| Lilith | |
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Other Names |
Lilit, Lilitu, or Lilis |
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First Appearance |
Mesopotamian/Jewish Mythology |
Origin[]
Lilith is a female figure in Mesopotamian and Jewish mythology, theorized to be the first wife of Adam and supposedly the primordial she-demon. Lilith is cited as having been "banished" from the Garden of Eden for not complying with and obeying Adam. She then would not return to the Garden of Eden and coupled with the archangel Samael or in folk tradition that arose in the early Middle Ages she became a succubus and also became identified with Asmodeus, King of Demons, as his queen.
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."
In Hebrew-language texts, the term lilith or lilit (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. 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.
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.
Public Domain Literary Appearances[]
- Alphabet of Ben Sira
- Midrash A.B.K.I.R.
- Treatise on the Left Emanation
- Sun of the Great Knowledge
- Faust: The First Part of the Tragedy
- Lilith (1886)
- Body's Beauty (1881)
- The House of Life
- Adam, Lilith, and Eve (1883)
- Lilith (1895)
- Poems: 1913
- Lilith: A Dramatic Poem (1919)
Public Domain Comic Appearances[]
- Adventures into the Unknown #14, 29
Notes[]
- In the Latin Vulgate Book of Isaiah 34:14, Lilith is translated as lamia. Lilith is connected with the Greek Lamia, who 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.