LILITH: ORIGIN, ETYMOLOGY, SYMBOL OF FEMINISM, BIBLE, DEMON - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2024

Lilith is considered the first wife of Adam, which is why she is a very important figure in Jewish culture. However, the stories about Lilith are various and it is believed that they began in the civilizations of ancient Mesopotamia.

One of the most popular legends tells that Lilith decided to leave Eden and leave Adam alone there. Then she lived near the Red Sea with several lovers and their children.

Representation of Lilith by Dante Rossetti. Source:, via Wikimedia Commons.

Lilith was later associated with the figure of a demon who had sexual relations with various men in order to have children. She took the human form of a woman and was considered physically very beautiful.

For the Jews, Lilith was never considered a goddess. The normal thing in this culture is to use the figure of Lilith as an example to speak of the eroticism of women as something bad or harmful.

Myths about Lilith have been associated with the Hebrews, with the Sumerian civilizations, and that of the Akkadians.

Lilith has also been linked to the story of Queen Lamia. According to legend, in Greece this woman killed her own children. Then, out of envy she felt for the other mothers, her goal was to devour all the other children.

In general, it can be said that there are many stories about this female figure, each one having its own legend.

Origin and etymology

Although she should be an important character in the story, because of the role she had, about Lilith there are few certainties. To begin with, nothing is known exactly about its origin.

One of the hypotheses about how Lilith arose can be found in the stories about two of the female demons that existed in the culture of Mesopotamia. Lilitu and Ardat Lili were two figures that were related to the demon Lilu, who dominated women and kidnapped their children.

In Mesopotamian culture it is common to get names of demons that begin with the word Lil. Etymologically, the term is given various meanings and that is why these evil figures are associated with elements such as air, wind or spirits.

According to one of the hypotheses about the origin of Lilith, the Jews appropriated the idea of ​​this demon when members of this civilization were expelled from their lands and found refuge in Babylon.

The Hebrews adapted the name Lilith to their language. She became known as the queen of darkness or night. In the Hebrew religion it became an evil being that kidnapped children, especially babies, when they were in their cradles at night.

The story of Lilith according to the Hebrew tradition appears in the rabbinic scriptures. Although Lilith is never named in the book of Genesis, the Hebrew interpretation of this chapter states that she is referred to in the first part. The book of Genesis is where the creation of Adam and Eve is discussed.

In Mesopotamian mythology

Although Lilith seems to be more rooted in Jewish culture, the origin of this female figure seems to be in the Sumerian and Akkadian civilizations.

Historians such as Reginald Campbell, of English origin, have approved this theory in which it was stated that Lilith is part of a larger group of female demons.

According to Campbell Thompson, Lilith and the rest of the demons that are associated with Lilitú are evil figures that in 50% have human form and qualities and in the other 50% show characteristics of divinity.

The first graphic representations that exist of this demon were of a woman with claws on her feet and wings. In Babylonian literature Lilith is represented as one of the prostitutes that the goddess Ishtar had under her command.

In the Bible

According to the Christian reading of the Bible, there is no reference to Lilith in the book of Genesis. This is the first book found in the Old Testament, where the stories are told before the appearance of Christ.

For Christians this definitively shows that Eve was Adam's first woman and partner. According to Genesis 1-3 the first sin that Adam and Eve commit has nothing to do with Lilith either.

The only mention of Lilith in the Bible occurs in the book of Isaiah. It is also found in the Old Testament, but this book has a more prophetic focus.

Lilith is named in Isaiah 34-14. Wild cats will hang out with hyenas and one satyr will call out to the other; Lilith will also rest there and find rest in him ”. Beyond this mention it is impossible to know what the author of this part of the literary work was referring to.

Lilith could very well have been an animal, a demon, someone's proper name, or something else.

In Jewish tradition

For Jews, Lilith is presented as an evil female figure that appears during the night. Your goal is to captivate men. She is also feared because she murders newborn children.

The legends about Lilith were adopted by the Jews when part of this civilization was exiled in Babylon. There are many Jewish scriptures where Lilith is referred to.

Talmud

In this work the different rabbinical debates that exist about Jewish norms, stories, legends or customs are grouped. Here Lilith is described as a curse for men who spend the night alone.

Ben Sira Alphabet

Also known as the Book of the Wisdom of Jesus. It is a text found in the Old Testament. For the Jews, Lilith is spoken of here and she is cataloged as the woman that Adam had before the existence of Eve.

Lilith claimed to have the same rights as Adam and he refused this request for equity. That is why Lilith abandoned her. Then she lived in a cave, where Lilith had a partner with different demons with whom she even had children.

According to legend, God sent three angels to earth so that Adam could retrieve Lilith. Despite being threatened, Lilith chose to be punished and not go back to Adam. The condemnation was that every day a hundred of Lilith's children were going to die. She, for her part, threatened to murder human children in revenge.

In the end, Lilith and the three angels sent by God reached an agreement. She promised not to kill any child wearing an amulet with the image of the three angels.

The use of this amulet became a tradition among the Hebrews. Chains with the names of Senoy, Sansenoy and Semangelof, the three messengers of God, began to be attached to the newborn babies.

Another of the customs that the Jews had to deceive Lilith was not to cut their babies' hair until they were three years old. In this way they hoped to deceive the demon, since it only attacked newborn children who were boys.

In Greco-Roman tradition

Lilith is also associated with Lamia, a highly feared female figure in Greek culture. In this case, Lamia also acted against children and was known as a murderer.

Physically Lamia had a human body from head to waist. The other part of the body resembles a snake. Although there were different representations of Lamia throughout the years.

There are many stories about the origin of Lamia. On the one hand she is linked with the goddess Hecate and on the other with Hera. This second hypothesis is the most popular. Legend has it that Lamia was punished by Hera, who murdered all of Lamia's children for having slept with her partner, Zeus.

The death of all her children caused Lamia great pain and aroused her anger. Her revenge consisted of stealing the children of all mothers and murdering them. She was considered a cannibal.

Broadly speaking, Jews and Greeks have many similarities between their stories about Lilith.

Like devil

The image of Lilith is more associated with evil deeds. It was very feared by pregnant women because they considered that their children could be in danger at birth.

Lilith's way of acting was to murder babies at birth. It was characterized by drinking the blood of men and then eating them. She was considered a kind of cannibal.

If women wanted to protect themselves from this evil figure, they had to go to a religion outside of Christianity, Judaism or Islam, since for these cultures Lilith was never considered a goddess. As protection spells were carried out, different amulets could be used or made some spell.

In the texts that can be found in Jewish culture there are comparisons of Lilith with other evil figures. There are some interpretations that claim that Lilith is not given any importance for her demonic characteristics and it is even disputed that her creation occurred before Eve's.

It was among the Jews that Lilith had the greatest importance as a demon or as an evil spirit.

As a symbol of feminism

The feminist movement around the figure of Lilith had great importance thanks to the role of Judith Plaskow. At the end of the 20th century Plaskow dedicated himself to analyzing the most important and sacred writings of the Jewish religion. She was considered the first feminist that Jewish culture had and she herself classified as a theologian.

His work reinterpreting the texts of Judaism was very important, since for the first time history was seen from the eyes of a group of women and not only by men. In that work, Plaskow decided to tell the story of Lilith with a new approach.

The references that were made of this female figure were based on the Ben Sirá alphabet. For Plaskow, Lilith and Adam were beings that were created and were in total equality. The theologian explained that the separation from Adam with what would have been his first wife was due to his authoritarian attitude and the opposition to recognize Lilith as his equal.

In this way, Plaskow first fought for the figure of Lilith to be recognized as Adam's first wife. Then, she tried to show that from the beginning of time women demanded recognition for their rights and these were not respected.

Lilith in modern works

The figure of Lilith began to acquire feminist characteristics in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. During that time, in literature the most widespread genre had to do with romanticism.

One of the most relevant authors was the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The writer published his work Faust I in 1808 and there he presented Lilith. It was the first time that this ancient female figure was named in modern works. He presented himself as a seductive character with great sexuality.

Over the years, more authors were naming the stories of Lilith or Lamia in their works. Such was the case of the British John Keats, very influential in the poetry of Romanticism.

Keats in several of his poems was inspired by the legends that surrounded Lilith. It was based on this figure to create attractive characters. Some literary critics consider that the protagonist of the story of La belle dame sans merci would be Lilith.

Lilith was also represented in other artistic movements, especially in painting. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, an English painter, was one of the authors who had the most influence on the feminist image of Lilith. He represented her in the painting Lady Lilith, which has elements that reinforce the image of a sensual woman that trapped men and that was created during the romantic period.

In the painting, Rossetti painted flowers that had different meanings. Death was represented by poppies and passion without happiness was symbolized by white roses. Rossetti was also the author of a sonnet named Lilith.

References

1. Biggs, M. (2010). The case for Lilith.: Samson Books.
2. Hurwitz, S., & Hinshaw, R. (2009). Lilith, the first Eve. Einsiedeln, Switzerland: Daimon Verlag.
3. Kvam, K., Schearing, L., & Ziegler, V. (1999). Eve and Adam: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Readings on Genesis and Gender. Indiana University Press.
4. Plaskow, J. (2015). The coming of Lilith: Essays on Feminism, Judaism, and Sexual Ethics. Boston, Mass.: Beacon Press.
5. Torres Santiago, O. (2008). Lilith, the first rebellious woman.: Lulu.com (Letters of America).