Lilith
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Lilith is often thought of as some kind of feminine demon, though some use her as a symbol for feminism.
She might be mentioned in the Book of Isaiah. Outside of the Hebrew Bible, "Liliths" are mentioned in the Songs of the Sage[page needed] alongside other demons,[source?] leading many experts[who?] to think of them as a category of demonic figures.[source?] Some rabbinical works, like the Alphabet of Ben Sira,[page needed] say that Lilith was the first wife of Adam and came before Eve.[source?]
Origins
[change | change source]Pre-Jewish Lilith
[change | change source]The evidence for Lilith outside of Jewish tradition is few.[source?]
Etymologically, Lilit (Hebrew: לִּילִ֔ית) is related to Lilitu (Akkadian: 𒀭𒆤𒆤𒌅).[source?] In ancient Mesopotamian legend, the Lilitu were the bitter and seductive spirits of women who died before being married or having children.[source?]
Because of this connection, the assyriologist Samuel Noah Kramer[page needed] claims to have found an earlier version of Lilith:[source?] In an Akkadian prologue to the Epic of Gilgamesh (c. 6000 BCE), the goddess Inanna plants a tree which she intends to use to make a throne and bed. However, after ten years, she finds a serpent around the base of the tree, an Anzu-bird[clarification needed] nested in the branches, and Ki-Sikil-Lil-La-Ke living inside the trunk.[source?] Kramer argues that Ki-Sikil-Lil-La-Ke is Lilith,[source?] and his own translation renders it into English as "Dark Maid Lilith."[source?]
In Jewish tradition
[change | change source]In Jewish tradition, the Alphabet of Ben Sira claims that Lilith was made from the same dirt as Adam and was his wife before Eve.[source?] The Babylonian Talmud, in various places, implies or outright states that long hair and wings resemble Lilith,[source?] and warns that sleeping alone can leave you vulnerable to an attack from the "evil spirit Lilith."[source?]
The many inscriptions about Lilith show that many people believed Lilith caused the death of young children and was also a succubus who seduced men in their sleep.[source?]
Meaning
[change | change source]Lilith may have been mentioned in the Book of Isaiah, but not exactly as a specific figure.[source?]
The Masoretic Text, which is usually used for English translations of the Bible, uses the singular Lilit (Hebrew: לִּילִ֔ית).[source?] However, the Great Isaiah Scroll instead has the plural Liliyyot (Hebrew: ליליות),[source?] which suggests that this is not a name.[source?] The Septuagint renders this as "donkey-centaurs" (Greek: ὀνοκένταυρος),[source?] which refers to fantastical desert demons[source?] but still shows that the word should be plural.
The actual meaning of Liliyyot (Hebrew: ליליות) as used by Isaiah is unclear, though it is thought[by whom?] to have been a kind of female demon[source?] as she appears in extra-biblical sources alongside other demons.[source?]
