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Brief History of the Seven-Headed Serpent Beast

Leviathan seems to come from Canaanite mythology, through comparisons made with the multi-headed serpent called Lotan (ltn), from the Ugaritic tablets, discovered at Ras Shamra.

Lotan was killed by the god Ba’al (other sources indicate that the goddess Anat, or maybe both of them Killed Lotan). Bernhard Anderson, in Out of the Depths: The Psalms Speak for Us Today, compares a verse from the Ras Shamra (top), with Psalm 74:13-14:

When you killed Lotan, the fleeing serpent,
Annihilated the Twisty Serpent,
The Potentate with seven heads,
The heavens grow hot, they withered.

in Psalm 74 an Israel poet has appropriated this myth:

By your power you cleft the sea monster in two
and broke the sea serpent’s heads in the waters,
You crushed the heads of the Leviathan,
and threw him to the sharks for food.
(Ps. 74:13-14, REB)
Anderson, Bernhard W. & Bishop, Steven, 2000 , ‘Out of the Depths: The Psalms Speak for Us Today’, p.27 (Westminster John Knox Press)

Gerhard Botterweck (Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (p.506-507)) and Michael Fishbane (Biblical Myth and Rabbinic Mythmaking (p.39)), both mention the simularity of the descriptive language used for both Lotan and Leviathan:

Mot says to Ba’al: “If you slay the Leviathan (Ltn), the agile (brh) serpent and kill the twisting (‘qltn) serpent, the tyrant with the seven heads…” Both Isa. 27:1 and this Ugaritic text describe Leviathan as brh (”agile”) and ‘qltn, “twisting.”
Botterweck, Gerhard Johannes & Ringgren, Helmer, 1978, ‘Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament’, p.506 (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing)

What is more, in the same text the serpent Lotan is described as both ’slant’ and twisted (brh and qltn)—apostrophes exactly like those used of Leviathan in Isaiah 27:1 (who is called both bariah and aqalaton)…
Fishbane, Michael A, 2003 ,’Biblical Myth and Rabbinic Mythmaking’, p.39 (Oxford University Press)

The Chaos Beast

A seven-headed beast with legs is depicted on an Akkadian cylinder seal (dating around 2360-2180 B.C), with tongues of fire blazing upon his back up into the sky. Two Hero-Gods fight to slay the beast, and already four heads have been slain.

In Greek myth, this Mesopotamian battle scene closely resembles the fight between the Hydra (another watery beast with a multitude of heads, sometimes seven), and Herakles, aided by his nephew Iolaus. Although this is not really a cosmic battle myth is does seem to draw from Mesopotamian themes of seven-headed serpent beasts, such as in The Return of Ninurta to Nippur, where the God Ninurta subdues a number of cosmic beasts including the Seven-Headed Serpent.

The most famous cosmic battle in Greek mythology was between Typhon, who is depicted as a man with serpentine body on Pottery (although classical sources his physical appearance is much more elaborate). Proceeding this battle, another was fought by Kronos and Ophion (serpent) in the battle for cosmic supremacy.

Lowell Edmunds (Approaches to Greek Myth), gives this pretty good description of this type of mythological battle:

the victory of the divine warrior, whether it is a precondition of enthronement or the repulsing of a challenge to an already enthroned regent, represents narratively the same absolute control over the cosmic order implied by the very concept of cosmic kingship. The threat posed by this adversary represents the greatest challenge to that order that could ever be, and once this challenge is turned back and the victorious warrior securely enthroned, it is clear that there will never be another so great.
Edmunds, Lowell, 1990, ‘Approaches to Greek Myth’, p.178 (Johns Hopkins University Press)

Also check out YHVH - Conqueror of the Chaos Monsters at de-conversion.com.

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