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= Lilith_ =
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Introduction
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Lilith (; ), also spelled Lilit, Lilitu, or Lilis, is a feminine
figure in Mesopotamian and Jewish mythology, theorized to be the first
wife of Adam and a primordial she-demon. Lilith is cited as having
been "banished" from the Garden of Eden for disobeying Adam.
The original Hebrew word from which the name Lilith is taken is in the
Biblical Hebrew, in the Book of Isaiah, though Lilith herself is not
mentioned in any biblical text. In late antiquity in Mandaean and
Jewish sources from 500 AD onward, Lilith appears in historiolas
(incantations incorporating a short mythic story) in various concepts
and localities that give partial descriptions of her. She is mentioned
in the Babylonian Talmud (Eruvin 100b, Niddah 24b, Shabbat 151b, Bava
Batra 73a), in the 'Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan' as Adam's
first wife, and in the 'Zohar' § Leviticus 19a as "a hot fiery female
who first cohabited with man". Many rabbinic authorities, including
Maimonides and Menachem Meiri, reject the existence of Lilith.
The name Lilith seems related to the masculine Akkadian word and its
female variants and . The 'lil-' root is shared by the Hebrew word
appearing in Isaiah 34:14, which is thought to be a night bird by
modern scholars such as Judit M. Blair. In Mesopotamian religion
according to the cuneiform texts of Sumer, Assyria, and Babylonia,
'lilû' are a class of demonic spirits, consisting of adolescents who
died before they could bear children. Many have also connected her to
the Mesopotamian demon Lamashtu, who shares similar traits and a
similar position in mythology to Lilith.
Lilith continues to serve as source material in today's literature,
popular culture, Western culture, occultism, fantasy, horror, and
erotica.
History
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In some Jewish folklore, such as the 'Alphabet of Sirach' (), Lilith
appears as Adam's first wife, who was created at the same time and
from the same clay as Adam. The legend of Lilith developed extensively
during the Middle Ages, in the tradition of Aggadah, the Zohar, and
Jewish mysticism. For example, in the 13th-century writings of Isaac
ben Jacob ha-Cohen, Lilith left Adam after she refused to become
subservient to him and then would not return to the Garden of Eden
after she had coupled with the archangel Samael.
Interpretations of Lilith found in later Jewish materials are
plentiful, but little information has survived relating to the
Sumerian, Assyrian and Babylonian views of this class of demons.
Recent scholarship has disputed the relevance of two sources
previously used to connect the Jewish to an Akkadian - the Gilgamesh
appendix and the Arslan Tash amulets (see below for discussion of
these two problematic sources).
In contrast, some scholars, such as Lowell K. Handy, hold the view
that though Lilith derives from Mesopotamian demonology, evidence of
the Hebrew Lilith being present in the sources frequently cited - the
Sumerian Gilgamesh fragment and the Sumerian incantation from
Arshlan-Tash being two - is scant, if present at all.
In Hebrew-language texts, the term or (translated as "night
creatures", "night monster", "night hag", or "screech owl") first
occurs in a list of animals in Isaiah 34. The Isaiah 34:14 Lilith
reference does not appear in most common Bible translations such as
KJV and NIV. Commentators and interpreters often envision the figure
of Lilith as a dangerous demon of the night, who is sexually wanton,
and who steals babies in the darkness. Currently there is no
scholarly consensus, with some adhering to the animalistic
interpretation, where as others claim 34:14 is referencing a literal
demon or a category of demons falling under the specification of
"lilith". Historically, certain prominent Jewish rabbis in Talmudic
texts feared the likes of liliths, some to such an extent that they
recommended men not sleep in a home alone, as any who do would be
"seized by Lilith." Jewish incantation bowls and amulets from
Mesopotamia from the first to the eighth centuries identify Lilith as
a female demon and provide the first visual depictions of her. The
said amulets were often symbolic divorce papers, warding off a given
lilith that was thought to be haunting one's house or family.
Etymology
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In the Akkadian language of Assyria and Babylonia, the terms and
mean spirits. Some uses of are listed in the Assyrian Dictionary of
the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (CAD, 1956,
L.190), in Wolfram von Soden's 'Akkadisches Handwörterbuch' (AHw, p.
553), and 'Reallexikon der Assyriologie' (RLA, p. 47).
The Sumerian female demons have no etymological relation to Akkadian
, "evening".
Archibald Sayce (1882) considered that the Hebrew and the earlier
Akkadian names are derived from Proto-Semitic. Charles Fossey (1902)
has this literally translating to "female night being/demon", although
cuneiform inscriptions from Mesopotamia exist where 'Līlīt' and
'Līlītu' refers to disease-bearing wind spirits.
The spirit in the tree in the Gilgamesh cycle
===============================================
Samuel Noah Kramer (1932, published 1938) translated as "Lilith" in
Tablet XII of the 'Epic of Gilgamesh' dated . Tablet XII is not part
of the 'Epic of Gilgamesh,' but is a later Assyrian Akkadian
translation of the latter part of the Sumerian 'Epic of Gilgamesh'.
The is associated with a serpent and a zu bird. In 'Gilgamesh,
Enkidu, and the Netherworld', a huluppu tree grows in Inanna's garden
in Uruk, whose wood she plans to use to build a new throne. After ten
years of growth, she comes to harvest it and finds a serpent living at
its base, a Zu bird raising young in its crown, and that a made a
house in its trunk. Gilgamesh is said to have killed the snake, and
then the zu bird flew away to the mountains with its young, while the
fearfully destroys its house and runs for the forest.
Identification of the as Lilith is stated in the 'Dictionary of
Deities and Demons in the Bible' (1999). Suggested translations for
the Tablet XII spirit in the tree include as "sacred place", as
"spirit", and as "water spirit", but also simply "owl", given that
the is building a home in the trunk of the tree. A connection between
the Gilgamesh and the Jewish Lilith was rejected on textual grounds
by Sergio Ribichini (1978).
The bird-footed woman in the Burney Relief
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Kramer's translation of the Gilgamesh fragment was used by Henri
Frankfort (1937) and Emil Kraeling (1937) to support identification of
a woman with wings and bird-feet in the disputed Burney Relief as
related to Lilith. Frankfort and Kraeling identified the figure in the
relief with Lilith. Today, the identification of the Burney Relief
with Lilith is questioned. Modern research has identified the figure
as one of the main goddesses of the Mesopotamian pantheons, most
probably Ereshkigal. But the figure is more generally identified as
the goddess of love and war: Thorkild Jacobsen identified the figure
as Inanna in an analysis based on the existence of symbols and
attributes commonly recognized to the goddess and on textual evidence.
The Arslan Tash amulets
=========================
The Arslan Tash amulets are limestone plaques discovered in 1933 at
Arslan Tash, the authenticity of which is disputed. William F.
Albright, Theodor H. Gaster, and others, accepted the amulets as a
pre-Jewish source which shows that the name Lilith already existed in
the 7th century BC but Torczyner (1947) identified the amulets as a
later Jewish source.
Lamashtu
==========
Many have alternatively drawn connections between Lilith and the
Mesopotamian demon Lamashtu, due to their similar position and traits
in both mythologies.
In the Hebrew Bible
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The word (or ) only appears once in the Hebrew Bible, in a prophecy
regarding the fate of Edom. Most other nouns in the list appear more
than once and thus are better documented, with the exception of
another 'hapax legomenon': the word 'qippoz'. The reading of scholars
and translators is often guided by a decision about the complete list
of eight creatures as a whole. Quoting from Isaiah 34 (NAB):
Hebrew text
=============
In the Masoretic Text:
{{poemquote|34:14 "And shall-meet wildcats with jackals
the goat he-calls his- fellow
() she-rests and she-finds rest
34:15 there she-shall-nest the great-owl, and she-lays-(eggs), and
she-hatches, and she-gathers under her-shadow:
hawks also they-gather, every one with its mate.}}
In the Dead Sea Scrolls, among the 19 fragments of Isaiah found at
Qumran, the Great Isaiah Scroll (1Q1Isa) in 34:14 renders the creature
as plural (or ).
Eberhard Schrader (1875) and Moritz Abraham Levy (1855) suggest that
Lilith was a demon of the night, known also by the Jewish exiles in
Babylon. Schrader's and Levy's view is therefore partly dependent on a
later dating of Deutero-Isaiah to the 6th century BC and the presence
of Jews in Baghdad in the Neo-Babylonian Empire, which would coincide
with the possible references to the in Babylonian demonology.
However, this view is challenged by Judit M. Blair, who argues that
the context indicates unclean animals.
Greek version
===============
The Septuagint translates both the reference to Lilith and the word
for jackals or "wild beasts of the island" within the same verse into
Greek as , apparently assuming them to refer to the same creatures and
omitting "wildcats/wild beasts of the desert." Under this reading,
instead of the wildcats or desert beasts meeting with the jackals or
island beasts, the goat or "satyr" crying "to his fellow" and lilith
or "screech owl" resting "there", it is the goat or "satyr",
translated as "demons", and the jackals or island beasts "" meeting
with each other and crying "one to the other" and the latter resting
there.
Latin Bible
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The early 5th-century Vulgate translated the same word as .
The translation is, "And demons shall meet with monsters, and one
hairy one shall cry out to another; there the lamia has lain down and
found rest for herself".
English versions
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Wycliffe's Bible (1395) preserves the Latin rendering :
The Bishops' Bible of Matthew Parker (1568) from the Latin:
Douay-Rheims Bible (1582/1610) also preserves the Latin rendering :
The Geneva Bible of William Whittingham (1587) from the Hebrew:
Then the King James Version (1611):
The "screech owl" translation of the King James Version is, together
with the "owl" (, probably a water bird) in 34:11 and the "great owl"
(, translated in other versions as a snake) of 34:15, an attempt to
render the passage by choosing suitable animals for difficult to
translate Hebrew words.
Later translations include:
* night-owl (Young, 1898)
* night spectre (Rotherham, Emphasized Bible, 1902)
* night monster (ASV, 1901; JPS 1917, Good News Translation, 1992;
NASB, 1995)
* vampires (Moffatt Translation, 1922; Knox Bible, 1950)
* night hag (Revised Standard Version, 1947)
* Lilith (Jerusalem Bible, 1966)
* (the) lilith (New American Bible, 1970)
* Lilith (New Revised Standard Version, 1989)
* (the) night-demon Lilith, evil and rapacious (The Message (Bible),
Peterson, 1993)
* night creature (New International Version, 1978; New King James
Version, 1982; New Living Translation, 1996, Today's New International
Version)
* nightjar (New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, 1984)
* night bird (English Standard Version, 2001)
* night-bird (NASB, 2020)
* nocturnal animals (New English Translation (NET Bible))
Jewish tradition
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Major sources in Jewish tradition regarding Lilith in chronological
order include:
* c. 40-10 BC Dead Sea Scrolls - Songs for a Sage (4Q510-511)
* c. 200 Mishnah - not mentioned
* c. 500 Gemara of the Talmud
* c. 700-1000 The Alphabet of Ben-Sira
* c. 900 Midrash Abkir
* c. 1260 Treatise on the Left Emanation, Spain
* c. 1280 Zohar, Spain.
Dead Sea Scrolls
==================
The Dead Sea Scrolls contain one indisputable reference to Lilith in
'Songs of the Sage' (4Q510-511) fragment 1:
And I, the Instructor, proclaim His glorious splendour so as to
frighten and to te[rrify] all the spirits of the destroying angels;
spirits of the bastards, demons, Lilith, howlers, and [desert
dwellers] ... and those which fall upon men, without warning, to lead
them astray from a spirit of understanding, and to make their heart
and their minds desolate during the present dominion of wickedness and
predetermined time of humiliations for the Sons of Lig[ht], by the
guilt of the ages of [those] smitten by iniquity - not for eternal
destruction, [bu]t for an era of humiliation for transgression.
As with the Massoretic text of Isaiah 34:14, and therefore unlike the
plural 'liliyyot' (or 'liliyyoth') in the Isaiah scroll 34:14, 'lilit'
in 4Q510 is singular, this liturgical text both cautions against the
presence of supernatural malevolence and assumes familiarity with
Lilith; distinct from the biblical text, however, this passage does
not function under any socio-political agenda, but instead serves in
the same capacity as An Exorcism (4Q560) and Songs to Disperse Demons
(11Q11). The text is thus, to a community "deeply involved in the
realm of demonology", an exorcism hymn.
Joseph M. Baumgarten (1991) identified the unnamed woman of 'The
Seductress' (4Q184) as related to the female demon. However, John J.
Collins regards this identification as "intriguing" but that it is
"safe to say" that (4Q184) is based on the strange woman of Proverbs
2, 5, 7, 9:
Early Rabbinic literature
===========================
Lilith does not occur in the Mishnah. The Jerusalem Talmud contains
one mention in the 1523 Bomberg edition (Shabbat 6:9), which is not
supported by any manuscript. The word "lilit" appears five times in
the Babylonian Talmud:
* "Rav Judah citing Samuel ruled: If an abortion has the likeness of
'lilit', its mother is unclean by reason of the birth, [for] it is a
child except that it has wings." (b. Niddah 24b)
* "[Expounding upon the curses of womanhood] In a baraita it was
taught: She grows her hair like 'lilit', sits when urinating like an
animal, and serves as a bolster for her husband." (b. Eruvin 100b)
* "For a pricking sensation: he should bring an Arrow of Lilith and
upturn it, and pour water on it and drink it. Alternatively he can
take water of which a dog has drunk at night, but he must take care
that it has not been exposed." (b. Gittin 69b).
* "Rabbah said: I saw Hormin the son of Lilith running on the parapet
of the wall of Mahoza, and a rider, galloping below on horseback,
could not overtake him. Once, they saddled for him two mules which
stood on two bridges of the Rognag; and he jumped from one to the
other, backward and forward, holding in his hands two cups of wine,
pouring alternately from one to the other, and not a drop fell to the
ground. This was a day of 'They mount up to the heavens, they go down
again to the depths', until word reached the house of the king and
they killed him." (b. Bava Batra 73a-b).
* "R. Hanina said: One may not sleep in a house alone, and whoever
sleeps in a house alone is seized by 'lilit'." (b. Shabbat 151b)
The above statement by Hanina may be related to the belief that
nocturnal emissions engendered the birth of demons:
* "R. Jeremiah b. Eleazar further stated: In all those years [130
years after his expulsion from the Garden of Eden] during which Adam
was under the ban he begot ghosts and male demons and female demons
[or night demons], for it is said in Scripture: And Adam lived a
hundred and thirty years and begot a son in own likeness, after his
own image, from which it follows that until that time he did not beget
after his own image ... When he saw that through him death was
ordained as punishment he spent a hundred and thirty years in fasting,
severed connection with his wife for a hundred and thirty years, and
wore clothes of fig on his body for a hundred and thirty years. - That
statement [of R. Jeremiah] was made in reference to the semen which he
emitted accidentally." (b. Eruvin 18b)
The Midrash Rabbah collection contains two references to Lilith. The
first one is present in Genesis Rabbah 22:7 and 18:4: according to
Rabbi Yehuda beRabbi, God proceeded to create a second Eve for Adam,
after Lilith had to return to dust. However, to be exact the said
passages do not employ the Hebrew word itself and instead speak of
"the first Eve" (, analogical to Adam ha-Rishon "the first Adam").
Although in the medieval Hebrew literature and folklore, especially
that reflected on the protective amulets of various kinds, "The First
Eve" was identified with Lilith, one should remain careful in
transposing this equation to the Late Antiquity.
The second mention of Lilith, this time explicit, is present in
Numbers Rabbah 16:25. The midrash develops the story of Moses's plea
after God expresses anger at the bad report of the spies. Moses
responds to a threat by God that He will destroy the Israelite people.
Moses pleads before God, that God should not be like Lilith who kills
her own children. Moses said:
Incantation bowls
===================
An individual Lilith, along with Bagdana "king of the lilits", is one
of the demons to feature prominently in protective spells in the
eighty surviving Jewish occult incantation bowls from Sassanid Empire
Babylon (4th-6th century AD) with influence from Iranian culture.[47]
These bowls were buried upside down below the structure of the house
or on the land of the house, in order to trap the demon or demoness.
Almost every house was found to have such protective bowls against
demons and demonesses.
The centre of the inside of the bowl depicts Lilith, or the male form,
Lilit. Surrounding the image is writing in spiral form; the writing
often begins at the centre and works its way to the edge. The writing
is most commonly scripture or references to the Talmud. The
incantation bowls which have been analysed, are inscribed in the
following languages, Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, Syriac, Mandaic,
Middle Persian, and Arabic. Some bowls are written in a false script
which has no meaning.
The correctly worded incantation bowl was capable of warding off
Lilith or Lilit from the household. Lilith had the power to transform
into a woman's physical features, seduce her husband, and conceive a
child. However, Lilith would become hateful toward the children born
of the husband and wife and would seek to kill them. Similarly, Lilit
would transform into the physical features of the husband, seduce the
wife, she would give birth to a child. It would become evident that
the child was not fathered by the husband, and the child would be
looked down on. Lilit would seek revenge on the family by killing the
children born to the husband and wife.
Key features of the depiction of Lilith or Lilit include the
following. The figure is often depicted with arms and legs chained,
indicating the control of the family over the demon(ess). The
demon(ess) is depicted in a frontal position with the whole face
showing. The eyes are very large, as well as the hands (if depicted).
The demon(ess) is entirely static.
One bowl contains the following inscription commissioned from a Jewish
occultist to protect a woman called Rashnoi and her husband from
Lilith:
Alphabet of Ben Sira
======================
The pseudepigraphical 8th-10th centuries 'Alphabet of Ben Sira' is
considered to be the oldest form of the story of Lilith as Adam's
first wife. Whether this particular tradition is older is not known.
Scholars tend to date the Alphabet between the 8th and 10th centuries
AD. The work has been characterized by some scholars as satirical, but
Ginzberg concluded it was meant seriously.
In the text, an amulet is inscribed with the names of three angels
(Senoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof) and placed around the neck of
newborn boys in order to protect them from the lilin until their
circumcision. The amulets used against Lilith that were thought to
derive from this tradition are, in fact, dated as being much older.
The concept of Eve having a predecessor is not exclusive to the
Alphabet, and is not a new concept, as it can be found in Genesis
Rabbah. However, the idea that Lilith was the predecessor may be
exclusive to the Alphabet.
The idea in the text that Adam had a wife prior to Eve may have
developed from an interpretation of the Book of Genesis and its dual
creation accounts; while Genesis 2:22 describes God's creation of Eve
from Adam's rib, an earlier passage, 1:27, already indicates that a
woman had been made: "So God created man in his own image, in the
image of God created he him; male and female created he them." The
Alphabet text places Lilith's creation after God's words in Genesis
2:18 that "it is not good for man to be alone"; in this text God forms
Lilith out of the clay from which he made Adam but she and Adam
bicker. Lilith claims that since she and Adam were created in the same
way they were equal and she refuses to submit to him:
After God created Adam, who was alone, He said, "It is not good for
man to be alone." He then created a woman for Adam, from the earth, as
He had created Adam himself, and called her Lilith. Adam and Lilith
immediately began to fight. She said, "I will not lie below," and he
said, "I will not lie beneath you, but only on top. For you are fit
only to be in the bottom position, while I am to be the superior one."
Lilith responded, "We are equal to each other inasmuch as we were both
created from the earth." But they would not listen to one another.
When Lilith saw this, she pronounced the Ineffable Name and flew away
into the air.
Adam stood in prayer before his Creator: "Sovereign of the universe!"
he said, "the woman you gave me has run away." At once, the Holy One,
blessed be He, sent these three angels Senoy, Sansenoy, and
Semangelof, to bring her back.
Said the Holy One to Adam, "If she agrees to come back, what is made
is good. If not, she must permit one hundred of her children to die
every day." The angels left God and pursued Lilith, whom they overtook
in the midst of the sea, in the mighty waters wherein the Egyptians
were destined to drown. They told her God's word, but she did not wish
to return. The angels said, "We shall drown you in the sea."
"Leave me!' she said. "I was created only to cause sickness to
infants. If the infant is male, I have dominion over him for eight
days after his birth, and if female, for twenty days."
When the angels heard Lilith's words, they insisted she go back. But
she swore to them by the name of the living and eternal God: "Whenever
I see you or your names or your forms in an amulet, I will have no
power over that infant." She also agreed to have one hundred of her
children die every day. Accordingly, every day one hundred demons
perish, and for the same reason, we write the angels' names on the
amulets of young children. When Lilith sees their names, she remembers
her oath, and the child recovers.
The background and purpose of 'The Alphabet of Ben-Sira' is unclear.
It is a collection of stories about heroes of the Bible and Talmud, it
may have been a collection of folk-tales, a refutation of Christian,
Karaite, or other separatist movements; its content seems so offensive
to contemporary Jews that it was even suggested that it could be an
anti-Jewish satire, although, in any case, the text was accepted by
the Jewish mystics of medieval Germany.
'The Alphabet of Ben-Sira' is the earliest surviving source of the
story, and the conception that Lilith was Adam's first wife became
only widely known with the 17th century 'Lexicon Talmudicum' of German
scholar Johannes Buxtorf.
In this folk tradition that arose in the early Middle Ages, Lilith, a
dominant female demon, became identified with Asmodeus, King of
Demons, as his queen. Asmodeus was already well known by this time
because of the legends about him in the Talmud. Thus, the merging of
Lilith and Asmodeus was inevitable. The second myth of Lilith grew to
include legends about another world and by some accounts this other
world existed side by side with this one, 'Yenne Velt' is Yiddish for
this described "Other World". In this case Asmodeus and Lilith were
believed to procreate demonic offspring endlessly and spread chaos at
every turn.
Two primary characteristics are seen in these legends about Lilith:
Lilith as the incarnation of lust, causing men to be led astray, and
Lilith as a child-killing witch, who strangles helpless neonates.
These two aspects of the Lilith legend seemed to have evolved
separately; there is hardly a tale where she encompasses both roles.
But the aspect of the witch-like role that Lilith plays broadens her
archetype of the destructive side of witchcraft. Such stories are
commonly found among Jewish folklore.
The influence of the rabbinic traditions
==========================================
Although the image of Lilith of the 'Alphabet of Ben Sira' is
unprecedented, some elements in her portrayal can be traced back to
the talmudic and midrashic traditions that arose around Eve.
First and foremost, the very introduction of Lilith to the creation
story rests on the rabbinic myth, prompted by the two separate
creation accounts in Genesis 1:1-2:25, that there were two original
women. A way of resolving the apparent discrepancy between these two
accounts was to assume that there must have been some other first
woman, apart from the one later identified with Eve. The Rabbis,
noting Adam's exclamation, "this time ('zot hapa‘am') [this is] bone
of my bone and flesh of my flesh" (Genesis 2:23), took it as an
intimation that there must already have been a "first time". According
to Genesis rabbah 18:4, Adam was disgusted upon seeing the first woman
full of "discharge and blood", and God had to provide him with another
one. The subsequent creation is performed with adequate precautions:
Adam is made to sleep, so as not to witness the process itself
(Sanhedrin 39a), and Eve is adorned with fine jewellery (Genesis
rabbah 18:1) and brought to Adam by the angels Gabriel and Michael
(ibid. 18:3). However, nowhere do the rabbis specify what happened to
the first woman, leaving the matter open for further speculation. This
is the gap into which the later tradition of Lilith could fit.
Second, this new woman is still met with harsh rabbinic allegations.
Again playing on the Hebrew phrase , Adam, according to the same
midrash, declares: "it is she ['zot'] who is destined to strike the
bell ['zog'] and to speak [in strife] against me, as you read, 'a
golden bell ['pa‘amon'] and a pomegranate' [Exodus 28:34] ... it is
she who will trouble me ['mefa‘amtani'] all night" (Genesis Rabbah
18:4). The first woman also becomes the object of accusations ascribed
to Rabbi Joshua of Siknin, according to whom Eve, despite the divine
efforts, turned out to be "swelled-headed, coquette, eavesdropper,
gossip, prone to jealousy, light-fingered and gadabout" (Genesis
Rabbah 18:2). A similar set of charges appears in Genesis Rabbah 17:8,
according to which Eve's creation from Adam's rib rather than from the
earth makes her inferior to Adam and never satisfied with anything.
Third, and despite the terseness of the biblical text in this regard,
the erotic iniquities attributed to Eve constitute a separate category
of her shortcomings. Told in Genesis 3:16 that "your desire shall be
for your husband", she is accused by the Rabbis of having an
overdeveloped sexual drive (Genesis Rabbah 20:7) and constantly
enticing Adam (Genesis Rabbah 23:5). However, in terms of textual
popularity and dissemination, the motif of Eve copulating with the
primeval serpent takes priority over her other sexual transgressions.
Despite the rather unsettling picturesqueness of this account, it is
conveyed in numerous places: Genesis Rabbah 18:6, and BT Sotah 9b,
Shabbat 145b-146a and 156a, Yevamot 103b and Avodah Zarah 22b.
Kabbalah
==========
Kabbalistic mysticism attempted to establish a more exact relationship
between Lilith and God. With her major characteristics having been
well developed by the end of the Talmudic period, after six centuries
had elapsed between the Aramaic incantation texts that mention Lilith
and the early Spanish Kabbalistic writings in the 13th century, she
reappears, and her life history becomes known in greater mythological
detail. Her creation is described in many alternative versions.
One mentions her creation as being before Adam's, on the fifth day,
because the "living creatures" with whose swarms God filled the waters
included Lilith. A similar version, related to the earlier Talmudic
passages, recounts how Lilith was fashioned with the same substance as
Adam was, shortly before. A third alternative version states that God
originally created Adam and Lilith in a manner that the female
creature was contained in the male. Lilith's soul was lodged in the
depths of the Great Abyss. When God called her, she joined Adam. After
Adam's body was created a thousand souls from the Left (evil) side
attempted to attach themselves to him. However, God drove them off.
Adam was left lying as a body without a soul. Then a cloud descended
and God commanded the earth to produce a living soul. This God
breathed into Adam, who began to spring to life and his female was
attached to his side. God separated the female from Adam's side. The
female side was Lilith, whereupon she flew to the Cities of the Sea
and attacked humankind.
Yet another version claims that Lilith emerged as a divine entity that
was born spontaneously, either out of the Great Supernal Abyss or out
of the power of an aspect of God (the Gevurah of Din). This aspect of
God was negative and punitive, as well as one of his ten attributes
(Sefirot), at its lowest manifestation has an affinity with the realm
of evil and it is out of this that Lilith merged with Samael.
An alternative story links Lilith with the creation of luminaries. The
"first light", which is the light of Mercy (one of the Sefirot),
appeared on the first day of creation when God said "Let there be
light". This light became hidden and the Holiness became surrounded by
a husk of evil. "A husk (klippa) was created around the brain" and
this husk spread and brought out another husk, which was Lilith.
Midrash ABKIR
===============
The first medieval source to depict Adam and Lilith in full was the
Midrash A.B.K.I.R. (c. 10th century), which was followed by the Zohar
and other Kabbalistic writings. Adam is said to be perfect until he
recognises either his sin or Cain's fratricide that is the cause of
bringing death into the world. He then separates from holy Eve, sleeps
alone, and fasts for 130 years. During this time "Pizna", either an
alternate name for Lilith or a daughter of hers, desires his beauty
and seduces him against his will. She gives birth to multitudes of
djinns and demons, the first of them being named Agrimas. However,
they are defeated by Methuselah, who slays thousands of them with a
holy sword and forces Agrimas to give him the names of the rest, after
which he casts them away to the sea and the mountains.
Treatise on the Left Emanation
================================
The mystical writing of two brothers Jacob and Isaac Hacohen,
'Treatise on the Left Emanation', which predates the Zohar by a few
decades, states that Samael and Lilith are in the shape of an
androgynous being, double-faced, born out of the emanation of the
Throne of Glory and corresponding in the spiritual realm to Adam and
Eve, who were likewise born as a hermaphrodite. The two twin
androgynous couples resembled each other and both "were like the image
of Above"; that is, that they are reproduced in a visible form of an
androgynous deity.
19. In answer to your question concerning Lilith, I shall explain to
you the essence of the matter. Concerning this point there is a
received tradition from the ancient Sages who made use of the Secret
Knowledge of the Lesser Palaces, which is the manipulation of demons
and a ladder by which one ascends to the prophetic levels. In this
tradition it is made clear that Samael and Lilith were born as one,
similar to the form of Adam and Eve who were also born as one,
reflecting what is above. This is the account of Lilith which was
received by the Sages in the Secret Knowledge of the Palaces.
Another version that was also current among Kabbalistic circles in the
Middle Ages establishes Lilith as the first of Samael's four wives:
Lilith, Naamah, Eisheth, and Agrat bat Mahlat. Each of them are
mothers of demons and have their own hosts and unclean spirits in no
number. The marriage of archangel Samael and Lilith was arranged by
Tanin'iver ("Blind Dragon"), who is the counterpart of "the dragon
that is in the sea". Blind Dragon acts as an intermediary between
Lilith and Samael:
Blind Dragon rides Lilith the Sinful - may she be extirpated quickly
in our days, Amen! - And this Blind Dragon brings about the union
between Samael and Lilith. And just as 'the Dragon that is in the sea'
(Isa. 27:1) has no eyes, likewise Blind Dragon that is above, in the
likeness of a spiritual form, is without eyes, that is to say, without
colors.... (Patai 81:458) Samael is called the Slant Serpent, and
Lilith is called the Tortuous Serpent.
The marriage of Samael and Lilith is known as the "Angel Satan" or the
"Other God", but it was not allowed to last. To prevent Lilith and
Samael's demonic children 'Lilin' from filling the world, God
castrated Samael. In many 17th century Kabbalistic books, this seems
to be a reinterpretation of an old Talmudic myth where God castrated
the male Leviathan and slew the female Leviathan in order to prevent
them from mating and thereby destroying the Earth with their
offspring. With Lilith being unable to fornicate with Samael anymore,
she sought to couple with men who experience nocturnal emissions. A
15th or 16th century Kabbalah text states that God has "cooled" the
female Leviathan, meaning that he has made Lilith infertile and she is
a mere fornication.
The 'Treatise on the Left Emanation' also says that there are two
Liliths, the lesser being married to the great demon Asmodeus.
The Matron Lilith is the mate of Samael. Both of them were born at
the same hour in the image of Adam and Eve, intertwined in each other.
Asmodeus the great king of the demons has as a mate the Lesser
(younger) Lilith, daughter of the king whose name is Qafsefoni. The
name of his mate is Mehetabel daughter of Matred, and their daughter
is Lilith.
Another passage charges Lilith as being a tempting serpent of Eve.
And the Serpent, the Woman of Harlotry, incited and seduced Eve
through the husks of Light which in itself is holiness. And the
Serpent seduced Holy Eve, and enough said for him who understands. And
all this ruination came about because Adam the first man coupled with
Eve while she was in her menstrual impurity - this is the filth and
the impure seed of the Serpent who mounted Eve before Adam mounted
her. Behold, here it is before you: because of the sins of Adam the
first man all the things mentioned came into being. For Evil Lilith,
when she saw the greatness of his corruption, became strong in her
husks, and came to Adam against his will, and became hot from him and
bore him many demons and spirits and Lilin. (Patai81:455f)
Zohar
=======
References to Lilith in the Zohar include the following:
She roams at night, and goes all about the world and makes sport with
men and causes them to emit seed. In every place where a man sleeps
alone in a house, she visits him and grabs him and attaches herself to
him and has her desire from him, and bears from him. And she also
afflicts him with sickness, and he knows it not, and all this takes
place when the moon is on the wane.
This passage may be related to the mention of Lilith in Talmud
Shabbath 151b (see above), and also to Talmud Eruvin 18b where
nocturnal emissions are connected with the begettal of demons.
According to Rapahel Patai, older sources state clearly that after
Lilith's Red Sea sojourn (mentioned also in Louis Ginzberg's 'Legends
of the Jews'), she returned to Adam and begat children from him by
forcing herself upon him. Before doing so, she attaches herself to
Cain and bears him numerous spirits and demons. In the Zohar, however,
Lilith is said to have succeeded in begetting offspring from Adam even
during their short-lived sexual experience. Lilith leaves Adam in
Eden, as she is not a suitable helpmate for him. Gershom Scholem
proposes that the author of the Zohar, Rabbi Moses de Leon, was aware
of both the folk tradition of Lilith and another conflicting version,
possibly older.
The Zohar adds further that two female spirits instead of one, Lilith
and Naamah, desired Adam and seduced him. The issue of these unions
were demons and spirits called "the plagues of humankind", and the
usual added explanation was that it was through Adam's own sin that
Lilith overcame him against his will.
17th-century Hebrew magical amulets
=====================================
A copy of Jean de Pauly's translation of the Zohar in the Ritman
Library contains an inserted late 17th century printed Hebrew sheet
for use in magical amulets where the prophet Elijah confronts Lilith.
The sheet contains two texts within borders, which are amulets, one
for a male ('lazakhar'), the other one for a female ('lanekevah'). The
invocations mention Adam, Eve and Lilith, 'Chavah Rishonah' (the first
Eve, who is identical with Lilith), also devils or angels: Sanoy,
Sansinoy, Smangeluf, Shmari'el (the guardian) and Hasdi'el (the
merciful). A few lines in Yiddish are followed by the dialogue between
the prophet Elijah and Lilith when he met her with her host of demons
to kill the mother and take her new-born child ('to drink her blood,
suck her bones and eat her flesh'). She tells Elijah that she will
lose her power if someone uses her secret names, which she reveals at
the end: 'lilith, abitu, abizu, hakash, avers hikpodu, ayalu, matrota
...'
In other amulets, probably informed by 'The Alphabet of Ben-Sira', she
is Adam's first wife. (Yalqut Reubeni, Zohar 1:34b, 3:19)
Charles Richardson's dictionary portion of the 'Encyclopædia
Metropolitana' appends to his etymological discussion of 'lullaby' "a
[manuscript] note written in a copy of Skinner" [i.e. Stephen
Skinner's 1671 'Etymologicon Linguæ Anglicanæ'], which asserts that
the word 'lullaby' originates from , a Hebrew incantation meaning
"Lilith begone" recited by Jewish mothers over an infant's cradle.
Richardson did not endorse the theory and modern lexicographers
consider it a false etymology.
Alsatian Krasmesser (16th to 20th century)
============================================
Not so much an amulet as a ritual object for protection, the
"Krasmesser" (or "Kreismesser", circle knife) played a role in Jewish
birth rituals in the area of Alsace, Switzerland and Southern Germany
between the 16th and 20th century. The Krasmesser would be used by a
midwife or by the husband to draw a magic circle around the pregnant
or birthing woman to protect her from Lilith and the evil eye, which
were considered to represent the greatest danger for children and
pregnant women.
Rabbi Naphtali Hirsch ben Elieser Treves described this custom as
early as 1560, and later references to a knife or sword by the
birthing bed by both Paul Christian Kirchner and Johann Christian
Georg Bodenschatz indicate its continuance. A publication about birth
customs by the Jewish Museum of Switzerland also includes oral
accounts from 20th century Baden-Württemberg which likewise mention
circling movements with a knife in order to protect a woman in
childbirth.
Greco-Roman mythology
======================================================================
In the Latin Vulgate Book of Isaiah 34:14, Lilith is translated
'lamia'.
According to Augustine Calmet, Lilith has connections with early views
on vampires and sorcery:
According to Siegmund Hurwitz the Talmudic Lilith is connected with
the Greek Lamia, who, according to Hurwitz, likewise governed a class
of child stealing lamia-demons. Lamia bore the title "child killer"
and was feared for her malevolence, like Lilith. She has different
conflicting origins and is described as having a human upper body from
the waist up and a serpentine body from the waist down. One source
states simply that she is a daughter of the goddess Hecate, another,
that Lamia was subsequently cursed by the goddess Hera to have
stillborn children because of her association with Zeus;
alternatively, Hera slew all of Lamia's children (except Scylla) in
anger that Lamia slept with her husband, Zeus. The grief caused Lamia
to turn into a monster that took revenge on mothers by stealing their
children and devouring them. Lamia had a vicious sexual appetite that
matched her cannibalistic appetite for children. She was notorious for
being a vampiric spirit and loved sucking men's blood. Her gift was
the "mark of a Sibyl", a gift of second sight. Zeus was said to have
given her the gift of sight. However, she was "cursed" to never be
able to shut her eyes so that she would forever obsess over her dead
children. Taking pity on Lamia, Zeus gave her the ability to remove
and replace her eyes from their sockets.
In Mandaeism
======================================================================
In Mandaean scriptures such as the 'Ginza Rabba' and 'Qulasta',
liliths () are mentioned as inhabitants of the World of Darkness.
Lilith is mentioned in a Mandaean magic incantation inscribed in
Mandaic on a c. 7th-century Late Antiquity lead amulet designated "BM
135794 II", where she is mentioned together with other demons, in
plural form. The first of the charm's text consists of a banning
formula that calls for the binding, subduing and destruction of
various demons, mentioned by name in plural form, and also talks of
the demons of time walking about and harming "the children of Adam and
all offspring of Hawa (=Eve)". The lines of this formula are repeated
near-identically about three times, with Lilith's name, in plural,
appearing in the formula on lines 27, 46 and 55, in the same
near-identical line "Sahras, Dews, Rhuas, Humartas and Lilits." At
lines 70-100, the banning formula of the charm ends and is taken over
by a Mandaic magic story that tells of a gnostic tree made up of
different demon groups and of a "Dew" demon dwelling in the tree being
cast out of it and expelled from the tree by the archangel Gabriel. In
this part of the charm, Lilith is mentioned as a part of this gnostic
tree, again rendered in plural. The tree's trunk is said to be made up
of "Dews" (or 'dewis' or 'daeva') on lines 76-77, the tree's foliage
to be made up of "Latabas" ('devils') on line 77, and its branches to
be made up of "Lilits" on lines 77-78. The charm associates the demons
with time, using units of time such as "season", "month", "day",
"hour", "minute" and so on, and so the charm has been interpreted to
be a magical protection against "demons of time" or against time as
threatening and harmful elements.
The amulet is part of a set of lead, silver and gold amulets
attributed to the family archive of Mah-Adhur Gushnasp, who served as
prime minister of the Sasanian Empire during Ardashir III's reign, and
was discovered by Lietuenant Colonel H.S. Alexander in a lead jar
under the foundations of a private house in a mound near el-Qurnah at
the confluence of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates in southern Iraq
during a private dig between 1910 and 1920, which was then passed on
to the British Library and is today housed in the Department of the
Ancient Near East in the British Museum. The text was translated by
scholar Christa Müller-Kessler and published in 2002 in Cornelia
Wunsch and C. B. F. Walker's 'Mining The Archives'.
In Arabic mythology
======================================================================
The occult writer Ahmad al-Buni (d. 1225), in his 'Sun of the Great
Knowledge' (), mentions a demon called "the mother of children" (ام
الصبيان), a term also used "in one place".
Folkloric traditions recorded around 1953 tell about a jinn called
'Qarinah', who was rejected by Adam and mated with Iblis instead. She
gave birth to a host of demons and became known as their mother. To
take revenge on Adam, she pursues human children. As such, she would
kill a pregnant mother's baby in the womb, causes impotence to men or
attacks little children with illnesses. According to occult practises,
she would be subject to the demon-king 'Murrah al-Abyad', which
appears to be another name for Iblis used in magical writings. Stories
about Qarinah and Lilith merged in early Islam.
In German media
=================
Lilith's earliest appearance in the literature of the Romantic period
(1789-1832) was in Goethe's 1808 work 'Faust: The First Part of the
Tragedy'.
After Mephistopheles offers this warning to Faust, he then, quite
ironically, encourages Faust to dance with "the Pretty Witch". Lilith
and Faust engage in a short dialogue, where Lilith recounts the days
spent in Eden.
In English media
==================
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which developed around 1848, were
greatly influenced by Goethe's work on the theme of Lilith. In 1863,
Dante Gabriel Rossetti of the Brotherhood began painting what would
later be his first rendition of 'Lady Lilith', a painting he expected
to be his "best picture hitherto". Symbols appearing in the painting
allude to the "femme fatale" reputation of the Romantic Lilith:
poppies (death and cold) and white roses (sterile passion).
Accompanying his 'Lady Lilith' painting from 1866, Rossetti wrote a
sonnet entitled 'Lilith', which was first published in Swinburne's
pamphlet-review (1868), 'Notes on the Royal Academy Exhibition'.
The poem and the picture appeared together alongside Rossetti's
painting 'Sibylla Palmifera' and the sonnet 'Soul's Beauty'. In 1881,
the 'Lilith' sonnet was renamed "'Body's Beauty'" in order to contrast
it and 'Soul's Beauty'. The two were placed sequentially in 'The House
of Life' collection (sonnets number 77 and 78).
Rossetti wrote in 1870:
This is in accordance with Jewish folk tradition, which associates
Lilith both with long hair (a symbol of dangerous feminine seductive
power in Jewish culture), and with possessing women by entering them
through mirrors.
The Victorian poet Robert Browning re-envisioned Lilith in his poem
"Adam, Lilith, and Eve". First published in 1883, the poem uses the
traditional myths surrounding the triad of Adam, Eve, and Lilith.
Browning depicts Lilith and Eve as being friendly and complicitous
with each other, as they sit together on either side of Adam. Under
the threat of death, Eve admits that she never loved Adam, while
Lilith confesses that she always loved him:
Browning focused on Lilith's emotional attributes, rather than that of
her ancient demon predecessors.
Scottish author George MacDonald also wrote a fantasy novel entitled
'Lilith', first published in 1895. MacDonald employed the character of
Lilith in service to a spiritual drama about sin and redemption, in
which Lilith finds a hard-won salvation. Many of the traditional
characteristics of Lilith mythology are present in the author's
depiction: Long dark hair, pale skin, a hatred and fear of children
and babies, and an obsession with gazing at herself in a mirror.
MacDonald's Lilith also has vampiric qualities: she bites people and
sucks their blood for sustenance.
Australian poet and scholar Christopher John Brennan (1870-1932),
included a section titled "Lilith" in his major work "Poems: 1913"
(Sydney: G. B. Philip and Son, 1914). The "Lilith" section contains
thirteen poems exploring the Lilith myth and is central to the meaning
of the collection as a whole.
C. L. Moore's 1940 story 'Fruit of Knowledge' is written from Lilith's
point of view. It is a re-telling of the Fall of Man as a love
triangle between Lilith, Adam and Eve - with Eve's eating the
forbidden fruit being in this version the result of misguided
manipulations by the jealous Lilith, who had hoped to get her rival
discredited and destroyed by God and thus regain Adam's love.
British poet John Siddique's 2011 collection 'Full Blood' has a suite
of 11 poems called 'The Tree of Life', which features Lilith as the
divine feminine aspect of God. A number of the poems feature Lilith
directly, including the piece 'Unwritten' which deals with the
spiritual problem of the feminine being removed by the scribes from
'The Bible.'
Lilith is also mentioned in 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe', by
C. S. Lewis. The character Mr. Beaver ascribes the ancestry of the
main antagonist, Jadis the White Witch, to Lilith.
"Lilith" is a poem by Vladimir Nabokov, written in 1928. Many have
connected it to Lolita, but Nabokov adamantly denies this:
"Intelligent readers will abstain from examining this impersonal
fantasy for any links with my later fiction."
In American media
===================
'Lilith: A Dramatic Poem' is a four-act medieval fantasy verse drama
written in blank verse by American poet and playwright George
Sterling, first published in 1919. Influential critic H. L. Mencken
said of Sterling: "I think his dramatic poem 'Lilith' was the greatest
thing he ever wrote." The 'New York Times' declared 'Lilith' "the
finest thing in poetic drama yet done in America and one of the finest
poetic dramas yet written in English." Author Theodore Dreiser said:
"It rings richer in thought than any American dramatic poem with which
I am familiar." Poet Clark Ashton Smith wrote: "'Lilith' is certainly
the best dramatic poem in English since the days of Swinburne and
Browning. ... The lyrics interspersed throughout the drama are as
beautiful as any by the Elizabethans."
In the role playing game series 'Vampire the Masquerade', Lilith plays
a major part in the mythology within the games.
'Lilith' is a 1961 novel by J. R. Salamanca that tells the story of a
man, Vincent, who is seduced by a schizophrenic woman named Lilith. It
explores themes of love, obsession, and blurred lines between fantasy
and reality. A feature film of the same name written by Robert Rossen
and starring Jean Seberg and Warren Beatty was released in 1964.
In the 2019 adult animated series 'Hazbin Hotel', Lilith is depicted
as the wife of Lucifer and the queen of Hell. Charlie, the protagonist
of the series, is Lilith's daughter. According to 'The Washington
Times', 'Hazbin Hotel' subverts traditional narratives of Lucifer and
Lilith by presenting their betrayal of God as heroic and noble.
In the Diablo series of video games, Lilith is depicted as the
daughter of Mephisto and the creator of the games world alongside her
lover, the angel Inarius. Lilith serves as the main antagonist in
Diablo IV.
In Western esotericism
======================================================================
The depiction of Lilith in Romanticism continues to be popular among
Wiccans and in other modern occultism. A few magical orders dedicated
to the undercurrent of Lilith, featuring initiations specifically
related to the arcana of the "first mother", exist. Two organisations
that use initiations and magic associated with Lilith are the Ordo
Antichristianus Illuminati and the Order of Phosphorus. Lilith appears
as a succubus in Aleister Crowley's 'De Arte Magica.' Lilith was also
one of the middle names of Crowley's first child, Nuit Ma Ahathoor
Hecate Sappho Jezebel Lilith Crowley (1904-1906), and Lilith is
sometimes identified with Babalon in Thelemic writings. Many early
occult writers who contributed to modern day Wicca expressed special
reverence for Lilith. Charles Leland associated Aradia with Lilith:
Aradia, says Leland, is Herodias, who was regarded in stregheria
folklore as being associated with Diana as chief of the witches.
Leland further notes that Herodias is a name that comes from west
Asia, where it denoted an early form of Lilith.
Gerald Gardner asserted that there was continuous historical worship
of Lilith to present day, and that her name is sometimes given to the
goddess being personified in the coven by the priestess. This idea was
further attested by Doreen Valiente, who cited her as a presiding
goddess of the Craft: "the personification of erotic dreams, the
suppressed desire for delights". In some contemporary concepts,
'Lilith' is viewed as the embodiment of the Goddess, a designation
that is thought to be shared with what these faiths believe to be her
counterparts: Inanna, Ishtar, Asherah, Anath, Anahita and Isis.
According to one view, Lilith was originally a Sumerian, Babylonian,
or Hebrew mother goddess of childbirth, children, women, and
sexuality.
Raymond Buckland holds that Lilith is a dark moon goddess on par with
the Hindu Kali.
Many theistic Satanists consider Lilith a goddess, with some
recognizing her as the patron of strong women and women's rights.
Lilith is popular among theistic Satanists because of her association
with Satan and is most often worshipped by women, but not exclusively.
Some Satanists believe that she is married to Satan and thus think of
her as a mother figure. Others base their reverence for her on her
history as a succubus and praise her as a sex goddess. A different
approach to a Satanic Lilith holds that she was once a fertility and
agricultural goddess.
The Western mystery tradition associates Lilith with the qlippoth of
Kabbalah. Dion Fortune writes, "The Virgin Mary is reflected in
Lilith", and that Lilith is the source of "lustful dreams".
See also
======================================================================
* Abyzou - a Near Eastern demon blamed for miscarriages and infant
mortality
* Black Moon Lilith - an astrological and mathematical point
* Daimon - a term for Greek lesser deities, the etymology of the
English word "demon"
* Lailah - a Jewish angel, whose name means "night", believed to
protect in pregnancy
* Lilith Fair - a travelling music festival
* Norea - a Gnostic figure
* Serpent seed - a fringe belief
* Siren - dangerous female creatures in Ancient Greek religion
* Spirit spouse - an element of shamanism
* Succubus - a type of seductive female demon based on Lilith
* Incubus - a type of seductive male demon based on Lilith
External links
======================================================================
* [
https://jewishchristianlit.com/category/lilith/ Lilith] at Jewish
& Christian Literature
*
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=========
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Original Article:
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