The above contains the only passage containing the word Lilith in the bible. This said, there are several references to Lilith in the Talmud, and in the Dead Sea Scrolls, which I won't go into here. For anyone interested in exploring the original sources, websites of interest can be found at the bottom of the article, as always.
As I was saying, unexplained passages in bibical sources have caused many people to believe that, before Eve, there was another woman, a woman named Lilith. Other names for Lilith include the howling one, and her name means screech owl, wind spirit, and possibly night. She is usually pictured with long, flowing hair, and wings. The legend first appeared in medieval times, in the controversial work known as the Alphabet of Ben Sirah.
Unlike Eve, Lilith was made of the dust of the earth, like Adam, and had a strong, independent spirit. When Adam wanted to lie with Lilith, she took offence to the fact that he wanted her to lay below him, and said "I will not lie below," to which Adam replied "I will not lie beneath you, but only on top. For you are fit only to be in the bottom position, while am to be in the superior one." Lilith, in turn, replied that they were both equal, having both been made from the dust of the earth. Adam, however, refused to listen to her, so she spoke the magic name of God and flew away.
Adam then went to God and complained that Lilith had run away. God at once sent three angels, Senoy, Sansenoy and Semangelof, to fetch Lilith and bring her back, and commanded that if Lilith did not return, 100 of her children would die each day. They found Lilith by the Red Sea, where she mated with demons (called Djinns) and bore lilim (the name given to her demonic children) at a rate of more then 100 a day. When the angels told Lilith that she had to return, she refused. The angels threatened to drown her, to which she replied, "And how can I die, when God has ordered me to take charge of every newborn child: boys up to the eighth day, that of circumcision, and girls up to the twentieth day? None the less, if I ever see your names or likeness displayed in an amulet above a newborn child, I promise to spare it." The angels, who had not known of her agreement with god, conceded. Still, because she did not return to Adam, 100 of her demon offspring died each day, and it is said that, if the amulet prevents her from taking the life of a human child, she will, in a rage, turn against her own children.
Having fled Paradise before the fall, Lilith remains immortal forever, a demon queen who roams the world, taking vengeance against the unjust treatment she received. She is said to have been the first vampire, the first succubi, and to kill children in the night, unless they bear the special amulet. It is also possible that the English word lullaby is a corruption of Lilla-bi - Lilith be gone.
LilithGallery of Demons
© Copyright Sabrina Wish 1999
