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Re: Who is Lileth?2
nitrous@ccnet.com
Sat, 18 Feb 95 10:19:53 PDT
In article <D449LB.JK3@utu.fi>, <jkivela@utu.fi> writes:
> I'm not sure if this is the right group for this kind of discussion. Anyway,
> it's an interesting legend since it tries to punish women just because they
> are independent. In that case it also tells us something, not very
flattering,
> about Christianity.
You definitley got a point there! But probabley not the best group to talk
about religious preferences.
I found some other references to her, so here they are:
Adam's first wife, Lilith, was an early rabbinical attempt to assimilate thhe
Sumero-Babylonian Goddess Belit-ili, or Belili, to Jewish mythology. To the
Canaanites, Lilith was Baalat, the "Divine Lady". On a tablet from Ur, ca. 2000
B.C.E. she was addressed as Lillake. (Graves & Patai, 68) Hebraic tradition
said Adam married Lilith because he grew tired of coupling with beasts, a
common custom of Middle-Eastern herdsmen, though the Old Testament declared it
a sin (Deuteronomy 27:21). Adam ttried to force Lilith to lie beneath him in
the "missionary position" favored by male-dominant society. Moslems were so
insistent on the male-superior position that they said "Accursed be the man who
maketh woman heaven and himself earth" (Edwards, 157) Catholic authorites said
any sexual position other than the male-superior one is sinful. But Lillith
was neither a Moslem or a Catholic. She sneered at Adam's sexual crudity,
cursed him, and flew away to make her home by the Red SEa. God sent angels to
fetch Lilith back, but she cursed them too. She spent her time coupling with
"demons" and giving birth to a hundred children a day. so God had to produce
Eve as Lilith's more docile replacement.There have been many connections
between Lilith and the Etruscan divinity Leinth, who had no face and who waited
at the gate of the underworld with Eita and Persipnei to receive the souls of
the dead (hays, 183). Admission to the underworld was often mythologized as a
sexual union. The lily or lilu (lotus) was the Great Mother's flower-yoni,
whose title formed Lilith's name.
The story of Lilith disappeared from the canonical Bible, but her daughters,
the lilim haunted men for over a thousand years. Well into the middle ages the
Jews were still making amulets to keep away the lilum, who were lustful demons
who copulated with men in their sleep, causing nocturnal emmisions. Greeks
adopted the lilim and called the Lamiae, Empusae (Forcers-in) or Daughters of
Hecate. Christians also adopted them and called the harlots of hell, or
succubae, the female counterparts of incubi. Even if a male child laughed in
his sleep, people said Lilith was fondling him. To protect baby boys against
her, chalk circles were draen around cradlles with the written names of the
three angels God sent to fetch Lilith back to Adam. Some said men and babies
should not be left alone in a house or Lilith might seize them. (Cavendish,
P.E., 99).
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