© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���5 | doi � �. ��63/9789004�9�973_005 CHAPTER 3 Irano-Talmudica III Giant Mythological Creatures in Transition from the Avesta to the Babylonian Talmud Reuven Kiperwasser and Dan D.Y. Shapira For about a thousand years Zoroastrian Iranian culture thrived alongside its Jewish Babylonian counterpart. In the course of this period, these two cultures were engaged in an inter-cultural discourse whereby new texts were constantly being created, and at the same time retaining traces of an earlier discourse. The present paper undertakes a comparative examination of textual tradi- tions. These traditions were composed in various languages and dialects that reflect a diverse cultural landscape. In many cases, they witnessed a transition from an oral to a written form. This paper will begin by tracing the movement of textual traditions from the Avestan Yasna to the Pahlavi Bundahišn. It will then follow their reception in the Babylonian Talmud. Finally this paper will study the Babylonian Talmud’s interpretation of certain Psalms. The two Zoroastrian sources under discussion are a short chapter from the Yasna, an oral composition in Avestan, and a chapter from the Bundahišn, a Pahlavi work on cosmology. The first half of the chapter from the Bundahišn is based on a lost commentary on the Yasna. The two Jewish sources to be con- sidered are excerpts from Baḇa Bathra, a tractate of the Babylonian Talmud, and a couple of Psalms in Biblical Hebrew. The Talmudic text was originally an oral composition. Its typical combination of Aramaic and Mishnaic Hebrew reflects rabbinical diglossia. The Avesta, as well as the chapters from the Pahlavi Bundahišn and the Talmud to be discussed here, must have been put down in writing centuries after their oral text had become relatively fixed. Thus, the text of the Babylonian Talmud, being a product of the pervasive oral culture of the Babylonian rabbis, still retains its oral character. This is reflected, among other things, in its diverse stories. The same holds true, to some degree, for the Pahlavi text. It, too, contains abridged retellings of oral commentaries on the Avesta. It may be assumed that the politically dominant Iranian culture, whether Arsacid or Sasanian, exercised a prevalent influence on the world of the rabbis. Our aim here is to demonstrate how the interaction worked, and to try to understand the mechanisms of intercultural dialogue. In our discussion we shall attempt to demonstrate how the Iranian mytho- logical bestiarium current in the Sasanian period came to be reflected in the