In the Old Testament, there are five references to the leviathan - described by commentators as a massive sea creature, presumably a crocodile, whale, or dragon. Parallels have been drawn between these Biblical references and an ancient Babylonian creation story in which the goddess of chaos and creation, Tiamat, is slain and the two halves of her corpse are used to form the earth and sky. According to Jewish tradition, God created a male and female leviathan but then killed the female and salted it for the righteous, for if the Leviathans were to procreate the world could not stand before them.