Feminism: The Image of Lilith

Feminism: The Image of Lilith

Lilith, the First Woman and a Symbol of Independence

There are many women who might be admired in history, but there is one independent woman who seemed to have accomplished a lot who has been in existence since the beginning of recorded time. Lliith, supposedly of Hebrew mythology, but also found in other ancient myths predating Hebraic literature, is a woman of distinctive and admirable characteristics. She has been called "The Maid of Tears," and a seductress. She is paired with a husband at times (Samael), but is also called the consort of God. Her legends almost always include a tree, a snake and a bird. The tree is her house, the bird is mischevious and the snake "who knows no charm" is also associated with evil (Graves 234).

Lilith appears in the most ancient of all literature, the story of Gilgamesh. But she also appears in other ancient literature, in Syrian 7th century B.C. literature, in the Bible, in the Dead Sea Scrolls and in the Talmud. Amy Scerba did a study of Lilith and outlines her role in the story of Gilgamesh:

First, there is the association of Lilith with the snake, usually equated with evil. Second, there is the bird who flees, presumably through flight, something which Lilith will later do also. Third, the tree invokes an image of the Tree of Knowledge, in which Lilith is said to dwell in some later myths. Similarly, this tree is located in Inanna's "holy garden," again harking back to the image of the Garden of Eden. Finally, it is noteworthy that while Lilith and her bestial companions inspire fear in Inanna, they do not have any fear of her. It is Gilgamesh, the great male Sumerian hero, who kills the snake and frightens the other creatures out of the tree and garden (Scerba 1)

It is said that Lilith (or Lilit) is of Babylonian origin. The earliest myth in the Rabbinic Midrash refers to a bisexual being "male and female He created them." The body that God created was divided into two, the male and the female, becoming separate beings. Later on, Eve was created. The first female, however, according to the Midrash, was Lilith, who refused to submit to Adam, as she was his equal. When Adam demanded that she submit, she fled from him, leaving Adam alone. When Adam complained to God that he was lonely, God created Eve. Thus begins a history of Lilith fleeing the dominant male (Cashford 192).

In the Midrash, after the "Fall," and expulsion from Eden, Adam reunited with Lilith and she bore him several children before he returned to Eve. In the Midrash, the children Lilith bore Adam became demons and she became the Queen of the Demons. In other stories she remained childless and unpartnered, either with a husband or remained with Adam (Kabbala)

In the Kabbala, the only time Lilith is paired with a husband, he has been castrated, so she can have no union with him. Instead, she is painted as a harlot and "fornicates" with other men (Patai 1978, 463) as a result, in this story she is the goddess over all children who are born out of wedlock ("who issue from a man who has intercourse at candelight, or with his wife naked, or at times when he is forbidden to have intercourse."). When the children born of this union laugh in their sleep, or on the Sabbath night, or on the night of the New Moon, Lilith is playing with them. She also has the power to kill these children during the first days of their lives as they sleep (probably to explain SIDS), so these offspring are called "Oppressed Souls."

In the Kabbala, Lilith is called the Tortuous Serpent because she seduces men to go in tortuous ways. Her husband, Samael, is called the Slant Serpent. Samael's whole name means "poison of God" (sam-el). There is also a dragon (snake) without eyes in this story who mates with Lilith, who is associated with the government of evil and who is destined to swallow poison at the hands of the angels Gabriel and Michael.

Needless to say, Lilith has been feared and blamed for a whole host of evils and, as the independent woman, has been personified as a seductress or a demon, as well as the wife of God (would she also be called Mary?) Her independent adventures in various myths portray her as Adam's first wife, a witch, an unfettered animal and the "primal egregore" in magical spells, whose powers need to be carefully guarded against by a female "Main Operator." She is both the playmate and the nemesis of children, as she is the image of freedom for girls, but can also take away the life of an infant in a moment. She is depicted as hairless and bound in chains on an amulet that evidently was made to protect a newborn male child, from the 18th or 19th century in Persia, which may be seen today in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

Bringing Lilith up-to-date, she still occupies a place in the psyche of mankind: the independent woman who refuses to be dominated by a man, no matter what her position. In George MacDonald's book Lilith, Mr. Raven talks about his late wife:

He brought me an angelic splendour to be my wife: there she lies! For her first thought was power; she counted it slavery to be one with me, and bear children for Him who gave her being. One child, indeed, she bore; then, puffed with the fancy that she had created her, would have me fall down and worship her! Finding, however, that I would but love and honour, never obey and worship her, she poured out her blood to escape me (MacDonald 24).