In the Tanakh, Leviathan is a gigantic sea serpent or dragon. Such creatures are common in the religions of the Near East, such as the Ugaritic Yam and Lotan, the Babylonian Tiamat and (to an extent) the Egyptian Apep. Such creatures were symbols of chaos and darkness and were adversaries of the gods and of humanity.
In Slavic folklore, Lady Midday ( “Poludnitsa” in Bulgarian and Russian, “Polednice” in Czech, “Mittagsfrau” in German, “Poloznicha” in Komi, “Południca” in Polish, “Poludnica” in Serbian, “Poludnica” in Slovak, “Přezpołdnica” Lower Sorbian, or “Připołdnica” in Upper Sorbian), was a demon of high noon, said to cause heatstrokes, neck pain, illness, and madness. Lady Midday appears in the middle of hot summer days and often takes the form of dust clouds, a beautiful young woman in a white dress, a pubescent girl, or a hag, and carries a scythe. She stops people in the field to ask them difficult questions or simply engage them in conversation. Those who fail to answer her questions or try to change the subject are decapitated or blighted with sickness.
