sanctioned by the decision of a divine council."
