For some time now I have been meaning to write a commentary on the figure of Lilith: Queen of the Night, Mother of Demons, First Wife of Adam, and one of my own Patron Goddesses. I have found that, without exception, modern authors leave much to be desired on this subject. Either they concentrate totally on Her historical aspect, or they focus on Her modern interpretation. What is worse, the latter type of author tends to attempt to convince us that the modern interpretation IS the same as the historical facts about the Demoness/Goddess. Along with this, the modern interpretations are normally completely at odds with the historical facts. This document is meant to rectify all of the above.

I do not feel that any God or Goddess can be divorced from Their mythos. As I have stated elsewhere, a Mythology is the Soul of the God(s) it depicts. For instance, you and I both know that the Gods did not build the city of Babylon with Their own hands. Yet, if one were to call upon Great Marduk, He would have full memory of constructing the city. Likewise, we know that Adam and Eve did not exist as the "first humans." Yet, Lilith has full memory of Eden, the Fall, and every other event depicted in Genesis and the various Hebraic Legends. It is thus that Lilith, though She is not the vile and disgusting ArchDemon envisioned by the early Judaic Peoples, is nevertheless affected by these conceptions of Her. Her Dark aspects, even the nastiest ones, are a part of Her, regardless of modern attempts to "liberate" Her. Lilith was not originally a benevolent Goddess who was raped by the Patriarchy.

However, I move slightly ahead of myself here. Therefore, I will begin at the beginning:

THE HISTORICAL ORIGIN OF LILITH

The first myth I wish to dispel is that Lilith was originally found in the ancient land of Sumeria. Her roots do certainly extend that far, but Lilith Herself is not to be found among that massive pantheon of Gods and Demons.

In Sumerian, the word "Lil" means "Air." Enlil, for instance, was the Lord (En) of Air (Lil). The oldest known term relating to Lilith would be the Sumerian word "Lili" (plural "Lilitu"), which seems to imply the same definition as our word "spirit." In many ancient cultures, the same word for "air" or "breath" would also be used for "spirit." The very word "spiritus" is one such example. The Hebrew "ruach" is another. Therefore, the Lilitu were either a specific type of demon, or were simply "spirits" in general.

Normally, Lilith is thought to have been a Sumerian Succubus. And, in fact, there was such a creature in Sumer-Babylonia who surely had it's part in the Hebrew conception of Lilith. This being was known as the "Ardat Lili." "Ardatu" was a term that described a young woman of marrying age. Thus, the Ardat Lili was a young female spirit—the Succubus—the demoness credited with "night-hag syndrome." Most of us have experienced this once or twice—where the victim awakens to find that he is being restrained and paralyzed by an unseen force (this is a "chemical malfunction" of the body). She is also said to cause erotic dreams, thus robbing the male of semen and spiritual vitality. Of course, there is also a male version of this—the incubus—but I will not be addressing this creature here.

It is also interesting to note that the Sumerian word for "wantonness" was "Lulu." The word for "luxuriousness" was "Lalu." Also, the very word for "evil" was "Limnu." This has an obvious relation to the word Lili (and Ardat Lili specifically); not just in the similarity of pronunciation and spelling, but also in the very definition of the words. Keep in mind that these ancient languages did not possess the specific definition of our modern words. A single word would indicate any one of a number of related concepts.

This does not exhaust the etymology of Lilith. However, the word-play does not continue until the Hebrew Captivity in Babylon (600 BCE), and I do not wish to jump ahead just yet. Still concerning Sumer, there are two instances that are generally seen as proof of Lilith's existence there.

One is a mythos in which a female demon takes residence within the Goddess Inanna's sacred Tree of Life—thus effectively stunting the Tree's growth and production. This demoness is supposed to be Lilith Herself, whom the hero Gilgamesh finally forces out of the Tree and into the desert. However, it turns out that there is no basis for assuming this creature is Lilith, or even an Ardat Lili. It was Kramer who translated, as "Lilith," the word "ki-sikil-lil-la-ke." Where the word for air is obviously present, there is no indication of a Lilith—anymore than the presence of the word "ki" (Earth) indicates the Earth Goddess Ki. Perhaps Kramer was concentrating on the two syllables "lil-la."

The second instance is the famous plaque which depicts a woman with owl talons and wings, standing upon two lions, with two owls flanking her on either side. It was the above (mis)translation by Kramer that was used to interpret this figure as Lilith. Of course, as the demoness of the Tree is not Lilith, then surely the woman in the sculpture is not either.

There is also a note that I wish to add here. In the Torah, there is said to be one reference to Lilith—Isaiah XXXIV:14. The verse speaks of a Screech Owl, and this is said to indicate Lilith by way of the above-mentioned plaque. This instance is even used to argue that Lilith's Name is derived from the Hebrew term for "to screech." However, nothing could be farther from the truth in either case. Such relations are accepted Qabalistic practices, but they cannot be used in a scholarly/historic sense.

To the title page of Lilith
Forward to the next part

The Goddess in Training HomepageThe Lilith ShrineThe Jewish Pagan Resources PageCatlandThe Beast Bot

sign my guestbook Guestbook by Lpageview my guestbook

want to discuss lilith? check out my message board for discussions of lilith and more!