Obscure Mythology Chapter 12: Lilith

A hairy monster who married the Devil

I have been waiting for this chapter since I started this endeavor! I have a small personal connection to this chapter as Lilith is the name my wife and I blessed our youngest daughter with. When I read this installment for Lilith it didn’t surprise me much at all because Lilith is one of  the first people to be slandered and misrepresented because of her actions. In the original Jewish bible, the Torah, she was said to be the first wife of Adam, living together in the Garden of Eden. Lilith had a habit of doing what she wanted and when she refused to be subservient to her husband, he and God decided to kick her out of paradise. There was no room for a disobedient woman who thought she was equal to her husband in the nearly formed world. She was banished from Eden and so she had no choice but to join in league with the devil and his dark forces who had control over the earth at the time. There are numerous accounts of what happened to her after she was banished and I think you will see by today’s post that she was most definitely made into an evil being for not agreeing to be subservient. That is the reason I wanted to name my child Lilith, to honor the first Bad Girl of Jewish/Christian mythology, although the Christian bible neglects to even mention Lilith in the Kin James Version. The Torah still has small blurbs of her but for the most part she was all but written out of the creation stories. I will now post the description provided by the Dictionary of Mythology for Lilith.

Lilith: Hebrew, a hairy monster who married the Devil.

In some accounts, Lilith was expelled from paradise and slept with the Devil, producing the jinn. Other versions say she flew off in the form of a vampire or took the form of a black cat, preying on new-born babies. In this context, her name is used to refer to the star Algol, previously known as Rosh ha Satan (Satan’s Head).

In some accounts she is identified with Empusa or Lamia, while others refer to her as the queen of Zamargad, the plentiful home of lovers. (Dictionary of Mythology an A-Z of themes, legends and heroes, J.A. Coleman).

So there you have it, this is what happens to anyone who goes against the way of the Jewish or Christian religion. She went from being the first woman on earth to a terrifying demon woman who flies around eating children and consorting with the devil! I never realized her supposed connection to the Jinn. How crazy is that? Lilith actually connects to my last two posts. She may have had a hand in creating the Jinnee from Chapter 10 and this is probably the Torah’s way of showing that men had dominance over women back in a time when it had been the opposite. Just as the tribe from South America stole the female’s dominance dance and made it their own. Lilith refusing to be less than equal to man was ancient society not conforming to the new laws of the land. As organized religion spread and began to assimilate ancient cultures they had to do away with the customs and beliefs that contradicted their own so the Torah tells us of this first woman, the woman before Eve. The woman who had the audacity to say “No,” to God and man, the woman who was expelled from paradise and forced into the Devil’s hand for refusing to be subservient. It painted Lilith as a blood thirsty demon with no regard for anything but causing mayhem and fear. By writing of Lilith’s  exploits, the early rabbi’s had shown what happens to women when they question their place in the world. I have told many people whop grew up religious about the story of Lilith and many, if not all of them had never heard her story before. The weird thing is that the Babylonian and Sumerian cultures also had a Lilith myth which also show her as a demon who refused to accept her role. In reality Lilith was probably a figurehead for all the women who fought to keep their equality as the times began to change. By making her the epitome of evil it scared ancient women into their subservient places. I wonder had she stayed if she would have been tempted by the Serpent as easily as Eve was. I would imagine Lilith would have been able to stave off the Devil’s temptation since she was much more level headed and seemed stronger willed than Eve. I also think it is pretty ironic that Adam and his second wife Eve, were both booted out of Eden for Eve’s gullibility.  Had Adam and God allowed Lilith to be equal perhaps humans would have never been kicked out of Paradise and things would be drastically different for all. A few people thought we shouldn’t name our child after a blood thirsty vampire, demon who married the Devil but I see it a little differently. I say we named our daughter after the world’s first gender equality activist and it is an honor. If more people knew the real story of Lilith perhaps it would be a little more popular.  Well, I guess I shall end this post and get prepared for the next one. In the meantime I hope you all enjoyed this post and perhaps I sparked a little interest in this ancient myth. I knew when I started this that a lot of these myths would be similar or have similar themes and I haven’t been disappointed yet, I am still in awe of how Lilith has connected to the last two posts in particular.  I haven’t planned any of these posts beforehand except for Lilith, but was unaware of what this dictionary would say about it.  Okay, have a great day, take care and I can’t wait to bring you even more installments and more awesome myths and legends. Until then: PEACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!