LILITH: FROM POWERFUL GODDESS TO EVIL QUEEN

Maria Fernandes

And God created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him:
male and female he created them. And God blessed them, saying: increase and
multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fishes of the sea, and
the fowls of the air, and all living creatures that move upon the earth.
(Gen 27-28)

The figure of Lilith has been object of innumerous representations since at least
the second millennium b.c.e., but mostly since the early Middle Ages. After being depicted in Jewish Medieval literature as the queen of Hell, wife of Samael,
she was used by both Jews and Christians to represent the incarnation of evil. For
Christians, she became temptation itself and was often represented, in painting
and in sculpture, as the serpent who led Eve into sin.
XIXth century Romantics also picked Lilith as a motive, in their paintings and
poems, and the XXth and XXIst centuries have revived her myths through occultists, writers, movie producers and musicians. She even gave the name to the first
Jewish feminist journal, founded in 1976, Lilith Magazine.
The unending fascination she seems to provide, even nowadays, in our secular, rational world, appears to be rather curious, hence I propose to revisit and
question her role and functions as the first woman ever created on earth and the
first human being who dared to overdo the purpose of her creation.
Lilith is first accounted for in Sumerian literature, where she was called Dimme. Several authors see a brief mention of her in the epic of Gilgamesh, in which
she was identified with the demon dwelling inside a willow (Graves and Patai 82).
She was later found in ancient Mesopotamia, as a wind spirit (Lilitu) or as one of
Anus daughters, called Lamashtu or Lamartu, who was said to be the most terrible of all female demons: she killed children, consumed human flesh and blood,
devastated plants and soiled rivers and streams, sent nightmares, caused miscarriages, and brought disease. In Babylonia, a special class of priests, the Ashipu, was
employed to defeat her harmful effects. This demon has also been said to corre*

University of Lisbon, Centre for Classical Studies and Centre of History.

733

spond to the ghul)1 of pre-Islamic Arabian myths. She was portrayed on amulets as
a lion- or bird-headed female figure kneeling on an ass, holding a double-headed
serpent in each hand and suckling dogs or pigs at her breasts (Ginzberg V.88). In
old incantation formulae, reference is made to Lilith in the plural, as wind spirits
or demons, rather than to one specific demon, one of the ways to overcome their
witchcraft being to grasp them by their tresses or their plaits. Some authors see
in the Lilith mentioned in the Bible (Is 34:14) the she-demon matched in Jewish
literature to Samael. However, this position has been criticized under the argument that lilith in Isaiah refers to a kind of birds, dwelling in the deserts of Egypt
and Palestine, perhaps goat-suckers or similar, which probably justifies the later
traditions claiming that Lilith was a vampire (Hoffeld 430-440).
One of the treatises of the Mishnah)2 seems to have borrowed the image of the
ancient dark goddess, portraying her as a wind evil spirit, a night spirit or a demon
with long hair, wings and a human face, of whom women must beware. Like the
terrible screech-owl of Is 34:14, Lilith dwelt in the ruins or lurked in the deserts,
waiting to lure and doom young men who travelled alone (Ber. 3a, Shab. 151b, Er.
100b, Nid. 24b; Zohar I, XVI 34b))3.
In the Middle Ages, an anonymous writing dated of the Xth century (Le Zohar 667), known as the Alphabet of Ben Sira)4, gave a story of Lilith, whose myth
entered the Jewish folklore, probably explaining the widespread custom of using
amulets in babies cradles for protection against her powers.
The story goes as follows: Lilith was Adams first wife, created from the earth
at the same time as him (Gn 1:27-28). They came to fight about the manner of
their intercourse, because Adam refused to lie beneath her, saying that she was
only fit to be in the bottom position, for he was to be the superior one. Lilith did
not accept such statement and reminded him that they both had been created at
the same time, from the same material, and none was to be superior to the other.
However, her husband would not listen and insisted upon his superiority over her.
Lilith was extremely angry; in her rage, she pronounced the Ineffable Name and
flew off into the air. Adam turned to God complaining of her behaviour and asked
him to get her back to him, and the Lord complied, sending three angels after her.

Ghuls (from which comes the modern word ghoul) were supernatural beings who were cannibals.
The female ghul opposed to travel and often appeared to men in the desert and occasionally prostituted
herself to them (Sykes 84).

Hebrew compilation containing the Sages oral traditions about the Pentateuchs normative rules, dated
about 200 c.e.

The works cited are treatises of the Mishnah: Berakhot (1st division), Shabbat and Erubin (2nd division) and
Niddah (6th divison). They may be found on-line in the Reformatted Soncino Talmud version (<http://
halakhah.com/ indexrst.html>). The Zohar is a cabbalistic writing that became known in the late XIIIth
century, attributed to Moses de Leon and considered by G. Scholem as one of the most notable productions of Jewish mystical literature (Les Grands Courants de la Mystique Juive 219-220). I used the edition by
Mopsik (1981). A version may be found online at <http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/zdm/index.htm>.

The Alphabet of Sirach. [n.p.], [n.d.]: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphabet_of_Sirach> (accessed

April, 2002).

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They caught up with her in Egypt, in the Red Sea, an abode of demons, and
urged her to return. She refused to go back and the angels threatened her that if
she did not return, they would drown her. Even so, she stubbornly stuck to her
decision, and declared that she would rather have that punishment than go back
to Adam, and that she had been created to harm new-born infants. However, she
made an oath in the Lords name, that whenever she saw the image or the names
of those three angels in an amulet, she would lose her power over the infant. So
the angels returned to God empty-handed, and God had to create another woman
for Adam, but this time he made her from one of the mans ribs, certainly to avoid
more misunderstandings or disputes, thus indulging with his sentiments of supremacy over his wife.
In most authors who recount this tale, unlike the Alphabets text publicly
available, the angels threaten to kill one hundred of the demon children Lilith
bore every day. This could be explained by the existence of later revisions of that
work, which were known in Europe in the eleventh century and included a description of a sexual relationship between Lilith and a great demon, which was
later identified as Samael (Dan 17-40).
Graves (82) suggests that this legend bears traces that Lilith was a former
fertility goddess, and Ginzberg (V.65-68) comments that the Lilith of Ben Sira
merges with the earlier accounts of her as an ancient demon, who killed infants
and endangered women in childbirth, this later version of the myth having many
parallels in Christian literature from Byzantine and later periods.
Developments of this legend are found in cabbalistic writings, namely in the
Treatise on the Left Emanation, by R. Isacc ha-Kohen, and in the Zohar, where Lilith
became the wife of Samael, the angel of death, hence the Queen of Darkness,
mother to winds and demons. It is interesting to observe that, after her flight from
Paradise, cabbalistic Judaism has turned Lilith into a powerful demon, with some
curious features that place her very close to God. Considering Gods two sides,
rigor and mercy, and the balance there has to exist between them, cabbalists hypostatized the Lords presence, calling it the Shekinah, Gods feminine trait. Lilith
is conceived as the counter-image of the Shekinah; while the latter is mother to
Metatron, the greatest power in the angelic world, Lilith is the mother of Samaels
demons. Sometimes, because of Israels sins, the Shekinah falls to the Lords other
side (his dark side, in which rigor prevails over mercy), and whenever that happens, Lilith receives an influx of life in her stead (Scholem1 163-169).
Since this myth was devised to underline the patriarchs authority in Jewish
culture, I would now look briefly into the relations between men and women in
biblical times. It is known, as Kawashima (1-22) remarks (though underlining the
complex different pictures given in the Bible of the status of women in the Israelite family), that in the biblical legal system women possessed almost no rights
and, as far as sexual relationships are concerned, those were lawful only under
the blessing of marriage, whereas the power of consent resided in their father
and, once married, in their husband. Marriages were usually arranged between
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the young couples parents, and love was clearly not a relevant motive for such an
alliance to take place.
Nonetheless, husband and wife were expected not only to share their lives in
accordance with the Torah, but they were bound to be friends, accomplices and
share an intimate bond of trust and respect, as well as of attention for each others
needs and tastes. A very good example of this can be found in the movie Fiddler on
the Roof, where the husband, at a certain point, dares to ask his middle-aged wife
if she loves him. The question is so unusual that the wife simply dismisses it with
youre a fool!. Only when he insists most seriously does she understand that he
really means it, and starts to ponder the question. She then makes a description of
what their life had been for twenty-five years: Ive washed your clothes, cooked
your meals, cleaned your house, given you children and again shows her surprise at such an unprecedented inquiry: After twenty-five years, why talk about
love right now? Therefore, most definitely, love was not an issue when it came to
marriage, or rather, the thought, the idea of love was not present, it almost seemed
to be an oddity; when it came to practice, though, it often proved to be capital, and
this Jewish couple will come to this exact conclusion.
Going back to our couple, the husband, who is facing some hard decisions
concerning his own daughters marriage, presses his wife to answer his question,
and she bursts out: Im your wife!, as if that statement could settle the matter.
Again, the husband, patiently, urges her to answer him, and again she has to make
an effort to take it seriously: Do I love him?... She then resumes her recollection,
this time talking to herself: For twenty-five years Ive lived with him, fought with
him, starved with him; for twenty-five years my bed is his; if thats not love, what
is? and concludes, musingly: I suppose I do. Then I suppose I love you too, the
husband finally states. The conclusion they both reach witnesses the little thought
that was given to such apparent trifles.
Rabbinic haggadahR5 is full of stories and examples of couples who came to
the rabbis asking for help and advice, showing that their concern in maintaining
their marriage in good harmony went far beyond the miwahR6 of procreation. In
the midrash Shir-Hashirim Rabbah, for example, a story is told of a couple who had
lived together for ten years without having any children, which clearly was a major
problem and usually led to a divorce. Instead, the two spouses were so attached to
each other that they could not separate, and the story stresses the value of love between them and the actions they took in order to maintain their relationship, even
with that serious handicap that they did not know whether they would eventually
overcome (Atzmon 23-24).
The Talmud actually enhances the wifes role in a good, sound, marital partnership and gives paramount importance to sexual relationship between married
couples. The Halakhah ruled that intimate relationship between husband and wife
5

From the Hebrew root nagad, say, one of the two primary components of rabbinic tradition, the other
being halakhah, usually translated as Jewish law (Wald 454).

Gods commandment.

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should happen only by mutual consent: A man is forbidden to compel his wife to
the [marital] obligation; Whosoever compels his wife to the [marital] obligation
will have unworthy children (Er. 100b). If one of the spouses felt any animosity against the other for whatever reason, they should restrain from having sexual
intercourse, and the same should happen if, for instance, the wife was asleep or
drunk. This tenet, dictated by simple common sense, was certainly meant for
those cases in which the husband might feel he could use his wife as an object of
his own, for him to play or use at pleasure. It was the way to ensure that the wife
would be given the same regard as her husband felt he deserved, and brought her
to the same level as himself, granting her the right to deny her caresses to a pressing husband who might not respect her particular mood at a particular time. This
allows us to consider that the rabbis disavowed the idea shared by many men, then
as even today, of mens superiority over their wives, at least in this specific matter.
One may then support Liliths contention in her famous argument with Adam,
when she feels it is not fair that he should impose as a rightful regulation the exact
way they should enact when having sexual intercourse.
It is clear that we stand here before an issue of pride. The classical story told
to children about the fall of humanity teaches that man was mad enough to try
to equal his creator (although the greatest blame is put upon the woman, who
enticed him to do so), pride being the bait: the wish to be like God, as powerful
and wise as he was. In the case of Lilith and Adam, pride and self-appreciation led
to chaos. Adam stated bluntly that he was superior to Lilith and that she should
submit to him. She was hurt by his arrogance and, being equally conceited, for
both were made the same way, by the same crafter, simply refused to abide by
his laws, since she could recognize him no authority that would justify his claims.
Had he been clever enough to ask her to humour him, stating his preferences and
pleading with her to play along with his liking, now and then making allowance for
what she was partial to, he would perhaps have been able to keep her by his side.
Such as it was, his intolerance gave way to an evil plight with serious consequences
for mankind.
In fact, Lilith was so angered by her thick-headed husband that she dared
to speak the name of the Lord, the Ineffable Name, as recorded in the tales that
recount us the story. This shows us that, in the beginning, the Name could be
pronounced, at least in exceptional circumstances. However, it availed her no help
from her creator, so she chose to depart, never to come back.
It is odd that she should have chosen such a path. It was Adam who first asserted his superiority over her (now, the Lord had not given him permission to do
so) and he was the one clearly trying to submit her to his will. So he seemed to be
the one needing a reprimand, so that he could come to his senses. Why did she not
kick him out of Paradise, until he did? She probably felt he was being unfair and
she was offended, for obviously his love for her was not enough for him to understand that he was wronging her. When she realized that, she felt she could not live

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for eternity with someone who did not appreciate her as she deserved, and as he
should, for he had been created for her, as she for him.
Why did she not ask the Lord to be the judge between them? There is more
than one answer to this riddle. First, the Lord is not a woman, and she might have
feared that he could take her mans party. Second, perhaps she was so hurt by
Adams attitude that she could not bear the idea of having him in his life after such
display of disrespect towards her. Finally, and this was perhaps the most important
reason, she must have felt that her creator had failed her. Why had he not gone to
her defense, why had he not rebuked her smug husband for wanting to subdue
her and had not established clear rules for both of them, so that none would even
think of trying to best the other? How could the God of justice bear to watch her
husband try to force and humiliate her, and not interfere on her behalf ?
This was what triggered Liliths rebellion against the Lord and this was what
made her decide to leave. Strangely enough, we observe that she didnt just leave,
she flew away, and Adam did not go to her pursuit. We could ask why not, since the
tale clearly shows that he wanted her back at all costs. Apparently he could not,
otherwise he would have. Instead, he turns to God and complains: Sovereign of
the universe!, the woman you gave me has run away.
The fact that Adam required Gods intervention instead of chasing Lilith
gives us, therefore, an interesting piece of information: unlike Lilith, he could not
fly. This seems impossible, since they had been made from the same dust, in the
same way, and both were equals. What made the difference, then? We may infer
that the uttering of the Ineffable Name gave Lilith the power she needed to do
it, and similarly we may conclude that the man could have done the same to go
after her. However, he did not, but disturbed God in his distress. This means that
Liliths action was bold and reckless, and that she crossed a boundary that she was
not meant to the same put into words in the second commandment given to
Moses: you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; for the Lord will
not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain (Ex 20:7). Liliths recklessness
is twofold: her wings symbolize her animalism, but, on the other hand, they stand
for knowledge and moral elevation (Bitton 118).
Anyway, Lilith cast herself away so far from Gods reach, both in distance
and by means of her deeds, that he did not summon or address her directly, as
he did when talking to Adam or, later on, to Eve, but he sent three of his angels
to bring her back. Once again, we may ask why God accepted to bring Lilith
back to Paradise, after she had fled so defiantly, making ill use of his Name. Was
he hoping she would repent of her sedition towards her God and longing to
forgive her and have her back under his wing? Was he sorry for Adam, seeing
him lost and lonely without his mate? Or was he just upset because his creation
had proved more independent or self-assured than he had ever foreseen? And I
have still another question: was Lilith Adams soulmate, or rather his bodymate?
Gods first intention seemed to be the latter, according to Gn 2:24: and they
become one flesh. Indeed, in such way Adam seems to have felt it, for the argu738

ment was about the position he preferred when mating, and only afterwards did
he bring forth his superiority issue.
The fact is when the angels reach Lilith, she is already out of range, as far as
Paradise and heaven are concerned. The angels menace of drowning her is void,
and in fact she so understands it; it seemed unlikely they would dare to destroy
Gods creation. If, then, we consider the later versions of the myth, in which the
angels threaten her with the death of her children, we infer that she has already
gone over to the accuser, Samael, and that she bears the multitude of his children,
the winds and demons that haunt the world. Even so, they would take her back
with them: then it looks like she could still be restored to grace, and God would
still be willing to pardon her, let alone her desolate husband. In spite of Gods
ever forgiving mercy, however, Lilith persists with a downright refusal of his love
and indulgence: rather than submitting or risking disappointment again, she proclaims her freedom and states her newly acquired power of fright and destruction,
although she is forced to recognize her creators supremacy as she agrees to make
the pact with his messengers.
Personifying a projection or reification of human fears and desires, Lilith was
looked, until very recently, as an evil, wanton creature whose sole aim is terror and
destruction. More than that, she dwelled in the collective imagery as the prototype of foulness and indecency (Bitton 114). It might be said that it was because
her story was written by men, with the virtuous aim of educating women. A perfect example is found in one of Victor Hugos poems, where the story we know
comes to be reversed and Lilith is a somber outcast, rejected by Adam due to her
quarrelsome, proud stubbornness and sent by him into a dark cloud of shadow
and dream, where she became a night wraith:
Femmes! lhomme est le roi; tremblez, et songez bien / la sombre Lilith, ne
avant ve; / Adam la renvoya dans lombre et dans le rve; / Lilith rpudie est
un spectre de nuit. / Lilith tait lorgueil, la querelle et le bruit; / [...] Elle roule
jamais dans la noire nue.[7

We had to wait until the XIXth century, when emotions overpowered reason
and the reasons of the heart were above every other reason, to look at a different
image of Lilith. She continues to be dark, it is true, she is treacherous, a power of
the underworld, but she has new features that had been overlooked. She is pitiful, and her sorrow and misery are chanted, along with her webs of deceit. She is
beautiful beyond measure, her long hair being one of her most sexy attributes;
she creeps into the minds and awakens deep sentiments of passion and even love,
Gods ultimate weapon. There we may look at the close resemblance between the
Lord and the woman he created, indeed in his own image, not dreaming that she
would one day taunt him and proclaim her boundless freedom.[8
7

La Fin de Satan. Hetzel, 1886.

Some examples are poems by D. G. Rossetti and R. Browning, as well as paintings by Rossetti and John Collier.

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From an etiological goddess, symbolizing the violence of nature and of the

elementary powers bringing forth draught, disease and all kinds of evil that afflict humanity, Lilith became a pure spirit devised by God to be the mother of
men who, through pride and arrogance, turned out to be the mother of demons
instead, a symbol of sexual perversion and a fearsome power of darkness.
Power is the key-word here: Lilith had indeed an unusual amount of power,
first as the wife of man, then as an independent being who dared to say no to her
partner and to her creator, and ultimately as the companion of Gods opponent,
the Queen of Dread who spread terror and misery into the world. As long as she
kept on sweeping away life, that is, killing new-born babies and dooming the souls
of careless men, the angel of death granted her dominion over the whole land
without hindrance. She was the mistress of her own deeds and decisions with the
one, tiny exception of that old pact she had once made with Gods messengers.
Unreciprocated love, from both her husband and her creator, was what led
Lilith to act as she did, and the measure of her wickedness was only matched by
the measure of her anguish when she felt that they had failed her. Her world was
shattered, her reason foundered; she had to begin anew and forge herself a brand
new way of life, in such a manner that she would never risk to be let down again.
She is the first woman to have allowed her emotions to meddle with such a simple commandment as to be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth (Gn 1:28).
The Lord gave no special instructions about sentiment, or feelings, but only bid
Adam and Lilith to healthily breed, and be happy among all the things he had
given them. She was who exceeded his directions by far, and not only she brought
on fright and chaos onto the world, but she also added new attributes to humanity, the emotions, which she displayed and let loose, thus giving a new meaning to
relations between men and, above all, between husband and wife.
What distinguished Lilith from all the other beings created by God with the
one exception of her second husband, Samael - was that she was brave enough to
use the full strength of the power bestowed on her, when she was not supposed to
do so, and even test it beyond every reasonable prevision. The force that drove her
to such extremes was love, the same love quoted in the Bible in Song 8:6: [...] For
love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a
raging flame. God had bestowed upon Lilith his double nature, his bright side as
his dark side. Thus she contained the beauty and power of creation, the strength
of bliss and the arcane knowledge and wisdom that came to be the motor of so
many works produced by human creativity. She turned these attributes to raging hatred and destruction, thus wasting the harmony the Lord had devised for
his creation. Lilith personifies the sitra ahra (the other side) inherited from the
creator, embodying the darkest feelings and emotions of men, while keeping the
beauty and power of the bright side a whole Gods image on earth.

740

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