Lilith  

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[[Image:Lilith (John Collier painting).jpg |thumb|right|200px|''[[Lilith ]]'' ([[1892]]) - [[John Collier (artist)|John Collier]]]] [[Image:Lilith (John Collier painting).jpg |thumb|right|200px|''[[Lilith ]]'' ([[1892]]) - [[John Collier (artist)|John Collier]]]]
-[[Image:Serpent as Lilith in Michelangelo Adam and Eve cycle of the Sistine Chapel Ceiling.jpg |thumb|right|200px|''[[Serpent as Lilith in Michelangelo Adam and Eve cycle of the Sistine Chapel Ceiling]]'' ([[1500s]]) - [[Michelangelo]]]] 
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[[Lilith]] is a [[fictional character]] in [[Christian mythology]] - sometimes believed to be the first [[wife]] of [[Adam]] - who in the [[1990s]] and [[2000s]] has come to epitomize the image of the [[Strong and independent women|strong and independent woman]]. [[Lilith]] is a [[fictional character]] in [[Christian mythology]] - sometimes believed to be the first [[wife]] of [[Adam]] - who in the [[1990s]] and [[2000s]] has come to epitomize the image of the [[Strong and independent women|strong and independent woman]].
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The passage in [[Genesis 1:27]] — "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them" (before describing a mate being made of Adam's rib and being called Eve in Genesis 2:22) is believed to be the indication that Adam had a wife before Eve. The passage in [[Genesis 1:27]] — "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them" (before describing a mate being made of Adam's rib and being called Eve in Genesis 2:22) is believed to be the indication that Adam had a wife before Eve.
-A medieval reference to Lilith as the first wife of Adam is the anonymous ''[[The Alphabet of Ben Sira]]'', written sometime between the 8th and 11th centuries. Lilith is described as refusing to assume a [[subservient]] role to Adam during [[sexual intercourse]] and so deserting him ("She said, 'I will not lie below,' and he said, 'I will not lie beneath you, but only [[woman on top|on top]]. For you are fit only to be in the bottom position, while I am to be the superior one.'"). Lilith promptly uttered the name of God, took to the air, and left the Garden, settling on the Red Sea coast. As a side note, this places Lilith in a unique position, for she left the Garden of her own accord and before the [[Fall of Man]], and so is untouched by the Tree of Knowledge. However, according to legend, she also knows the "true name of God".+A medieval reference to Lilith as the first wife of Adam is the anonymous ''[[The Alphabet of Ben Sira]]'', written sometime between the 8th and 11th centuries. Lilith is described as refusing to assume a [[subservient]] role to Adam during [[sexual intercourse]] (i.e. the [[missionary position]]) and so deserting him ("She said, 'I will not lie below,' and he said, 'I will not lie beneath you, but only [[woman on top|on top]]. For you are fit only to be in the bottom position, while I am to be the superior one.'"). Lilith promptly uttered the name of God, took to the air, and left the Garden, settling on the Red Sea coast. As a side note, this places Lilith in a unique position, for she left the Garden of her own accord and before the [[Fall of Man]], and so is untouched by the Tree of Knowledge. However, according to legend, she also knows the "true name of God".
== A demon == == A demon ==
'''Lilith''' is a [[mythology|mythological]] female [[Mesopotamia]]n storm [[demon]] associated with wind and was thought to be a bearer of [[disease]], [[illness]], and [[death]]. The figure of Lilith first appeared in a class of wind and storm demons or spirits as ''Lilitu'', in [[Sumer]], circa 3000 BC. Many scholars place the origin of the phonetic name "Lilith" at somewhere around 700 BC. Lilith appears as a night demon in Jewish lore and as a [[screech owl]] in the [[King James Version of the Bible|King James version]] of the [[Bible]]. '''Lilith''' is a [[mythology|mythological]] female [[Mesopotamia]]n storm [[demon]] associated with wind and was thought to be a bearer of [[disease]], [[illness]], and [[death]]. The figure of Lilith first appeared in a class of wind and storm demons or spirits as ''Lilitu'', in [[Sumer]], circa 3000 BC. Many scholars place the origin of the phonetic name "Lilith" at somewhere around 700 BC. Lilith appears as a night demon in Jewish lore and as a [[screech owl]] in the [[King James Version of the Bible|King James version]] of the [[Bible]].
 +==The Alphabet of Ben Sira==
 +''[[The Alphabet of Ben Sira]]'' is considered to be the oldest form of the story of Lilith as Adam's first wife. Whether this particular tradition is older is not known. Scholars tend to date the Alphabet between the 8th and 10th centuries AD. (The attribution to the sage [[Ben Sira]] is considered false, with the true author unknown.) The amulets used against Lilith that were thought to derive from this tradition are in fact, dated as being much older. The concept of Eve having a predecessor is not exclusive to the Alphabet, and is not a new concept, as it can be found in [[Genesis Rabbah]]. However, the idea that Lilith was the predecessor is exclusive to the Alphabet. According to [[Gershom Scholem]], the author of the Zohar, R. Moses de Leon, was aware of the folk tradition of Lilith. He was also aware of another story, possibly older, that may be conflicting.
 +
 +The idea 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." The Alphabet text places Lilith's creation after God's words in Genesis 2:18 that "it is not good for man to be alone"; in this text God forms Lilith out of the clay from which he made Adam but she and Adam bicker. Lilith claims that since she and Adam were created in the same way they were equal and she refuses to submit to him:
 +
 +<blockquote>After God created Adam, who was alone, He said, 'It is not good for man to be alone.' He then created a woman for Adam, from the earth, as He had created Adam himself, and called her Lilith. Adam and Lilith immediately began to fight. She said, 'I will not lie below,' and he said, 'I will not lie beneath you, but only on top. For you are fit only to be in the bottom position, while I am to be the superior one.' Lilith responded, 'We are equal to each other inasmuch as we were both created from the earth.' But they would not listen to one another. When Lilith saw this, she pronounced the Ineffable Name and flew away into the air.<br /><br />
 +Adam stood in prayer before his Creator: 'Sovereign of the universe!' he said, 'the woman you gave me has run away.' At once, the Holy One, blessed be He, sent these three angels [[Senoy]], [[Sansenoy]], and [[Semangelof]], to bring her back.<br /><br />
 +Said the Holy One to Adam, 'If she agrees to come back, what is made is good. If not, she must permit one hundred of her children to die every day.' The angels left God and pursued Lilith, whom they overtook in the midst of the sea, in the mighty waters wherein the Egyptians were destined to drown. They told her God's word, but she did not wish to return. The angels said, 'We shall drown you in the sea.’<br /><br />
 +'Leave me!' she said. 'I was created only to cause sickness to infants. If the infant is male, I have dominion over him for eight days after his birth, and if female, for twenty days.’<br /><br />
 +When the angels heard Lilith's words, they insisted she go back. But she swore to them by the name of the living and eternal God: 'Whenever I see you or your names or your forms in an amulet, I will have no power over that infant.' She also agreed to have one hundred of her children die every day. Accordingly, every day one hundred demons perish, and for the same reason, we write the angels' names on the amulets of young children. When Lilith sees their names, she remembers her oath, and the child recovers.</blockquote>
 +
 +The background and purpose of ''The Alphabet of Ben-Sira'' is unclear. It is a collection of stories about heroes of the [[Bible]] and [[Talmud]], it may have been a collection of [[folk-tale]]s, a refutation of [[Christianity|Christian]], [[Karaite Judaism|Karaite]], or other separatist movements; its content seems so offensive to contemporary Jews that it was even suggested that it could be an anti-Jewish [[satire]], although, in any case, the text was accepted by the Jewish mystics of medieval Germany.
 +
 +''The Alphabet of Ben-Sira'' is the earliest surviving source of the story, and the conception that Lilith was Adam's first wife became only widely known with the 17th century ‘‘[[Lexicon Talmudicum]]'' of [[Johannes Buxtorf]].
 +
 +In the folk tradition that arose in the early Middle Ages Lilith, a dominant female demon, became identified with [[Asmodeus]], King of Demons, as his queen. Asmodeus was already well known by this time because of the legends about him in the Talmud. Thus, the merging of Lilith and Asmodeus was inevitable. The second myth of Lilith grew to include legends about another world and by some accounts this other world existed side by side with this one, ''Yenne Velt'' is Yiddish for this described "Other World". In this case Asmodeus and Lilith were believed to procreate demonic offspring endlessly and spread chaos at every turn. Many disasters were blamed on both of them, causing wine to turn into vinegar, men to be impotent, women unable to give birth, and it was Lilith who was blamed for the loss of infant life. The presence of Lilith and her cohorts were considered very real at this time.
 +
 +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. Although 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.
==Lilith in the Victorian period== ==Lilith in the Victorian period==
The [[Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood]], which developed around 1848, were greatly influenced by [[Goethe's work on the theme of Lilith]]. In 1863, [[Dante Gabriel Rossetti]] of the Brotherhood began painting what would be his first rendition of "[[Lady Lilith]]", a painting he expected to be his "best picture hitherto" [[Symbol]]s appearing in the painting allude to the "[[femme fatale]]" reputation of the Romantic Lilith: [[poppy|poppies]] (death and cold) and white [[rose]]s (sterile passion). Accompanying his ''Lady Lilith'' painting from 1863, Rossetti wrote a [[sonnet]] entitled ''[[Lilith (Rossetti sonnet)|Lilith]]'', which was first published in Swinburne's pamphlet-review (1868), ''[[Notes on the Royal Academy Exhibition]]'': The [[Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood]], which developed around 1848, were greatly influenced by [[Goethe's work on the theme of Lilith]]. In 1863, [[Dante Gabriel Rossetti]] of the Brotherhood began painting what would be his first rendition of "[[Lady Lilith]]", a painting he expected to be his "best picture hitherto" [[Symbol]]s appearing in the painting allude to the "[[femme fatale]]" reputation of the Romantic Lilith: [[poppy|poppies]] (death and cold) and white [[rose]]s (sterile passion). Accompanying his ''Lady Lilith'' painting from 1863, Rossetti wrote a [[sonnet]] entitled ''[[Lilith (Rossetti sonnet)|Lilith]]'', which was first published in Swinburne's pamphlet-review (1868), ''[[Notes on the Royal Academy Exhibition]]'':

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Lilith is a fictional character in Christian mythology - sometimes believed to be the first wife of Adam - who in the 1990s and 2000s has come to epitomize the image of the strong and independent woman.

The passage in Genesis 1:27 — "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them" (before describing a mate being made of Adam's rib and being called Eve in Genesis 2:22) is believed to be the indication that Adam had a wife before Eve.

A medieval reference to Lilith as the first wife of Adam is the anonymous The Alphabet of Ben Sira, written sometime between the 8th and 11th centuries. Lilith is described as refusing to assume a subservient role to Adam during sexual intercourse (i.e. the missionary position) and so deserting him ("She said, 'I will not lie below,' and he said, 'I will not lie beneath you, but only on top. For you are fit only to be in the bottom position, while I am to be the superior one.'"). Lilith promptly uttered the name of God, took to the air, and left the Garden, settling on the Red Sea coast. As a side note, this places Lilith in a unique position, for she left the Garden of her own accord and before the Fall of Man, and so is untouched by the Tree of Knowledge. However, according to legend, she also knows the "true name of God".

Contents

A demon

Lilith is a mythological female Mesopotamian storm demon associated with wind and was thought to be a bearer of disease, illness, and death. The figure of Lilith first appeared in a class of wind and storm demons or spirits as Lilitu, in Sumer, circa 3000 BC. Many scholars place the origin of the phonetic name "Lilith" at somewhere around 700 BC. Lilith appears as a night demon in Jewish lore and as a screech owl in the King James version of the Bible.

The Alphabet of Ben Sira

The Alphabet of Ben Sira is considered to be the oldest form of the story of Lilith as Adam's first wife. Whether this particular tradition is older is not known. Scholars tend to date the Alphabet between the 8th and 10th centuries AD. (The attribution to the sage Ben Sira is considered false, with the true author unknown.) The amulets used against Lilith that were thought to derive from this tradition are in fact, dated as being much older. The concept of Eve having a predecessor is not exclusive to the Alphabet, and is not a new concept, as it can be found in Genesis Rabbah. However, the idea that Lilith was the predecessor is exclusive to the Alphabet. According to Gershom Scholem, the author of the Zohar, R. Moses de Leon, was aware of the folk tradition of Lilith. He was also aware of another story, possibly older, that may be conflicting.

The idea 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." The Alphabet text places Lilith's creation after God's words in Genesis 2:18 that "it is not good for man to be alone"; in this text God forms Lilith out of the clay from which he made Adam but she and Adam bicker. Lilith claims that since she and Adam were created in the same way they were equal and she refuses to submit to him:

After God created Adam, who was alone, He said, 'It is not good for man to be alone.' He then created a woman for Adam, from the earth, as He had created Adam himself, and called her Lilith. Adam and Lilith immediately began to fight. She said, 'I will not lie below,' and he said, 'I will not lie beneath you, but only on top. For you are fit only to be in the bottom position, while I am to be the superior one.' Lilith responded, 'We are equal to each other inasmuch as we were both created from the earth.' But they would not listen to one another. When Lilith saw this, she pronounced the Ineffable Name and flew away into the air.

Adam stood in prayer before his Creator: 'Sovereign of the universe!' he said, 'the woman you gave me has run away.' At once, the Holy One, blessed be He, sent these three angels Senoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof, to bring her back.

Said the Holy One to Adam, 'If she agrees to come back, what is made is good. If not, she must permit one hundred of her children to die every day.' The angels left God and pursued Lilith, whom they overtook in the midst of the sea, in the mighty waters wherein the Egyptians were destined to drown. They told her God's word, but she did not wish to return. The angels said, 'We shall drown you in the sea.’

'Leave me!' she said. 'I was created only to cause sickness to infants. If the infant is male, I have dominion over him for eight days after his birth, and if female, for twenty days.’

When the angels heard Lilith's words, they insisted she go back. But she swore to them by the name of the living and eternal God: 'Whenever I see you or your names or your forms in an amulet, I will have no power over that infant.' She also agreed to have one hundred of her children die every day. Accordingly, every day one hundred demons perish, and for the same reason, we write the angels' names on the amulets of young children. When Lilith sees their names, she remembers her oath, and the child recovers.

The background and purpose of The Alphabet of Ben-Sira is unclear. It is a collection of stories about heroes of the Bible and Talmud, it may have been a collection of folk-tales, a refutation of Christian, Karaite, or other separatist movements; its content seems so offensive to contemporary Jews that it was even suggested that it could be an anti-Jewish satire, although, in any case, the text was accepted by the Jewish mystics of medieval Germany.

The Alphabet of Ben-Sira is the earliest surviving source of the story, and the conception that Lilith was Adam's first wife became only widely known with the 17th century ‘‘Lexicon Talmudicum of Johannes Buxtorf.

In the folk tradition that arose in the early Middle Ages Lilith, a dominant female demon, became identified with Asmodeus, King of Demons, as his queen. Asmodeus was already well known by this time because of the legends about him in the Talmud. Thus, the merging of Lilith and Asmodeus was inevitable. The second myth of Lilith grew to include legends about another world and by some accounts this other world existed side by side with this one, Yenne Velt is Yiddish for this described "Other World". In this case Asmodeus and Lilith were believed to procreate demonic offspring endlessly and spread chaos at every turn. Many disasters were blamed on both of them, causing wine to turn into vinegar, men to be impotent, women unable to give birth, and it was Lilith who was blamed for the loss of infant life. The presence of Lilith and her cohorts were considered very real at this time.

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. Although 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.

Lilith in the Victorian period

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which developed around 1848, were greatly influenced by Goethe's work on the theme of Lilith. In 1863, Dante Gabriel Rossetti of the Brotherhood began painting what would be his first rendition of "Lady Lilith", a painting he expected to be his "best picture hitherto" Symbols appearing in the painting allude to the "femme fatale" reputation of the Romantic Lilith: poppies (death and cold) and white roses (sterile passion). Accompanying his Lady Lilith painting from 1863, Rossetti wrote a sonnet entitled Lilith, which was first published in Swinburne's pamphlet-review (1868), Notes on the Royal Academy Exhibition:

Of Adam's first wife, Lilith, it is told
(The witch he loved before the gift of Eve,)
That, ere the snake's, her sweet tongue could deceive,
And her enchanted hair was the first gold.
And still she sits, young while the earth is old,
And, subtly of herself contemplative,
Draws men to watch the bright web she can weave,
Till heart and body and life are in its hold.
The rose and poppy are her flower; for where
Is he not found, O Lilith, whom shed scent
And soft-shed kisses and soft sleep shall snare?
Lo! As that youth's eyes burned at thine, so went
Thy spell through him, and left his straight neck bent
And round his heart one strangling golden hair.
(Collected Works, 216)

The poem and the picture appeared together alongside Rossetti's painting Sibylla Palmifera and the sonnet Soul's Beauty. In 1881, the Lilith sonnet was renamed "Body's Beauty" in order to contrast it and Soul's Beauty. The two were placed sequentially in The House of Life collection (sonnets number 77 and 78).

Rossetti wrote in 1870:

Lady [Lilith]...represents a Modern Lilith combing out her abundant golden hair and gazing on herself in the glass with that self-absorption by whose strange fascination such natures draw others within their own circle."

This is in accordance with Jewish folk tradition, which associates Lilith both with long hair (a symbol of dangerous feminine seductive power in both Jewish and Islamic cultures), and with possessing women by entering them through mirrors.

The Victorian poet Robert Browning re-envisioned Lilith in his poem "Adam, Lilith, and Eve". First published in 1883, the poem uses the traditional myths surrounding the triad of Adam, Eve, and Lilith. Browning depicts Lilith and Eve as being friendly and complicitous with each other, as they sit together on either side of Adam. Under the threat of death, Eve admits that she never loved Adam, while Lilith confesses that she always loved him:

As the worst of the venom left my lips,
I thought, 'If, despite this lie, he strips
The mask from my soul with a kiss — I crawl
His slave, — soul, body, and all!|Browning 1098}}

Browning focused on Lilith's emotional attributes, rather than that of her ancient demon predecessors.

Scottish author George MacDonald also wrote a fantasy novel entitled Lilith, first published in 1895. MacDonald employed the character of Lilith in service to a spiritual allegory about sin and redemption. Many of the traditional characteristics of Lilith mythology are present in the author's depiction: Long dark hair, pale skin, a hatred and fear of children and babies, and an obsession with gazing at herself in a mirror. MacDonald's Lilith also has vampiric qualities: She bites people and sucks their blood for sustenance.

See also




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Lilith" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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