Who was Lilith?

Answer 1

Lilith is most commonly seen in Judaism, though prior to that she's been sighted in many ancient middle eastern cultures. Naturally she has acquired many names: Lilith, lilitu and lamea to are only a few, though there seems to be hundreds.

In Jewish texts, she is the first wife of Adam. They were both created at the same time, from earth, so lilith sees no reason why she should be subordinant to him. God made a figure from the earth, with two faces, one male one female, conjoined at the back. This is how they are both said to have been created. However in The Bible, she only gets a mention as the snake who convinced eve to consume the apple. Lilith seems to have loved and hated Adam. It is said that she refused to lie beneath him during intercourse, or be anything but equal to him. Eventually they got fed up with each other, she spoke the sacred name of god and ascended to heaven. There she met the three cherubims, three angels, who she complained to. I think they wanted to send her to hell, or punish her in some way(sorry it's been a while), but they struck a deal. They condemned her her walk the earth by night, and to be the taker of childrens souls, the one who causes miscarriges, sillbirths and infant mortality in general. That was now her job. There are many amulets women would where, evoking the three angels to protect their children. Apparently she always missed Adams beauty. And he longed for hers also. Eve was the wholsome perfect wife, lilith was the dark haired demoness. She would, when eve was distracted, go to him. She seemed to have powers above and beyond theirs. She seemed to go to heaven and lecture god whenever she was annoyed, and walk in and out of the garden without much trouble.

Lilith became more than a child snatcher, she became the representation of female sin. Of all female trickery that men should be wary of. She was a succbus, she caused orgasms, she tempted men into betraying themselves or their wives. She played mind games. She lived in a cave by the dead sea, and bore many evil daughters to demons. And lilith's daughters would roam at night also. In demoness form, after the garden, she is shown with the wings and clawed feet of and owl. She was the keeper of everything the creeped, of all creatures of the night. She would pose as a mortal woman, lure men to her, get them drunk enough then take pleasure from them. Apparently, while still managing all this, she hides in mirrors, and takes hold of women who spend too much time in front of them. Later on in life she maried samael, the devil. Strangely enough, at this time she became the young lilith, the earlier child snatching one is reffered to as the old lilith.

She and Adam have been represented as the sun and moon, at first they had there own and equal light. They both shone together, then for some reason, god and Adam teamed up and decided she should live by night and he by day. And he should posses all the light and she be a mear reflection of his greatness. This is also why she is associated with the night and night animals, as she watched over them.

In more recent history she has lost her earlier associations and is mainly now a succubus (sexual demon) or vampire, or a combination of both. Vampire was bound to come into it somewhere. Basically a gothic fantasy woman. It should be noted that many refer to her as a goddess, aswell as a demoness. A feminin moon goddess type. The powerful feminin, and the female sexual energy. She is loved by the goddess movement, and womens liberation groups. Because when you look at it, she hasn't done that much wrong. She didn't choose to kill infants, she was assigned the juty. But as usual, a male dominated religion uses her as the root of all evil, because she dared stand up to a man. Everything she did would be considered quite reasonabe by today's standards.

There is so much information on her, she has such a long history it's rediculas. Anything remotely evil she has embodied at some point. But if you're really interested you should read Barbara black koltuv's - the book of lilith. I did. and there's plenty of other texts and plenty on the internet. But BBK's is a good all rounder, not bias, though some people don't seem to like it . It's just quite famous, the standard text.

Answer 2

Lilith is the apocryphal first wife of Adam in The Isla-Judeo-Christian tradition. (Apocryphal means she does not appear in approved religious texts). She is also a character in the Epic of Gilgamesh and other ancient writings. She is described as a demon in some writings.

Answer 3

A:According to a Jewish midrash, Lilith was indeed Adam's first wife, but she flew away because Adam would not allow her to be on top when having sex.

Answer 4

It has several meanings: "belong to the night", "owl", "moon".