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. Thanks to Diccon
Frankborn (dickney@access.digex.net) for the following:
The reem -- properly, re'em,
pronounced roughly "ray-em" -- was the aurochs, the largest and most
dangerous wild ox that ever lived.
{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.