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This is a compilation of posts with Lilith references.
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First some references:
* Baring, Anne and Cashford, Jules. 1991. The Myth of the Goddess, Evolution of an Image, Viking, 1991.
* Colonna, M.T. 1980. Lilith, or the Black Moon, Journal of Analytical Psychology, Oct 1980, pp. 325-50.
* Koltuv, Barbara Black. 1986. The Book of Lilith, Maine, Nicolas-Hays, 1986.
* Redgrove, Peter. 1987. The Black Goddess and the Sixth Sense,
Bloomsbury, 1987 (also Paladin, 1989).
Lilith occurs in Jewish, Sumerian, Arabic and even Teutonic lore.
She appears widely in art and dreams.
Only one reference to Lilith in the Bible (incorrect, according to some), in Isaiah 34:14, as 'the screech owl'.
According to the rabbis, Lilith was the demon wife of Adam, before Eve. Lilith was the 1st tempress, mother of Cain. In Cabala, she is the demon of Friday.
Lilith was created in the same fashion as Adam, from dust and clay.(but, by unclean and filthy material, as it is said).
Lilith revolted against both God and Adam, being more viril that
these males, and fled to the desert.
God tried to force her to return to Adam and sent therefore the death-angel Azrafil to her in the desert at the Red Sea, where she dwelled with the Djinns, giving birth to countless demons.
It is said that Lilith has a cloven foot and hairy legs, being a kind of Sphinx. She is connected with riddles and prophecies.
Lilith, 'a hot fiery female who at first cohabited with man' - the Zohar. In jewish tradition also the bride of the evil angel Sammael (or Satan).
Lilith is a female demon, that will haunt mankind until the last days, when all unclean spirits will be cast out by the Messiah.
Contrary to most demons, Lilith is not mortal but eternal, and in this way may be called the black goddess. If black means evil or just unknown is hard to tell. One rumor has it she herself is the Messiah.
Lilith is the counterpart to the virgin Mary. Among her avatars are Lilu Ardat, one of the lili, female storm-demons in Babylonian demonology, Queen of Sheba, Lamia, Mary of Bethany, Brunhild (in Niebelungen) etc.
If one is to believe Scholem (in an article in Mada'e Ha Yahadot), Lilith was with Sammael up in Heaven, beneath the Throne of Glory (before the fall (sic!).
The Shekina is the heavenly aspect and Lilith the earthly aspect of the feminine. Cf. the higher and lower Sophia in Gnostic belief.
Lilith, the estranged part, and, according to Koltuv, 'the consort of God himself while the Shekhina is in exile'.
In mythic tradition Lilith was regarded as a satellite invisible from the Earth, the Black Moon. Figures as such (together with Hectate, the triple-faced evil goddess, mother of all witches) in astrological lore. If present in horoscopes, she signifies malign sexual influences.
The secret names of Lilith, as revealed to Elijah, are:
1 Abeko 4 Batna 7 Izorpo 10 Kokos 13 Partasah 16 Satrina
2 Abito 5 Eilo 8 Kali 11 Lilith 14 Patrota 17 Talto
3 Amizo 6 Ita 9 Kea 12 Odam 15 Podo
According to Jung, Lilith is the 'shamanistic Anima'. She does play
some
role in esoteric or occult lore, and has been called Mary Lucifer.
In the dictionary of symbols by Cirlot, it is said that Maya is opposed
to Lilith, illusion balanced by the serpent.
According to Whitmont (in the Return of the Goddess), the serpent was
a woman who was killed, then buried and from this all vegetation stems.
In Nos, the Book of Resurrection by Serrano, it is said that:
"There is a mystery which has rarely been spoken of. And then only in a
tremulous, almost inaudible voice. The Androgynous had a female
companion
who was not his 'her' inside the Great Egg but had always been outside
it,
even before it was broken, before the loss of Paradise of Hyperborea.
...
The Book of Genesis calls her Lilith."
Hope this can be of some interest.
-- Bengt
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Taken from Asteroid Goddess by Demetra George
Lilith, portrayed as goddess of the night who tames the wild beasts,
represents the principle of repressed anger and conflict resolution.
Originally Lilith was a handmaiden of the great goddess Inanna from
Sumeria who brought in the men from the fields to the holy temple at
Erech for the sacred, sexual customs. According to Hebraic tradition,
as the first wife of Adam, Lilith depicts, the first stage of the
feminine consort. In this encounter, she found herself in conflict
with
Adam who wished to rule over her, despite her belief that " we are both
equal because we both come from the same earth." Ventually, Lilith
left
Adam, choosing exile and loneliness rather then domination and
subjugation. As punishment for rejecting her husband, Lilith became
regarded as the personification of the feminine evil--a dark demoness
who threatened pregnant woman, killed children, and seduced and
destroyed men. Her image embodied mens worst fears concerning
sexuality
and potency.
The Snake...was her symbol..and we all know who the snake represents in
the book of Genisis..is it perhaps that Satan is the figure of
Lilith..but masculated.
eros@kbbs.com
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To: alt.mythology
From: Christeos.Pir@f235.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Christeos Pir)
Subject: Lilith
From "Hebrew Myths" by Robert Graves and Raphael Patai:
Some say the God created man and woman in His own image on the
Sixth Day, giving them charge over the world, but that Eve did
not yet exist. Now, God had set Adam to name every beast, bird
and other living thing. When they passed before him in pairs,
male and female, Adam --being already like a twenty-year-old
man-- felt jealous of their loves, and though he tried coupling
with each female creature in turn, found no satisfaction in the
act. He therefore cried: "Every creature but I has a proper
mate!" and prayed God would remedy this injustice. [1]
God then formed Lilith, the first woman, just as He had formed
Adam, except that he used filth and sediment instead of pure
dust. From Adam's union with this demoness, and with another
like her named Naamah, Tubal Cain's sister, sprang Asmodeus and
innumerable demons that still plague mankind. Many generations
later, Lilith and Naamah came to Solomon's judgement seat,
disguised as harlots of Jerusalem. [2]
Adam and Lilith never found peace together, for when he wished
to lie with her, she took offence at the recumbent position he
demanded. "Why must I lie beneath you?" she asked. "I also was
made from dust, and am therefore your equal." Because Adam
tried
to compel her obedience by force, Lilith, in a rage, uttered
the
magic name of God, rose into the air and left him.
Adam complained to God: "I have been deserted by my helpmeet."
God at once sent the angels Senoy, Sansenoy and Semangelof to
fetch Lilith back. They found her beside the Red Sea, a region
abounding in lascivious demons, to whom she bore 'lilim' at the
rate of more than one hundred a day. "Return to Adam without
delay," the angels said, "or we will drown you!" Lilith asked:
"How can I return to Adam and live like an honest housewife,
after my stay beside the Red Sea?" "It will be death to
refuse!"
they answered. "How can I die," Lilith asked again, "when God
has ordered me to take charge of all newborn children: boys up
to the eighth day of life, that of circumcision; girls up to
the
twentieth day. None the less, if ever I see your three names or
likenesses displayed in an amulet above a newborn child, I
promise to spare it." To this they agreed; but God punished
Lilith by making one hundred of her demon children perish
daily;
[3] and if she could not destroy a human infant, because of the
angelic amulet, she would spitefully turn against her own. [4]
Some say that Lilith ruled as queen in Zmargad, and again in
Sheba; and was the demoness who destroyed Job's sons. [5] Yet
she escaped the curse of death which overtook Adam, since they
had parted long before the Fall. Lilith and Naamah not only
strangle infants but also seduce dreaming men, and one of whom,
sleeping alone, may become their victim. [6]
Notes:
[1] Divergences between the Creation myths of Genesis I and II,
which allow Lilith to be presumed as Adam's first mate, result
from a careless weaving together of an early Judean and a late
priestly tradition. The older version contains the rib
incident.
Lilith typifies the Anath-worshipping Canaanite women, who were
permitted pre-nuptial promiscuity. Time after time the prophets
denounced Israelite women for following Canaanite practices; at
first, apparently, with the priests' approval -- since their
habit of dedicating to God the fees thus earned is expressly
forbidden in Deuteronomy XXIII:18. Lilith's flight to the Red
Sea recalls the ancient Hebrew view that water attracts demons.
"Tortured and rebellious demons" also found safe harbourage in
Egypt. Thus Asmodeus, who had strangled Sarah's first six
husbands, fled "to the uttermost parts of Egypt" (Tobit
VIII:3),
when Tobias burned the heart and liver of a fish on their
wedding night.
[2] Lilith's bargain with the angels has its ritual counterpart
in an apotropaic {1} rite once performed in many Jewish
communities. To protect the newborn child against Lilith --and
especially a male, until he could be permanently safeguarded by
circumcision-- a ring was drawn with natron, or charcoal, on
the
wall of the birthroom, and inside it were written the words:
"Adam and Eve. Out, Lilith!" Also the names Senoy, Sansenoy and
Semangelof (meanings uncertain) were inscribed on the door. If
Lilith nevertheless succeeded in approaching the child and
fondling him, he would laugh in his sleep. To avert danger, it
was held wise to strike the sleeping child's lips with one
finger -- whereupon Lilith would vanish.
[3] 'Lilith' is usually derived from the Babylonian-Assyrian
word 'lilitu,' 'a female demon, or wind-spirit' -- one of a
triad mentioned in Babylonian spells. But she appears earlier
as
'Lillake' on a 2000 BC Sumerian tablet from Ur containing the
tale of _Gilgamesh and the Willow Tree_. There she is a
demoness
dwelling in the trunk of a willow tree tended by the Goddess
Inanna (Anath) on the banks of the Euphrates. Popular Hebrew
etymology seems to have derived 'Lilith' from 'layil,' 'night';
and she therefore often appears as a hairy night-monster, as
she
also does in Arabian folklore. Solomon suspected the Queen of
Sheba of being Lilith, because she had hairy legs. His
judgement
on the two harlots is recorded in 1 Kings III:16. According to
Isaiah XXXIV:14-15, Lilith dwells among the desolate ruins in
the Edomite Desert where satyrs ("se'ir"), reems {2}, pelicans,
owls {3}, jackals, ostriches, arrow-snakes and kites {4} keep
her company.
[4] Lilith's children are called 'lilim.' In the _Targum
Yerushalmi_, the priestly blessing of Numbers VI:26 becomes:
"The Lord bless thee in all thy doings, and preserve thee from
the Lilim!" The fourth-century AD commentator Hieronymous
identified Lilith with the Greek Lamia, a Libyan queen deserted
by Zeus, whom his wife Hera robbed of her children. She took
revenge by robbing other women of theirs.
[5] The Lamiae, who seduced sleeping men, sucked their blood
and
ate their flesh, as Lilith and her fellow-demonesses did, were
also known as 'Empusae,' 'forcers-in'; or 'Mormolyceia,'
'frightening wolves'; and described as 'Children of Hecate.' A
Hellenistic relief shows a naked Lamia straddling a traveller
asleep on his back. It is characteristic of civilizations where
women are treated as chattels that they must adopt the
recumbent
posture during intercourse, which Lilith refused. That Greek
witches who worshipped Hecate favoured the superior posture,
we know from Apuleius; and it occurs in early Sumerian
representations of the sexual act, though not in the Hittite.
Malinowski writes that Melanesian girls ridicule what they call
'the missionary position,'{5} which demands that they should
lie
passive and recumbent.
[6] 'Naamah,' 'pleasant,' is explained as meaning that 'the
demoness sang pleasant songs to idols.' 'Zmargad' suggests
'smaragdos,' the semi-precious aquamarine; and may therefore be
her submarine dwelling. A demon named Smaragos occurs in the
_Homeric Epigrams_.
- pps 65 - 69
{1} Apotropaic. "Intended to ward off evil."
{2} Reems. Search me... all I could find was a variant spelling of the
verb, 'to ream.'
{3} The owl is particularly sacred --if that's the right word-- to
Lilith. A Sumerian relief, now popularly available in reproduction,
shows her with owl's feet, standing on the backs of a pair of lions
and
holding the Sumerian version of the Ankh in each hand.
{4} Kites. A carrion-bird, related to the vulture.
{5} Now you know where the term comes from!
Love is the law, love under will.
- Christeos Pir
... Then let the End awake. Long hast thou slept, O great God Terminus!
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To: alt.mythology
From: marianne@ccnet.com (Marianne Wolfman)]
Subject: Re: Lilith
About Lilith:
There are many stories about her and "The Book of Lilith" by Barbara
Koltuv is a good source. According to references cited by Koltuv,
Lilith
seems to have preoccupied scholarly religious men for some time who
seem
to have taken great glee in telling tales of her depredations, many
involving sexual promiscuity.
There seem to be three types of stories about her: stories about her
being diminished, dismissed, or rejected by male god or man and
refusing to submit to the role they would cast her in; stories about
her flight to the wilderness and her communion with wild creatures; and
stories about her seductive and murderous qualities. Most (all?) of
the stories that have come down to us about her seem to be men's
stories reflecting anxieties about women not in control. Within the
stories are glimpses of Middle Eastern goddess figures, a resourceful,
intelligent, autonomous being who is at home in the wilderness and
friend to the animals.
Basically, she is told she is of lesser importance than male people,
but disagreeing and not inclined to submit, she flees to the wilderness
where she dwells in harmony with snakes, owls, ravens, jackals, etc.,
with whom she is sometimes identified. The storytellers imagined that
in the wilderness she consorted promiscuously with creatures and demons
of all sorts and gave birth to demon-babies every day, thus explaining
much of the evil loose in the world. But her sexual appetite did not
end there. She enticed, seduced and tormented men, often by mounting
them at night and causing them to have nocturnal emissions. Sometimes
she killed them.
Lilith is described in one tale as having "the body of a beautiful
woman from the head to the navel, but from the navel down she is
flaming fire." Elsewhere she is described as dressed in scarlet or,
alternatively, in garments of flaming fire. In any case, her
association with fire is clear.
As for her exploits, besides seducing men, copulating promiscuously and
birthing demonic babies, it is said that she arouses war and
destruction, inflicts disease, and steals babies.
She was apparently also a fine warrior. On one occasion, she and her
army marched from her desert abode against the sons of Job, freed the
animals which Job's folks thought they owned, and slew the men guarding
the animals. Job's thoughts about responding with an attack on Lilith
evaporated when he was told how devastating her attack had been.
Among her epithets: Swift Flying, Storm Wind, Screech Owl, Ugly One,
Winged One, Nocturnal One, Childstealer, Strangler, as well as blood
sucker, harlot, alien, impure female, witch, hag, snatcher, and
enchantress.
--- Marianne marianne@ccnet.com
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To: alt.mythology
From: dickeney@access.digex.net (Dick Eney)]
Subject: Lilith
First off, Lilith herself is not, strictly speaking, a "goddess". She
was created in the same manner as Adam and refused to be subject to him
for that reason. She was, therefore, demonized and Eve created from a
mere part of Adam, so she would be a proper member of the weaker and
therefore submissive sex. (I only say things like this when there are
no
women close enough to belt me, or they know I'm exaggerating.) Anyway,
that is the gist of her legend: Lilith was Adam's first "wife" and
became
a demon when Adam tried to subjugate her and couldn't. (The legends go
into some detail, e.g., that she refused to have sex in the Missionary
Position. But then they are equally detailed about Satan, who wouldn't
bow down to Adam as the other angels did because he was made of Fire
and
refused to humble himself before a being made of Clay. Rationalization
is a wonderful thing when you're running a priestly caste. Where were
we? oh, yes --) further information, in a strongly feminist vein, can
be
found in BB Koltuv's _The_Book_of_Lilith_, which should be available
through Samuel Weiser. There are a lot of even sillier features to
Lilith's mythos as the patriarchy finally developed it, as, that she
loved to kidnap or kill small children because she couldn't have any of
her own, and that she had hundreds or thousands of bastard children by
a variety of demons; these children also were child-molesters.
(Another
nice thing about running a priestly caste is that nobody is going to
call
you if your legends are contradictory...) Some are of the opinion that
Lilith represents the Hebrew priesthood's attempt to demonize the
strong,
independent, sexually aggressive love-and-war goddesses of Mesopotamia,
such as Ishtar and Innana. But this may be more about the topic than
you
really wanted to know, at present.
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