Lilith

Myrddin

Well-Known Member
In Hebrew myth, Lilith was Adam's wife before Eve was created. She left Adam when he demanded that she lay beneath him in the passive position, becoming "the first feminist rebel". In other texts, she is acribed as a demonic creature. This is about all I know about her. Is there anyone who knows more about Lilith?
 

Caburus

Active Member
I thought she became a demon, the mother of evil spirits, who slew young children in the cradle. She had counterparts with the Greek Lamia, and would plague people in their sleep, like a succubus. Originally she and Adam were created as one being, back to back, but they incessantly quarrelled until Adam implored God to seperate them into two seperate beings. Lillith then refused to be subordinate to Adam, as she was his equal, and she left Eden and shacked up with the Angel Sameal, becoming the mother of a million demons. She hates all the offspring of Eve, who replaced her as Adam's wife. She is also identified with a bird footed goddess of the night time in Babylonian myth, but I forget who.
 

LegendofJoe

Active Member
I believe in Mesopotamian myth she is also called Lilith.
In a myth called the Huluppu tree, she takes up residence there.
Inanna implores the hero Gilgamesh to get rid of her.
 

Caburus

Active Member
The legend is;
Inanna finds a huluppa [poplar? willow?] tree in the Euphrates river, it having been blown down in a storm. She plants it in her sacred garden in Uruk, hoping to see it grow big enough to make a throne and a bed from. 10 years pass, and a serpent that can not be charmed makes its nest in its roots, the Anzu-bird [a great eagle with a lion's face] builds a nest in its branches, and Lilith takes up residence in its trunk. Inanna weeps and in despair implores help from her divine brother Utu, the sun god, but he refuses to come to her aid. She then turns to her mortal brother Gilgamesh, King of Uruk, and he puts on his armour and takes his axe, and enters Inanna's sacred garden. Approaching the huluppa tree he strikes at the serpent in the roots, the Anzu-bird flies off with his young to the mountains, and Lilith smashes her home and flees to the wilderness. Having cleared the tree of these pests [or are they it's protectors?] Gilgamesh cuts down the tree and carves a throne and a bed from its trunk for his divine sister. From the roots of the tree Inanna fashions the emblems of kingship and gives them to Gilgamesh. These emblems Gilgamesh later abuses, and the earth opens and they fall into the underworld.
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The image of a tree with a serpent at its roots and an eagle with young in the branches, reminds me of the Norse world tree, Yggdrasil, with a dragon gnawing at its roots and an eagle in the uppermost branches with a hawk sat between the eagle's eyes. Perhaps Lilith (and Inanna?) parallel the Norns who water the tree as well as direct the fates of humankind.
 

Nadai

Active Member
In Europe, before anyone knew what SIDS was, mothers would blame the demon Lilith or Lilit for the deaths of their babies. In order to counteract Lilith's power, mothers would sing to their children songs that were supposed to keep Lilith away. These songs were called Lilith-abi (Lilith be gone) or lullabies. Jewish mothers would also hang amulets from the walls in their child's nursery that were supposed to keep Lilith at bay.
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Lilith first appeared in Jewish myth around the sixth century and was considered to be the mother of a race of female demons known as Lititu. Originally Lilith was created from the same piece of earth as Adam making them one in the same; in contrast, Eve was created from Adam's rib, making her a piece of her husband (without Adam's rib she would not exist, creating the idea that woman cannot exist without man:rolleyes:). People believed that Lilith, who had once been the wife of Adam, was cast out of the garden because of her refusal to submit to man; she left the garden and later mated with the archangel Samael (Samil) a figure of seduction, destruction, and accusation. He was considered to be both good and evil; he was seen guarding Esau, a man of God, but also he is depicted as a bringer of death for mankind. In Jewish myth he also apparently was the one responsible for convincing Eve to eat from the tree of Knowledge after disguising himself as a serpent and later he seduced her and became the father of her son Cain.
Lilith also mated with Samael, creating the Lititu. But she was considered the first demon ever created, since she was the first human to be corrupted by the devil. She possesses women and forces them to have sex with men in order to procreate (I guess she can also be blamed for sexsomnia;)). She drinks the blood of infants and steals their souls.
 
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