-Caveat Lector-
i been a lilly fan for some time, seems relevant to the thread- and to
xtians who seem to have a stranglehold on what was really going on back in
the garden.
>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 ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) 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.
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