From Job (Iyov) 41 — who dares open
the doors of its mouth?
Scales locked like shields of iron armor,
shifting between deep blue and crimson rose
where the light catches them.
Eyes glowing like the eyelids of the morning.
Fire from its mouth. Smoke from its nostrils.
Wing-like fins along its underside.
Behind it — a luminous white wake.
One would think the deep had white hair.
The Ambrosiana Bible of 1236,
the Leipzig Mahzor of 1310 —
both depicted it the same way.
A great sea serpent, coiled and sovereign.
The Zohar (II:27b) adds: red like a rose,
iron-like scales, fire from its mouth.
Both sources. One design.
The tradition starts somewhere.
Wear it young.
Livyatan (Leviathan) — sovereign of the deep
since the fifth day.
Still coiled. Still burning. Still sovereign.
Four thousand years of vision — still glowing.
