Lilith - Wikipedia

Female entity in Near Eastern mythology
Lilith
(1887) by
John Collier
Lilith
(;
Hebrew
לִילִית
romanized
Līlīṯ
; also spelled
Lilit
Lilitu
, or
Lilis
) is a feminine figure in
Mesopotamian
and
Jewish mythology
. According to accounts in the
Talmud
she is a primordial
she-demon
Based on Medieval Jewish folklore, Lilith is said to have fled from the
Garden of Eden
because she did not want to submit to Adam.
Lilith does not appear in the
Hebrew Bible
or any other biblical source, although her name is derived from a single word in the
Book of Isaiah
, the meaning of which is debated by scholars.
She first appears in
Mandaean
and Jewish sources from
late antiquity
(500 AD onward), in
historiolas
incantations
that incorporate a short mythic story – that give partial descriptions of her.
She is mentioned in the
Babylonian Talmud
(at
Eruvin
100b,
Niddah
24b,
Shabbat
151b,
Bava Batra
73a), and in the
Zohar
§ Leviticus 19a as "a hot fiery female who first cohabited with man".
Some
rabbinic authorities
, including
Maimonides
and
Menachem Meiri
, reject the existence of Lilith.
The name Lilith seems related to the masculine Akkadian word
lilû
and its female variants
lilītu
and
ardat lilî
. The
lil-
root is shared by the Hebrew word
lilit
appearing in
Isaiah 34:14
, which is thought to be a night bird by modern scholars such as Judit M. Blair. In
Mesopotamian religion
according to the
cuneiform
texts of
Sumer
Assyria
, and
Babylonia
lilû
are a class of demonic spirits, consisting of adolescents who died before they could bear children.
10
11
Many have also connected her to the Mesopotamian demon
Lamashtu
, who shares similar traits and a similar position in mythology to Lilith.
12
13
14
In some Jewish folklore, such as the
Alphabet of Sirach
c.
700–1000 AD
), Lilith appears as Adam's first wife, who was created at the same time and from the same clay as Adam.
The legend of Lilith developed extensively during the
Middle Ages
, in the tradition of
Aggadah
, the
Zohar
, and
Jewish mysticism
17
For example, in the 13th-century writings of
Isaac ben Jacob ha-Cohen
, Lilith left Adam after she refused to become subservient to him and then would not return to the
Garden of Eden
after she had coupled with the
archangel
Samael
18
Interpretations of Lilith found in later Jewish materials are plentiful, but little information has survived relating to the Sumerian, Assyrian, and Babylonian views of this class of demons. Recent scholarship has disputed the relevance of two sources previously used to connect the Jewish
lilith
to an Akkadian
lilītu
– the
Gilgamesh
appendix and the
Arslan Tash amulets
19
(see
below
for discussion of these two problematic sources).
In contrast, some scholars, such as Lowell K. Handy, hold the view that though Lilith derives from Mesopotamian
demonology
, evidence of the Hebrew Lilith being present in the sources frequently cited – the Sumerian Gilgamesh fragment and the Sumerian incantation from Arshlan-Tash being two – is scant, if present at all.
18
: 174
In Hebrew-language texts, the term
lilith
or
lilit
(translated as "night creatures", "night monster", "night hag", or "
screech owl
") first occurs in a list of animals in
Isaiah 34
20
The Isaiah 34:14 Lilith reference does not appear in most common Bible translations such as
KJV
and
NIV
. Commentators and interpreters often envision the figure of Lilith as a dangerous demon of the night, who is sexually wanton, and who steals babies in the darkness.
21
Currently there is no scholarly consensus, with some adhering to the animalistic interpretation, whereas others claim 34:14 is referencing a literal demon or a category of demons falling under the specification of "lilith".
22
Historically, certain prominent Jewish rabbis in Talmudic texts feared the likes of liliths, some to such an extent that they recommended men not sleep in a home alone, as any who do would be "seized by Lilith."
23
Jewish
incantation bowls
and amulets from Mesopotamia from the first to the eighth centuries identify Lilith as a female demon and provide the first visual depictions of her.
21
The said amulets were often symbolic divorce papers, warding off a given lilith that was thought to be haunting one's house or family.
24
In the
Akkadian
language of Assyria and Babylonia, the terms
lili
and
līlītu
mean spirits. Some uses of
līlītu
are listed in the
Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago
(CAD, 1956, L.190), in
Wolfram von Soden
's
Akkadisches Handwörterbuch
(AHw, p. 553), and
Reallexikon der Assyriologie
(RLA, p. 47).
25
The
Sumerian
female demons
lili
have no etymological relation to Akkadian
lilu
, "evening".
26
Archibald Sayce
(1882)
27
page needed
considered that the Hebrew and the earlier Akkadian names are derived from
Proto-Semitic
Charles Fossey
(1902) has this literally translating to "female night being/demon", although
cuneiform
inscriptions from
Mesopotamia
exist where
Līlīt
and
Līlītu
refers to disease-bearing wind spirits.
28
29
Mesopotamian mythology
edit
The spirit in the tree in the Gilgamesh cycle
edit
Samuel Noah Kramer
(1932, published 1938)
30
translated
ki-sikil-lil-la-ke
as "Lilith" in Tablet XII of the
Epic of Gilgamesh
dated
c.
600 BC
. Tablet XII is not part of the
Epic of Gilgamesh,
but is a later Assyrian Akkadian translation of the latter part of the
Sumerian
Epic of Gilgamesh
31
The
ki-sikil-lil-la-ke
is associated with a serpent and a
zu bird
In
Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld
, a
huluppu tree
grows in
Inanna
's garden in
Uruk
, whose wood she plans to use to build a new throne. After ten years of growth, she comes to harvest it and finds a serpent living at its base, a Zu bird raising young in its crown, and that a
ki-sikil-lil-la-ke
made a house in its trunk. Gilgamesh is said to have killed the snake, and then the zu bird flew away to the mountains with its young, while the
ki-sikil-lil-la-ke
fearfully destroys its house and runs for the forest.
32
Identification of the
ki-sikil-lil-la-ke
as Lilith is stated in the
Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible
(1999).
34
Suggested translations for the Tablet XII spirit in the tree include
ki-sikil
as "sacred place",
lil
as "spirit", and
lil-la-ke
as "water spirit",
35
but also simply "owl", given that the
lil
is building a home in the trunk of the tree.
36
A connection between the Gilgamesh
ki-sikil-lil-la-ke
and the Jewish Lilith was rejected on textual grounds by Sergio Ribichini (1978).
37
Burney Relief
, Babylon (1800–1750 BC)
Kramer's translation of the
Gilgamesh
fragment was used by
Henri Frankfort
(1937)
38
and
Emil Kraeling
(1937) to support identification of a woman with wings and bird-feet in the disputed
Burney Relief
as related to Lilith. Frankfort and Kraeling identified the figure in the relief with Lilith.
39
Today, the identification of the Burney Relief with Lilith is questioned.
40
Modern research has
identified
the figure as one of the main goddesses of the Mesopotamian pantheons, most probably
Ereshkigal
41
But the figure is more generally identified as the goddess of love and war:
42
Thorkild Jacobsen
identified the figure as
Inanna
in an analysis based on the existence of symbols and attributes commonly recognized to the goddess and on textual evidence.
43
The Arslan Tash amulets
edit
The Arslan Tash amulets are limestone plaques discovered in 1933 at
Arslan Tash
, the authenticity of which is disputed.
William F. Albright
Theodor H. Gaster
44
and others, accepted the amulets as a pre-Jewish source which shows that the name Lilith already existed in the 7th century BC but
Torczyner
(1947) identified the amulets as a later Jewish source.
45
Many have alternatively drawn connections between Lilith and the Mesopotamian demon
Lamashtu
, due to their similar position and traits in both mythologies.
12
13
14
46
In the Hebrew Bible
edit
The word
lilit
(or
lilith
) appears only once in the
Hebrew Bible
, in a prophecy regarding the fate of
Edom
It appears in the middle of a list of eight nouns, most of which appear elsewhere in the biblical texts (so are better documented) and are known to refer to creatures. However
lilit
and
qippoz
appear only in this list, making them
hapax legomena
with unclear meaning.
47
The interpretation of
lilit
by scholars and translators is often guided by a decision about the complete list of eight creatures as a whole.
48
The
New American Bible
translation of this passage in
Isaiah 34
reads:
(12) Her nobles shall be no more, nor shall kings be proclaimed there; all her princes are gone. (13) Her castles shall be overgrown with thorns, her fortresses with thistles and briers. She shall become an abode for jackals and a haunt for ostriches. (14) Wildcats shall meet with desert beasts, satyrs shall call to one another; There shall the Lilith repose, and find for herself a place to rest. (15) There the hoot owl shall nest and lay eggs, hatch them out and gather them in her shadow; There shall the kites assemble, none shall be missing its mate. (16) Look in the book of the LORD and read: No one of these shall be lacking, For the mouth of the LORD has ordered it, and His spirit shall gather them there. (17) It is He who casts the lot for them, and with His hands He marks off their shares of her; They shall possess her forever, and dwell there from generation to generation.
In the
Masoretic Text
,וּפָגְשׁוּ צִיִּים אֶת-אִיִּים, וְשָׂעִיר עַל-רֵעֵהוּ יִקְרָא; אַךְ-שָׁם הִרְגִּיעָה
לִּילִית
, וּמָצְאָה לָהּ מָנוֹח
up̄āḡəšu ṣiyyim eṯ-ʾiyyim, wəśāʿir ʿal-rēʿēhu yiqrā; ʾaḵ-šam hirgiʿā
liliṯ
, umāṣʾā lāh mānoḥ
34:14 "And shall-meet wildcats
49
with jackals
the goat he-calls his- fellow
lilit
lilith
) she-rests and she-finds rest
34:15 there she-shall-nest the great-owl, and she-lays-(eggs), and she-hatches, and she-gathers under her-shadow:
hawks [kites,
gledes
] also they-gather, every one with its mate.
In the
Dead Sea Scrolls
, among the 19 fragments of
Isaiah
found at
Qumran
, the
Great Isaiah Scroll
(1Q1Isa) in 34:14 renders the creature as plural
liliyyot
(or
liliyyoth
).
51
Eberhard Schrader
(1875)
52
and
Moritz Abraham Levy
(1855)
53
suggest that Lilith was a demon of the night, known also by the
Jewish exiles in Babylon
. Schrader's and Levy's view is therefore partly dependent on a later dating of
Deutero-Isaiah
to the 6th century BC and the presence of Jews in
Baghdad
in the
Neo-Babylonian Empire
, which would coincide with the possible references to the
Lilītu
in Babylonian
demonology
. However, this view is challenged by Judit M. Blair, who argues that the context indicates
unclean animals
The
Septuagint
translates both the reference to Lilith and the word for jackals or "wild beasts of the island" within the same verse into Greek as
onokentauros
, apparently assuming them to refer to the same creatures and omitting "wildcats/wild beasts of the desert." Under this reading, instead of the wildcats or desert beasts meeting with the jackals or island beasts, the goat or "satyr" crying "to his fellow" and lilith or "screech owl" resting "there", it is the goat or "satyr", translated as
daimonia
"demons", and the jackals or island beasts "
onocentaurs
" meeting with each other and crying "one to the other" and the latter resting there.
The early 5th-century
Vulgate
translated the same word as
lamia
54
55
et occurrent daemonia onocentauris et pilosus clamabit alter ad alterum ibi cubavit lamia et invenit sibi requiem
— Isaiah (Isaias Propheta) 34.14, Vulgate
The translation is, "And demons shall meet with monsters, and one hairy one shall cry out to another; there the lamia has lain down and found rest for herself".
Wycliffe's Bible
(1395) preserves the Latin rendering
lamia
Isa 34:15
Lamya
schal ligge there, and foond rest there to hir silf.
The
Bishops' Bible
of
Matthew Parker
(1568) from the Latin:
Isa 34:14 there shall the
Lamia
lye and haue her lodgyng.
Douay–Rheims Bible
(1582/1610) also preserves the Latin rendering
lamia
Isa 34:14 And demons and monsters shall meet, and the hairy ones shall cry out one to another, there hath the lamia lain down, and found rest for herself.
The
Geneva Bible
of
William Whittingham
(1587) from the Hebrew:
Isa 34:14 and the
screech owl
shall rest there, and shall finde for her selfe a quiet dwelling.
Then the
King James Version
(1611):
Isa 34:14 The wild
beasts
of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the
island
, and the
satyr
shall cry to his fellow; the
screech owl
also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest.
The "screech owl" translation of the King James Version is, together with the "owl" (
yanšup
, probably a water bird) in 34:11 and the "great owl" (
qippoz
, translated in other versions as a snake) of 34:15, an attempt to render the passage by choosing suitable animals for difficult to translate Hebrew words.
Later translations include:
night-owl (Young, 1898)
night spectre (Rotherham,
Emphasized Bible
, 1902)
night
monster
ASV
, 1901;
JPS
1917, Good News Translation, 1992;
NASB
, 1995)
vampires
(Moffatt Translation, 1922;
Knox Bible
, 1950)
night
hag
Revised Standard Version
, 1947)
Lilith (
Jerusalem Bible
, 1966) (
New Jerusalem Bible
, 1985)
(the) lilith (
New American Bible
, 1970)
Lilith (
New Revised Standard Version
, 1989)
(the) night-demon Lilith, evil and rapacious (
The Message (Bible)
, Peterson, 1993)
night creature (
New International Version
, 1978;
New King James Version
, 1982;
New Living Translation
, 1996,
Today's New International Version
nightjar
New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures
, 1984)
night bird (
English Standard Version
, 2001)
night-bird (
NASB
, 2020)
nocturnal animals (
New English Translation
(NET Bible))
Major sources in Jewish tradition regarding Lilith in chronological order include:
The Dead Sea Scrolls contain one indisputable reference to Lilith in
Songs of the Sage
(4Q510–511)
56
fragment 1:
And I, the Instructor, proclaim His glorious splendour so as to frighten and to te[rrify] all the spirits of the destroying angels; spirits of the
bastards
, demons, Lilith, howlers, and [desert dwellers] ... and those which fall upon men, without warning, to lead them astray from a spirit of understanding, and to make their heart and their minds desolate during the present dominion of wickedness and predetermined time of humiliations for the Sons of Lig[ht], by the guilt of the ages of [those] smitten by iniquity – not for eternal destruction, [bu]t for an era of humiliation for transgression.
57
Photographic reproduction of the
Great Isaiah Scroll
, which contains a reference to plural
liliyyot
As with the Massoretic text of Isaiah 34:14, and therefore unlike the plural
liliyyot
(or
liliyyoth
) in the Isaiah scroll 34:14,
lilit
in 4Q510 is singular, this liturgical text both cautions against the presence of supernatural malevolence and assumes familiarity with Lilith; distinct from the biblical text, however, this passage does not function under any socio-political agenda, but instead serves in the same capacity as An Exorcism (4Q560) and Songs to Disperse Demons (11Q11).
58
The text is thus, to a community "deeply involved in the realm of demonology",
59
an exorcism hymn.
Joseph M. Baumgarten (1991) identified the unnamed woman of
The Seductress
(4Q184) as related to the female demon.
59
60
However, John J. Collins
61
regards this identification as "intriguing" but that it is "safe to say" that (4Q184) is based on the strange woman of Proverbs 2, 5, 7, 9:
Her house sinks down to death,
And her course leads to the shades.
All who go to her cannot return
And find again the paths of life.
Her gates are gates of death, and from the entrance of the house
She sets out towards Sheol.
None of those who enter there will ever return,
And all who possess her will descend to the Pit.
Early Rabbinic literature
edit
Lilith does not occur in the
Mishnah
. The
Jerusalem Talmud
contains one mention in the 1523
Bomberg
edition (Shabbat 6:9), which is not supported by any manuscript.
62
The word "lilit" appears five times in the
Babylonian Talmud
"Rav Judah citing
Samuel
ruled: If an abortion has the likeness of
lilit
, its
mother
is unclean by reason of the
birth
, [for] it is a child except that it has wings." (b.
Niddah
24b)
63
"[Expounding upon the curses of womanhood] In a
baraita
it was taught: She grows her hair like
lilit
, sits when urinating like an animal, and serves as a bolster for her husband." (b.
Eruvin
100b)
"For a pricking sensation:
he should bring an Arrow of Lilith
and upturn it, and pour water on it and drink it. Alternatively he can take water of which a dog has drunk at night, but he must take care that it has not been exposed." (b.
Gittin
69b).
Rabbah
said: I saw
Hormin
the son of Lilith running on the parapet of the wall of
Mahoza
, and a rider, galloping below on horseback, could not overtake him. Once, they saddled for him two mules which stood on two bridges of the Rognag;
and he jumped from one to the other, backward and forward, holding in his hands two cups of wine, pouring alternately from one to the other, and not a drop fell to the ground. This was a day of 'They mount up to the heavens, they go down again to the depths', until word reached the house of the king
and they killed him." (b.
Bava Batra
73a-b).
"R. Hanina said: One may not sleep in a house alone, and whoever sleeps in a house alone is seized by
lilit
." (b.
Shabbat
151b)
The above statement by Hanina may be related to the belief that nocturnal emissions engendered the birth of demons:
"R. Jeremiah b. Eleazar further stated: In all those years [130 years after his expulsion from the Garden of Eden] during which Adam was under the ban he begot
ghosts
and male demons and female demons [or night demons], for it is said in Scripture: And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years and begot a son in own likeness, after his own image, from which it follows that until that time he did not beget after his own image ... When he saw that through him death was ordained as punishment he spent a hundred and thirty years in
fasting
, severed connection with his wife for a hundred and thirty years, and wore clothes of
fig
on his body for a hundred and thirty years. – That statement [of R. Jeremiah] was made in reference to the
semen
which he emitted accidentally." (b.
Eruvin
18b)
The
Midrash Rabbah
collection contains two references to Lilith. The first one is present in
Genesis Rabbah
22:7 and 18:4: according to Rabbi Yehuda beRabbi, God proceeded to create a second Eve for Adam, after Lilith had to return to dust.
64
However, to be exact the said passages do not employ the Hebrew word
lilith
itself and instead speak of "the first Eve" (
Hebrew
חַוָּה הָרִאשׁוֹנָה
romanized
ḥawwā hārīšōnā
, analogical to
Adam ha-Rishon
"the first Adam"). Although in the medieval Hebrew literature and folklore, especially that reflected on the protective amulets of various kinds, "The First Eve" was identified with Lilith, one should remain careful in transposing this equation to the Late Antiquity.
65
The second mention of Lilith, this time explicit, is present in
Numbers Rabbah
16:25. The midrash develops the story of Moses's plea after God expresses anger at the bad report of the spies. Moses responds to a threat by God that He will destroy the Israelite people. Moses pleads before God, that God should not be like Lilith who kills her own children.
65
Moses said:
[God,] do not do it [i.e. destroy the Israelite people], that the nations of the world may not regard you as a cruel Being and say: 'The Generation of the Flood came and He destroyed them, the Generation of the Separation came and He destroyed them, the Sodomites and the Egyptians came and He destroyed them, and these also, whom he called My son, My firstborn (Ex. IV, 22), He is now destroying! As that Lilith who, when she finds nothing else, turns upon her own children, so Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land... He hath slain them' (Num. XIV, 16)!
66
Incantation bowl
with an
Aramaic
inscription around a demon, from
Nippur
, Mesopotamia, 6–7th century
An individual Lilith, along with
Bagdana
"king of the lilits", is one of the demons to feature prominently in protective spells in the eighty surviving Jewish occult
incantation bowls
from
Sassanid Empire
Babylon (4th–6th century AD) with influence from Iranian culture.
[47]
67
These bowls were buried upside down below the structure of the house or on the land of the house, in order to trap the demon or demoness.
68
Almost every house was found to have such protective bowls against demons and demonesses.
68
69
The centre of the inside of the bowl depicts Lilith, or the male form, Lilit. Surrounding the image is writing in spiral form; the writing often begins at the centre and works its way to the edge.
70
The writing is most commonly scripture or references to the Talmud. The incantation bowls which have been analysed, are inscribed in the following languages,
Jewish Babylonian Aramaic
Syriac
, Mandaic,
Middle Persian
, and Arabic. Some bowls are written in a false script which has no meaning.
67
The correctly worded incantation bowl was capable of warding off Lilith or Lilit from the household. Lilith had the power to transform into a woman's physical features, seduce her husband, and conceive a child. However, Lilith would become hateful toward the children born of the husband and wife and would seek to kill them. Similarly, Lilit would transform into the physical features of the husband, seduce the wife, she would give birth to a child. It would become evident that the child was not fathered by the husband, and the child would be looked down on. Lilit would seek revenge on the family by killing the children born to the husband and wife.
71
Key features of the depiction of Lilith or Lilit include the following. The figure is often depicted with arms and legs chained, indicating the control of the family over the demon(ess). The demon(ess) is depicted in a frontal position with the whole face showing. The eyes are very large, as well as the hands (if depicted). The demon(ess) is entirely static.
67
One bowl contains the following inscription commissioned from a Jewish occultist to protect a woman called Rashnoi and her husband from Lilith:
Thou liliths, male lili and female lilith,
hag
and ghool, I adjure you by the Strong One of Abraham, by the Rock of Isaac, by the
Shaddai
of Jacob, by
Yah
Ha-Shem by Yah his memorial, to turn away from this Rashnoi b. M. and from Geyonai b. M. her husband. [Here is] your divorce and writ and letter of separation, sent through holy angels. Amen, Amen, Selah, Halleluyah! (
image
— Excerpt from translation in
Aramaic Incantation Texts from Nippur
72
Alphabet of Ben Sira
edit
Lilith
, illustration by Carl Poellath from 1886 or earlier
The
pseudepigraphical
73
8th–10th centuries
Alphabet of Ben Sira
is considered to be the oldest form of the story of Lilith as Adam's first wife. Whether this particular tradition is older is not known. Scholars tend to date the Alphabet between the 8th and 10th centuries AD. The work has been characterized by some scholars as
satirical
, but
Ginzberg
concluded it was meant seriously.
74
In the text, an
amulet
is inscribed with the names of three
angels
Senoy
Sansenoy
, and
Semangelof
) and placed around the neck of
newborn
boys
in order to protect them from the
lilin
until their
circumcision
75
The amulets used against Lilith that were thought to derive from this tradition are, in fact, dated as being much older.
76
The concept of Eve having a predecessor is not exclusive to the Alphabet, and is not a new concept, as it can be found in
Genesis Rabbah
citation needed
However, the idea that Lilith was the predecessor may be exclusive to the Alphabet.
The idea in the text that
Adam
had a wife prior to Eve may have developed from an interpretation of the
Book of Genesis
and its dual creation accounts; while Genesis 2:22 describes God's creation of Eve from Adam's rib, an earlier passage, 1:27, already indicates that a woman had been made: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." The Alphabet text places Lilith's creation after God's words in Genesis 2:18 that "it is not good for man to be alone"; in this text God forms Lilith out of the clay from which he made Adam but she and Adam bicker. Lilith claims that since she and Adam were created in the same way they were equal and she refuses to submit to him:
After God created Adam, who was alone, He said, "It is not good for man to be alone." He then created a woman for Adam, from the earth, as He had created Adam himself, and called her Lilith. Adam and Lilith immediately began to fight. She said, "I will not lie below," and he said, "I will not lie beneath you, but only on top. For you are fit only to be in the bottom position, while I am to be the superior one." Lilith responded, "We are equal to each other inasmuch as we were both created from the earth." But they would not listen to one another. When Lilith saw this, she pronounced the Ineffable Name and flew away into the air.
Adam stood in prayer before his Creator: "Sovereign of the universe!" he said, "the woman you gave me has run away." At once, the Holy One, blessed be He, sent these three angels Senoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof, to bring her back.
Said the Holy One to Adam, "If she agrees to come back, what is made is good. If not, she must permit one hundred of her children to die every day." The angels left God and pursued Lilith, whom they overtook in the midst of the sea, in the mighty waters wherein the Egyptians were destined to drown. They told her God's word, but she did not wish to return. The angels said, "We shall drown you in the sea."
"Leave me!' she said. "I was created only to cause sickness to infants. If the infant is male, I have dominion over him for eight days after his birth, and if female, for twenty days."
When the angels heard Lilith's words, they insisted she go back. But she swore to them by the name of the living and eternal God: "Whenever I see you or your names or your forms in an amulet, I will have no power over that infant." She also agreed to have one hundred of her children die every day. Accordingly, every day one hundred demons perish, and for the same reason, we write the angels' names on the amulets of young children. When Lilith sees their names, she remembers her oath, and the child recovers.
The background and purpose of
The Alphabet of Ben-Sira
is unclear. It is a collection of stories about heroes of the
Bible
and
Talmud
, it may have been a collection of
folk-tales
, a refutation of Christian,
Karaite
, or other separatist movements; its content seems so offensive to contemporary Jews that it was even suggested that it could be an anti-Jewish
satire
77
although, in any case, the text was accepted by the Jewish mystics of medieval Germany.
65
Adam
clutches a child in the presence of the child-snatcher Lilith. Fresco by
Filippino Lippi
, basilica of
Santa Maria Novella
, Florence.
The Alphabet of Ben-Sira
is the earliest surviving source of the story, and the conception that Lilith was Adam's first wife became only widely known with the 17th century
Lexicon Talmudicum
of German scholar
Johannes Buxtorf
In this folk tradition that arose in the early Middle Ages, Lilith, a dominant female demon, became identified with
Asmodeus
, King of Demons, as his queen. Asmodeus was already well known by this time because of the legends about him in the Talmud. The second myth of Lilith grew to include legends about another world and by some accounts this other world existed side by side with this one,
Yenne Velt
is Yiddish for this described "Other World". In this case Asmodeus and Lilith were believed to procreate demonic offspring endlessly and spread chaos at every turn.
Two primary characteristics are seen in these legends about Lilith: Lilith as the incarnation of lust, causing men to be led astray, and Lilith as a child-killing witch, who strangles helpless neonates. These two aspects of the Lilith legend seemed to have evolved separately; there is hardly a tale where she encompasses both roles. But the aspect of the witch-like role that Lilith plays broadens her archetype of the destructive side of witchcraft. Such stories are commonly found among Jewish folklore.
The influence of the rabbinic traditions
edit
Although the image of Lilith of the
Alphabet of Ben Sira
is unprecedented, some elements in her portrayal can be traced back to the talmudic and midrashic traditions that arose around Eve.
First and foremost, the very introduction of Lilith to the creation story rests on the rabbinic myth, prompted by the two separate creation accounts in Genesis 1:1–2:25, that there were two original women. A way of resolving the apparent discrepancy between these two accounts was to assume that there must have been some other first woman, apart from the one later identified with Eve. The Rabbis, noting Adam's exclamation, "this time (
zot hapa'am
) [this is] bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh" (Genesis 2:23), took it as an intimation that there must already have been a "first time". According to Genesis rabbah 18:4, Adam was disgusted upon seeing the first woman full of "discharge and blood", and God had to provide him with another one. The subsequent creation is performed with adequate precautions: Adam is made to sleep, so as not to witness the process itself (Sanhedrin 39a), and Eve is adorned with fine jewellery (Genesis rabbah 18:1) and brought to Adam by the angels
Gabriel
and
Michael
(ibid. 18:3). However, nowhere do the rabbis specify what happened to the first woman, leaving the matter open for further speculation. This is the gap into which the later tradition of Lilith could fit.
Second, this new woman is still met with harsh rabbinic allegations. Again playing on the Hebrew phrase
zot hapa'am
, Adam, according to the same midrash, declares: "it is she [
zot
] who is destined to strike the bell [
zog
] and to speak [in strife] against me, as you read, 'a golden bell [
pa'amon
] and a pomegranate' [Exodus 28:34] ... it is she who will trouble me [
mefa'amtani
] all night" (Genesis Rabbah 18:4). The first woman also becomes the object of accusations ascribed to Rabbi Joshua of Siknin, according to whom Eve, despite the divine efforts, turned out to be "swelled-headed, coquette, eavesdropper, gossip, prone to jealousy, light-fingered and gadabout" (Genesis Rabbah 18:2). A similar set of charges appears in Genesis Rabbah 17:8, according to which Eve's creation from Adam's rib rather than from the earth makes her inferior to Adam and never satisfied with anything.
Third, and despite the terseness of the biblical text in this regard, the erotic iniquities attributed to Eve constitute a separate category of her shortcomings. Told in Genesis 3:16 that "your desire shall be for your husband", she is accused by the Rabbis of having an overdeveloped
sexual drive
(Genesis Rabbah 20:7) and constantly enticing Adam (Genesis Rabbah 23:5). However, in terms of textual popularity and dissemination, the motif of Eve copulating with the
primeval serpent
takes priority over her other sexual transgressions. Despite the rather unsettling picturesqueness of this account, it is conveyed in numerous places: Genesis Rabbah 18:6, and BT Sotah 9b, Shabbat 145b–146a and 156a, Yevamot 103b and Avodah Zarah 22b.
65
Kabbalistic mysticism
attempted to establish a more exact relationship between Lilith and God. With her major characteristics having been well developed by the end of the
Talmudic period
, after six centuries had elapsed between the
Aramaic
incantation
texts that mention Lilith and the early Spanish Kabbalistic writings in the 13th century, she reappears, and her life history becomes known in greater mythological detail. Her creation is described in many alternative versions.
One mentions her creation as being before Adam's, on the fifth day, because the "living creatures" with whose swarms God filled the waters included Lilith. A similar version, related to the earlier Talmudic passages, recounts how Lilith was fashioned with the same substance as Adam was, shortly before. A third alternative version states that God originally created Adam and Lilith in a manner that the female creature was contained in the male. Lilith's soul was lodged in the depths of the Great Abyss. When God called her, she joined Adam. After Adam's body was created a thousand
souls
from the Left (evil) side attempted to attach themselves to him. However, God drove them off. Adam was left lying as a body without a soul. Then a cloud descended and God commanded the
earth
to produce a living soul. This God
breathed
into Adam, who began to spring to life and his female was attached to his side. God separated the female from Adam's side. The female side was Lilith, whereupon she flew to the Cities of the Sea and attacked
humankind
Yet another version claims that Lilith emerged as a divine entity that was born spontaneously, either out of the Great Supernal Abyss or out of the power of an aspect of God (the
Gevurah of Din
). This aspect of God was negative and punitive, as well as one of his ten attributes (
Sefirot
), at its lowest manifestation has an affinity with the realm of evil and it is out of this that Lilith merged with Samael.
An alternative story links Lilith with the creation of luminaries. The "first light", which is the light of Mercy (one of the Sefirot), appeared on the first day of creation when God said "Let there be light". This light became hidden and the Holiness became surrounded by a husk of evil. "A husk (klippa) was created around the brain" and this husk spread and brought out another husk, which was Lilith.
The first medieval source to depict Adam and Lilith in full was the
Midrash A.B.K.I.R.
(c. 10th century), which was followed by the Zohar and other Kabbalistic writings. Adam is said to be perfect until he recognises either his sin or Cain's fratricide that is the cause of bringing death into the world. He then separates from holy Eve, sleeps alone, and fasts for 130 years. During this time "Pizna", either an alternate name for Lilith or a daughter of hers, desires his beauty and seduces him against his will. She gives birth to multitudes of
djinns
and demons, the first of them being named Agrimas. However, they are defeated by
Methuselah
, who slays thousands of them with a holy sword and forces Agrimas to give him the names of the rest, after which he casts them away to the sea and the mountains.
83
Treatise on the Left Emanation
edit
The mystical writing of two brothers Jacob and Isaac Hacohen,
Treatise on the Left Emanation
, which predates the Zohar by a few decades, states that Samael and Lilith are in the shape of an
androgynous
being, double-faced, born out of the emanation of the Throne of Glory and corresponding in the spiritual realm to Adam and Eve, who were likewise born as a
hermaphrodite
. The two twin androgynous couples resembled each other and both "were like the image of Above"; that is, that they are reproduced in a visible form of an androgynous deity.
19. In answer to your question concerning Lilith, I shall explain to you the essence of the matter. Concerning this point there is a received tradition from the ancient Sages who made use of the Secret Knowledge of the Lesser Palaces, which is the manipulation of demons and a ladder by which one ascends to the prophetic levels. In this tradition it is made clear that Samael and Lilith were born as one, similar to the form of Adam and Eve who were also born as one, reflecting what is above. This is the account of Lilith which was received by the Sages in the Secret Knowledge of the Palaces.
Another version
84
that was also current among Kabbalistic circles in the Middle Ages establishes Lilith as the first of Samael's four wives: Lilith,
Naamah
Eisheth
, and
Agrat bat Mahlat
. Each of them are mothers of demons and have their own hosts and unclean spirits in no number. The marriage of archangel Samael and Lilith was arranged by
Tanin'iver
("Blind Dragon"), who is the counterpart of "the dragon that is in the sea". Blind Dragon acts as an intermediary between Lilith and Samael:
Blind Dragon rides Lilith the Sinful – may she be extirpated quickly in our days, Amen! – And this Blind Dragon brings about the union between Samael and Lilith. And just as
the Dragon that is in the sea
(Isa. 27:1) has no eyes, likewise Blind Dragon that is above, in the likeness of a spiritual form, is without eyes, that is to say, without colors.... (Patai 81:458) Samael is called the Slant Serpent, and Lilith is called the Tortuous Serpent.
86
The marriage of Samael and Lilith is known as the "Angel Satan" or the "Other God", but it was not allowed to last. To prevent Lilith and Samael's demonic children
Lilin
from filling the world, God
castrated
Samael. In many 17th century Kabbalistic books, this seems to be a reinterpretation of an old Talmudic myth where God castrated the male
Leviathan
and slew the female Leviathan in order to prevent them from mating and thereby destroying the Earth with their offspring. With Lilith being unable to fornicate with Samael anymore, she sought to couple with men who experience nocturnal emissions. A 15th or 16th century Kabbalah text states that God has "cooled" the female Leviathan, meaning that he has made Lilith infertile and she is a mere fornication.
citation needed
The Fall of Man
by
Cornelis van Haarlem
(1592), showing the serpent in the Garden of Eden as a woman
The
Treatise on the Left Emanation
also says that there are two Liliths, the lesser being married to the great demon
Asmodeus
The Matron Lilith is the mate of Samael. Both of them were born at the same hour in the image of Adam and Eve, intertwined in each other. Asmodeus the great king of the demons has as a mate the Lesser (younger) Lilith, daughter of the king whose name is Qafsefoni. The name of his mate is Mehetabel daughter of Matred, and their daughter is Lilith.
88
Another passage charges Lilith as being a tempting serpent of Eve.
And the Serpent, the Woman of Harlotry, incited and seduced Eve through the husks of Light which in itself is holiness. And the Serpent seduced Holy Eve, and enough said for him who understands. And all this ruination came about because Adam the first man coupled with Eve while she was in her menstrual impurity – this is the filth and the impure seed of the Serpent who mounted Eve before Adam mounted her. Behold, here it is before you: because of the sins of Adam the first man all the things mentioned came into being. For Evil Lilith, when she saw the greatness of his corruption, became strong in her husks, and came to Adam against his will, and became hot from him and bore him many demons and spirits and Lilin. (Patai81:455f)
References to Lilith in the
Zohar
(c. 13th century) include the following:
She roams at night, and goes all about the world and makes sport with men and causes them to emit seed. In every place where a man sleeps alone in a house, she visits him and grabs him and attaches herself to him and has her desire from him, and bears from him. And she also afflicts him with sickness, and he knows it not, and all this takes place when the moon is on the wane.
This passage may be related to the mention of Lilith seizing men sleeping alone in Talmud Shabbat 151b (see above), and also to Talmud Eruvin 18b where
nocturnal emissions
are connected with the begettal of demons.
According to Rapahel Patai, older sources state clearly that after Lilith's Red Sea sojourn (mentioned also in
Louis Ginzberg
's
Legends of the Jews
), she returned to Adam and begat children from him by forcing herself upon him. Before doing so, she attaches herself to
Cain
and bears him numerous spirits and demons. In the Zohar, however, Lilith is said to have succeeded in begetting offspring from Adam even during their short-lived sexual experience. Lilith leaves Adam in Eden, as she is not a suitable helpmate for him.
Gershom Scholem
proposes that the author of the Zohar,
Rabbi Moses de Leon
, was aware of both the folk tradition of Lilith and another conflicting version, possibly older.
91
The Zohar adds further that two female spirits instead of one, Lilith and
Naamah
, desired Adam and seduced him. The issue of these unions were demons and spirits called "the plagues of humankind", and the usual added explanation was that it was through Adam's own sin that Lilith overcame him against his will.
17th-century Hebrew magical amulets
edit
Medieval Hebrew amulet intended to protect a mother and her child from Lilith
A copy of
Jean de Pauly
's translation of the Zohar in the
Ritman Library
contains an inserted late 17th century printed Hebrew sheet for use in magical amulets where the prophet
Elijah
confronts Lilith.
92
The sheet contains two texts within borders, which are amulets, one for a male ('lazakhar'), the other one for a female ('lanekevah'). The invocations mention Adam, Eve and Lilith, 'Chavah Rishonah' (the first Eve, who is identical with Lilith), also devils or angels: Sanoy, Sansinoy, Smangeluf, Shmari'el (the guardian) and Hasdi'el (the merciful). A few lines in Yiddish are followed by the dialogue between the prophet Elijah and Lilith when he met her with her host of demons to kill the mother and take her new-born child ('to drink her blood, suck her bones and eat her flesh'). She tells Elijah that she will lose her power if someone uses her secret names, which she reveals at the end:
lilith, abitu, abizu, hakash, avers hikpodu, ayalu, matrota ...
93
In other amulets, probably informed by
The Alphabet of Ben-Sira
, she is Adam's first wife. (
Yalqut Reubeni
, Zohar 1:34b, 3:19
94
Charles Richardson
's dictionary portion of the
Encyclopædia Metropolitana
appends to his etymological discussion of
lullaby
"a [manuscript] note written in a copy of Skinner" [i.e.
Stephen Skinner
's 1671
Etymologicon Linguæ Anglicanæ
], which asserts that the word
lullaby
originates from
Lillu abi abi
, a Hebrew incantation meaning "Lilith begone" recited by Jewish mothers over an infant's cradle.
95
Richardson did not endorse the theory and modern lexicographers consider it a
false etymology
95
96
Alsatian Krasmesser (16th to 20th century)
edit
Not so much an
amulet
as a ritual object for protection, the "Krasmesser" (or "Kreismesser", circle knife) played a role in Jewish birth rituals in the area of
Alsace
Switzerland
and Southern Germany between the 16th and 20th century. The Krasmesser would be used by a
midwife
or by the husband to draw a
magic circle
around the pregnant or birthing woman to protect her from Lilith and the
evil eye
, which were considered to represent the greatest danger for children and pregnant women.
97
Rabbi Naphtali Hirsch ben Elieser Treves described this custom as early as 1560, and later references to a knife or sword by the birthing bed by both
Paul Christian Kirchner
and
Johann Christian Georg Bodenschatz
indicate its continuance. A publication about birth customs by the
Jewish Museum of Switzerland
also includes oral accounts from 20th century
Baden-Württemberg
which likewise mention circling movements with a knife in order to protect a woman in childbirth.
97
Greco-Roman mythology
edit
The Kiss of the Enchantress
Isobel Lilian Gloag
c.
1890
), inspired by Keats's "
Lamia
", depicts Lamia as half-serpent, half-woman
In the Latin
Vulgate
Book of Isaiah 34:14, Lilith is translated
lamia
According to
Augustine Calmet
, Lilith has connections with early views on vampires and sorcery:
Some learned men have thought they discovered some vestiges of vampirism in the remotest antiquity; but all that they say of it does not come near what is related of the vampires. The lamiae, the strigae, the sorcerers whom they accused of sucking the blood of living people, and of thus causing their death, the magicians who were said to cause the death of new-born children by charms and malignant spells, are nothing less than what we understand by the name of vampires; even were it to be owned that these lamiae and strigae have really existed, which we do not believe can ever be well proved.
I own that these terms [
lamiae
and
strigae
] are found in the versions of Holy Scripture. For instance, Isaiah, describing the condition to which Babylon was to be reduced after her ruin, says that she shall become the abode of satyrs, lamiae, and strigae (in Hebrew, lilith). This last term, according to the Hebrews, signifies the same thing, as the Greeks express by strix and lamiae, which are sorceresses or magicians, who seek to put to death new-born children. Whence it comes that the Jews are accustomed to write in the four corners of the chamber of a woman just delivered, "Adam, Eve, be gone from hence lilith." ... The ancient Greeks knew these dangerous sorceresses by the name of lamiae, and they believed that they devoured children, or sucked away all their blood till they died.
98
According to Siegmund Hurwitz the Talmudic Lilith is connected with the Greek
Lamia
, who, according to Hurwitz, likewise governed a class of child stealing lamia-demons. Lamia bore the title "child killer" and was feared for her malevolence, like Lilith. She has different conflicting origins and is described as having a human upper body from the waist up and a serpentine body from the waist down. One source states simply that she is a daughter of the goddess
Hecate
, another, that Lamia was subsequently cursed by the goddess Hera to have stillborn children because of her association with Zeus; alternatively, Hera slew all of Lamia's children (except Scylla) in anger that Lamia slept with her husband, Zeus. The grief caused Lamia to turn into a monster that took revenge on mothers by stealing their children and devouring them. Lamia had a vicious sexual appetite that matched her cannibalistic appetite for children. She was notorious for being a vampiric spirit and loved sucking men's blood. Her gift was the "mark of a Sibyl", a gift of second sight. Zeus was said to have given her the gift of sight. However, she was "cursed" to never be able to shut her eyes so that she would forever obsess over her dead children. Taking pity on Lamia,
Zeus
gave her the ability to remove and replace her eyes from their sockets.
In
Mandaean scriptures
such as the
Ginza Rabba
and
Qulasta
, liliths (
Classical Mandaic
ࡋࡉࡋࡉࡕ
) are mentioned as inhabitants of the
World of Darkness
101
Lilith is mentioned in a
Mandaean
magic incantation inscribed in
Mandaic
on a c. 7th-century Late Antiquity lead amulet designated "BM 135794 II", where she is mentioned together with other demons, in plural form. The first of the charm's text consists of a banning formula that calls for the binding, subduing and destruction of various demons, mentioned by name in plural form, and also talks of the demons of time walking about and harming "the children of Adam and all offspring of Hawa (=Eve)". The lines of this formula are repeated near-identically about three times, with Lilith's name, in plural, appearing in the formula on lines 27, 46 and 55, in the same near-identical line "Sahras, Dews, Rhuas, Humartas and Lilits." At lines 70-100, the banning formula of the charm ends and is taken over by a Mandaic magic story that tells of a gnostic tree made up of different demon groups and of a "
Dew
" demon dwelling in the tree being cast out of it and expelled from the tree by the archangel
Gabriel
. In this part of the charm, Lilith is mentioned as a part of this gnostic tree, again rendered in plural. The tree's trunk is said to be made up of "
Dews
" (or 'dewis' or 'daeva') on lines 76-77, the tree's foliage to be made up of "Latabas" ('devils') on line 77, and its branches to be made up of "Lilits" on lines 77-78. The charm associates the demons with time, using units of time such as "season", "month", "day", "hour", "minute" and so on, and so the charm has been interpreted to be a magical protection against "demons of time" or against time as threatening and harmful elements.
The amulet is part of a set of lead, silver and gold amulets attributed to the family archive of
Mah-Adhur Gushnasp
, who served as prime minister of the
Sasanian Empire
during
Ardashir III
's reign (628-629 AD), and was discovered by Lieutenant Colonel H.S. Alexander in a lead jar under the foundations of a private house in a mound near el-Qurnah at the confluence of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates in southern Iraq during a private dig between 1910 and 1920, which was then passed on to the British Library and is today housed in the Department of the Ancient Near East in the British Museum. The text was translated by scholar Christa Müller-Kessler and published in 2002 in Cornelia Wunsch and C. B. F. Walker's
Mining The Archives
In Arabic mythology
edit
The
occult
writer
Ahmad al-Buni
(d. 1225), in his
Sun of the Great Knowledge
Arabic
شمس المعارف الكبرى
), mentions a demon called "the mother of children" (
ام الصبيان
), a term also used "in one place".
Folkloric traditions recorded around 1953 tell about a jinn called
Qarinah
, who was rejected by
Adam
and mated with
Iblis
instead. She gave birth to a host of demons and became known as their mother. To take revenge on Adam, she pursues human children. As such, she would kill a pregnant mother's baby in the womb, causes impotence to men or attacks little children with illnesses. According to occult practises, she would be subject to the demon-king
Murrah al-Abyad
, which appears to be another name for Iblis used in magical writings. Although Lilith has no place in the Islamic creation narrative (nor elsewhere in formal Islamic theology), folklore about Lilith influenced that of the Qarinah during the early days.
109
Faust
and Lilith
by
Richard Westall
(1831)
Lilith's earliest appearance in
the literature of the Romantic period
(1789–1832) was in
Goethe
's 1808 work
Faust: The First Part of the Tragedy
Faust
Who's that there?
Mephistopheles
Take a good look.
Lilith
Faust:
Lilith? Who is that?
Mephistopheles:
Adam's wife, his first. Beware of her.
Her beauty's one boast is her dangerous hair.
When Lilith winds it tight around young men
She doesn't soon let go of them again.
— 1992 Greenberg translation, lines 4206–4211
After Mephistopheles offers this warning to Faust, he then, quite ironically, encourages Faust to dance with "the Pretty Witch". Lilith and Faust engage in a short dialogue, where Lilith recounts the days spent in Eden.
Faust:
[dancing with the young witch]
A lovely dream I dreamt one day
I saw a green-leaved apple tree,
Two apples swayed upon a stem,
So tempting! I climbed up for them.
The Pretty Witch:
Ever since the days of Eden
Apples have been man's desire.
How overjoyed I am to think, sir,
Apples grow, too, in my garden.
— 1992 Greenberg translation, lines 4216 – 4223
Lady Lilith
by
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
(1866–1868, 1872–1873)
The
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
, which developed around 1848,
110
were greatly influenced by Goethe's work on the theme of Lilith. In 1863,
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
of the Brotherhood began painting what would later be his first rendition of
Lady Lilith
, a painting he expected to be his "best picture hitherto".
110
Symbols
appearing in the painting allude to the "femme fatale" reputation of the Romantic Lilith:
poppies
(death and cold) and white
roses
(sterile passion). Accompanying his
Lady Lilith
painting from 1866, Rossetti wrote a
sonnet
entitled
Lilith
, which was first published in Swinburne's pamphlet-review (1868),
Notes on the Royal Academy Exhibition
Of Adam's first wife, Lilith, it is told
(The witch he loved before the gift of Eve,)
That, ere the snake's, her sweet tongue could deceive,
And her enchanted hair was the first gold.
And still she sits, young while the earth is old,
And, subtly of herself contemplative,
Draws men to watch the bright web she can weave,
Till heart and body and life are in its hold.
The rose and poppy are her flower; for where
Is he not found, O Lilith, whom shed scent
And soft-shed kisses and soft sleep shall snare?
Lo! As that youth's eyes burned at thine, so went
Thy spell through him, and left his straight neck bent
And round his heart one strangling golden hair.
The poem and the picture appeared together alongside Rossetti's painting
Sibylla Palmifera
and the sonnet
Soul's Beauty
. In 1881, the
Lilith
sonnet was renamed "
Body's Beauty
" in order to contrast it and
Soul's Beauty
. The two were placed sequentially in
The House of Life
collection (sonnets number 77 and 78).
110
Rossetti wrote in 1870:
Lady [Lilith] ... represents a Modern Lilith combing out her abundant golden hair and gazing on herself in the glass with that self-absorption by whose strange fascination such natures draw others within their own circle.
— Rossetti, W. M. ii.850, D. G. Rossetti's emphasis
110
This is in accordance with Jewish folk tradition, which associates Lilith both with long hair (a symbol of dangerous feminine seductive power in
Jewish
culture), and with possessing women by entering them through mirrors.
The
Victorian
poet
Robert Browning
re-envisioned Lilith in his poem "Adam, Lilith, and Eve". First published in 1883, the poem uses the traditional myths surrounding the triad of Adam, Eve, and Lilith. Browning depicts Lilith and Eve as being friendly and complicitous with each other, as they sit together on either side of Adam. Under the threat of death, Eve admits that she never loved Adam, while Lilith confesses that she always loved him:
As the worst of the venom left my lips,
I thought, 'If, despite this lie, he strips
The mask from my soul with a kiss — I crawl
His slave, — soul, body, and all!
Browning focused on Lilith's emotional attributes, rather than that of her ancient demon predecessors.
112
Scottish author
George MacDonald
also wrote a fantasy novel entitled
Lilith
, first published in 1895. MacDonald employed the character of Lilith in service to a spiritual drama about sin and redemption, in which Lilith finds a hard-won salvation. Many of the traditional characteristics of Lilith mythology are present in the author's depiction: Long dark hair, pale skin, a hatred and fear of children and babies, and an obsession with gazing at herself in a mirror. MacDonald's Lilith also has vampiric qualities: she bites people and sucks their blood for sustenance.
Australian poet and scholar
Christopher John Brennan
(1870–1932), included a section titled "Lilith" in his major work "Poems: 1913" (Sydney: G. B. Philip and Son, 1914). The "Lilith" section contains thirteen poems exploring the Lilith myth and is central to the meaning of the collection as a whole.
C. L. Moore
's 1940 story
Fruit of Knowledge
is written from Lilith's point of view. It is a re-telling of the
Fall of Man
as a
love triangle
between Lilith, Adam and Eve – with Eve's eating the forbidden fruit being in this version the result of misguided manipulations by the jealous Lilith, who had hoped to get her rival discredited and destroyed by God and thus regain Adam's love.
British poet
John Siddique
's 2011 collection
Full Blood
has a suite of 11 poems called
The Tree of Life
, which features Lilith as the divine feminine aspect of God. A number of the poems feature Lilith directly, including the piece
Unwritten
which deals with the spiritual problem of the feminine being removed by the scribes from
The Bible.
Lilith is also mentioned in
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
, by
C. S. Lewis
. The character
Mr. Beaver
ascribes the ancestry of the main antagonist, Jadis the
White Witch
, to Lilith.
113
"Lilith" is a poem by Vladimir Nabokov, written in 1928. Many have connected it to Lolita, but Nabokov adamantly denies this: "Intelligent readers will abstain from examining this impersonal fantasy for any links with my later fiction."
114
In Samuel de Ceccatty's 2022 British adult animated short film
Lilith & Eve
, Eve leaves Eden to learn about Lilith despite Adam's protests.
115
Lilith: A Dramatic Poem
is a four-act medieval fantasy
verse drama
written in
blank verse
by American poet and playwright
George Sterling
, first published in 1919. Influential critic
H. L. Mencken
said of Sterling: "I think his dramatic poem
Lilith
was the greatest thing he ever wrote."
116
The
New York Times
declared
Lilith
"the finest thing in poetic drama yet done in America and one of the finest poetic dramas yet written in English."
117
Author
Theodore Dreiser
said: "It rings richer in thought than any American dramatic poem with which I am familiar."
118
Poet
Clark Ashton Smith
wrote: "
Lilith
is certainly the best dramatic poem in English since the days of
Swinburne
and
Browning
. ... The lyrics interspersed throughout the drama are as beautiful as any by the Elizabethans."
119
Lilith
is a 1961 novel by
J. R. Salamanca
that tells the story of a man, Vincent, who is seduced by a schizophrenic woman named Lilith. It explores themes of love, obsession, and blurred lines between fantasy and reality.
A feature film of the same name
written by
Robert Rossen
and starring
Jean Seberg
and
Warren Beatty
was released in 1964.
In the role playing game series
Vampire the Masquerade
Lilith
plays a major part in the mythology within the games.
2018's
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
television series features a version of
Madam Satan
that is portrayed as, and revealed to be, Lilith.
120
In the 2019 adult animated series
Hazbin Hotel
, Lilith is depicted as the wife of Lucifer and the queen of Hell. Charlie, the protagonist of the series, is Lilith's daughter. According to
The Washington Times
Hazbin Hotel
subverts traditional narratives of Lucifer and Lilith by presenting their betrayal of God as heroic and noble.
121
In the
Diablo
series of video games, Lilith is depicted as the daughter of Mephisto and the creator of the game's world alongside her lover, the angel Inarius. Lilith serves as the main antagonist in
Diablo IV
"Lilith" is a 2022 song by American singer-songwriter
Saint Avangeline
off her debut album
Gardener of Eden
. The song went viral on
and
, gaining over 56 million streams.
122
This haunting track explored her experience with toxic relationships and sexual assault using the character of Lilith as a symbol for both beauty and danger.
123
Saint shared that she wrote "Lilith" "to try to cope and heal, and since then, my inspiration has mostly come from a desperate place of trying to get everything out of my system."
122
In Western esotericism
edit
The
sigil
of Lilith
The depiction of Lilith in Romanticism continues to be popular among
Wiccans
and in other modern
occultism
110
A few
magical
orders dedicated to the undercurrent of Lilith, featuring initiations specifically related to the arcana of the "first mother", exist. Two organisations that use initiations and magic associated with Lilith are the Ordo Antichristianus Illuminati and the Order of Phosphorus. Lilith appears as a
succubus
in
Aleister Crowley
's
De Arte Magica.
Lilith was also one of the middle names of Crowley's first child, Nuit Ma Ahathoor Hecate Sappho Jezebel Lilith Crowley (1904–1906), and Lilith is sometimes identified with
Babalon
in
Thelemic
writings. Many early occult writers who contributed to modern day
Wicca
expressed special reverence for Lilith.
Charles Leland
associated
Aradia
with Lilith: Aradia, says Leland, is
Herodias
, who was regarded in
stregheria
folklore as being associated with
Diana
as chief of the witches. Leland further notes that Herodias is a name that comes from west Asia, where it denoted an early form of Lilith.
124
125
Gerald Gardner
asserted that there was continuous historical worship of Lilith to present day, and that her name is sometimes given to the
goddess
being personified in the coven by the priestess. This idea was further attested by
Doreen Valiente
, who cited her as a presiding goddess of the Craft: "the personification of erotic dreams, the suppressed desire for delights".
126
Valiente also falls prey to the misindentification of the
Burney Relief
as Lilith. She identifies Lilith as a 'moon goddess' as well as a patroness of witches.
127
non-primary source needed
In some contemporary concepts,
Lilith
is viewed as the embodiment of
the Goddess
, a designation that is thought to be shared with what these faiths believe to be her counterparts:
Inanna
Ishtar
Asherah
Anath
Anahita
and
Isis
128
According to one view, Lilith was originally a Sumerian, Babylonian, or Hebrew mother goddess of childbirth, children, women, and sexuality.
129
130
Raymond Buckland
holds that Lilith is a dark moon goddess on par with the Hindu
Kali
131
210
Many
theistic Satanists
consider Lilith a goddess, with some recognizing her as the patron of strong women and women's rights.
132
Lilith is popular among theistic Satanists because of her association with Satan and is most often worshipped by women, but not exclusively.
133
Some Satanists believe that she is married to Satan and thus think of her as a mother figure.
134
Others base their reverence for her on her history as a succubus and praise her as a sex goddess.
135
A different approach to a Satanic Lilith holds that she was once a fertility and agricultural goddess.
136
The
Western mystery tradition
associates Lilith with the
qlippoth
of Kabbalah.
Dion Fortune
writes, "The Virgin Mary is reflected in Lilith",
137
and that Lilith is the source of "lustful dreams".
137
Lilith is a source of veneration within the Luciferian Tradition of Michael W. Ford.
138
The research and esoteric development of modern Luciferianism recognizes Lilith as equal to Samael, composing the symbol of the "Adversary".
139
Michael W. Ford's works on this Luciferian interpretation was first published in 1999 and the early 2000's, with "Book of the Witch Moon"; "Luciferian Witchcraft" and "Liber HVHI" . The origins of the various mythologies concerning Lilith were then published in works such as "The Bible of the Adversary"; "Adversarial Light - Magick of the Adversary"; "Maskim Hul"; "Sebitti"; "Akhkharu - Vampyre Magick"; "Dragon of the Two Flames" and "The Demons of Solomon", among others. Ford's work explores considerably deep lore commonly overlooked previously by much of common lore concerning Lilith.
"The Luciferian Tarot", the first published Left-Hand Path Tarot Deck and book 2007, depicts several Qlippothic representations of Lilith as a guide and feminine energy reflecting an aspect of the Adversary in Luciferianism. Additional works which focus by a chapter on Lilith are "Infernal Union - Sinister Initiation and Satanic Psalms" and "Whispers of the Jinn" which presents the Arabic and Islamic representation of Lilith. The book on ancient Persian sorcery, known as Yatukdinoih, centered on the cult of the Daevas and Ahriman, identifies a manifestation of Lilith as both the Manichaean "Az" and Zoroastrian demoness, "Jeh". This is based on the traits and lore concerning the direct alignments with Lilith.
Recently, Lilith is the central topic of study in Michael W. Ford's "Lilith and Lamastu: Legends of the Ancient Abyss", which explores the Western mystery tradition within a Luciferian perspective. The Mesopotamian 3rd to 8th century Aramaic Incantation Bowls, hold a good deal of lore concerning the many different types of Lilith-spirits and the depictions of Lilith, yet also the associations between the King of Demons, Bagdana. The modern aim of Luciferian Magick with concern to Lilith, utilizes methods of seeking the nocturnal energies inherent in humanity and is directed towards beneficial workings:
"For the Black Magickan, these are demons of nocturnal desire, the passions of our subconscious that motivate aspects of our consciousness. Igrath, the "Mistress of the Sorcerers" guides and inspires the attainment of magical knowledge and sorcery, including the shaping of the energy of the mind to manipulate the element of air to project upon the astral plane and by dream."
Ford, Michael W (2024),
Lilith and Lamastu - Legends of the Ancient Abyss
, Houston, Texas: Succubus Productions Publishing, p. 177
The most popular iteration of the Sigil of Lilith, designed in the style of those of the
Lesser Key of Solomon
, appeared in 2007 by controversial contemporary occultist, Robin Artisson.
140
Abyzou
– a Near Eastern demon blamed for miscarriages and infant mortality
Asherah
– a goddess in ancient Semitic religions
Black Moon Lilith
– an astrological and mathematical point
Daimon
– a term for Greek lesser deities, the etymology of the English word "demon"
Incubus
– a type of seductive male demon based on Lilith
citation needed
Lailah
– a Jewish angel, whose name means "night", believed to protect in pregnancy
Lilith Fair
– a travelling music festival
Norea
– a Gnostic figure
Serpent seed
– a fringe belief
Siren
– dangerous female creatures in Ancient Greek religion
Spirit spouse
– an element of shamanism
Succubus
– a type of seductive female demon based on Lilith
citation needed
Compare Genesis 1:27
15
(this contrasts with
Eve
, who was created from one of Adam's ribs).
16
Kramer translates the zu as "
owl
", but most often it is translated as "
eagle
", "
vulture
", or "
bird of prey
".
See
The animals mentioned in the Bible
Henry Chichester Hart
1888, and more modern sources; also entries
Brown Driver Briggs
Hebrew Lexicon
for
tsiyyim, 'iyyim, sayir, liylith, qippowz
and
dayah
מנוח
‎,
manoaḥ
, used for birds as Noah's dove, Gen.8:9 and also humans as Israel, Deut.28:65; Naomi, Ruth 3:1.
34:14
καὶ συναντήσουσιν δαιμόνια ὀνοκενταύροις καὶ βοήσουσιν ἕτερος πρὸς τὸν ἕτερον ἐκεῖ ἀναπαύσονται
ὀνοκένταυροι
εὗρον γὰρ αὑτοῖς ἀνάπαυσιν
Translation: And
daemons
shall meet with
onocentaurs
, and they shall cry one to the other: there shall the
onocentaurs
rest, having found for themselves [a place of] rest.
Rashi:
espointe
; Jastrow: "a sort of fever (?)"; Kohut: "side stitch".
Text confused; see Diqduqe soferim hashalem. Many assume the literal sense is "an arrow of Lilith" but Kohut: "a shaft of lightning". Arukh: "a stone in the shape of an arrow and falls with the hail, and upturns the Accuser". Rashi: "a stone in the shape of an arrow and falls from the sky with the hail". Wojciech speculates: "Probably a meteorite stone or a fulgurite, colloquially known as petrified lightning." Cf. Sherira's commentary (meaning obscure).
Yom Tov of Seville
writes (ad loc.) "The
Geonim
record that every time it says 'I saw' in this formula, it was a dream-vision".
Rashbam
: "
Hormin
is our version, so I heard from
my honored father
. But I heard
Hormiz
, a type of demon." This latter version is represented in the Ritva and
Arukh
, as well as MSS Hamburg 165, Paris 1337, and Escorial 1115; cf.
Tosafot
to b. Gittin 11a s.v.
Hormin
. Hormin (
Ahriman
) and Hormiz (
Ormuzd
) are the two opposing forces in
Zoroastrianism
. The commentary attributed to
Rabbenu Gershom
also comments "a certain demon", but Ritva, "Some say that it is demon, and demons are more visible when positioned to the north. But others say that it is the name of a man who was very knowledgeable in the ways of demons and optical illusion."
Corrupt or obscure; variants:
Ronag
Donag
Rornag
Dognag
Dog
Agnag
Dinag
Dornag
Davang
Ravang
. Arukh cites "bridges of the river".
According to the commentary attributed to Gershom, the king of the demons heard that he was performing public magic and killed him to protect their secrets. Another possibility is cited in Rashbam: "The house of the Caesar, who feared lest the kingship be taken from him by this creature spawned by man lying with demon, who lives among men."
McDonald, Beth E. (2009).
"In Possession of the Night: Lilith as Goddess, Demon, Vampire"
. In Sabbath, Roberta Sternman (ed.).
Sacred Tropes: Tanakh, New Testament, and Qur'an As Literature and Culture
Leiden
and
Boston
Brill Publishers
. pp.
175–
178.
doi
10.1163/ej.9789004177529.i-536.42
ISBN
978-90-04-17752-9
Knippel, Jessi; Merritt, Leland (2025). "Lilith". In Grafius, Brandon R.; Morehead, John W. (eds.).
The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Monsters
. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp.
117–
132.
doi
10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197565056.013.0012
ISBN
9780197565087
"Lilith"
Jewish Women's Archive
. Retrieved
20 March
2026
Isaiah 34:14
Müller-Kessler, Christa (2001). "Lilit(s) in der aramäisch-magischen Literatur der Spätantike".
Altorientalische Forschungen
28
(2). Walter de Gruyter GmbH:
338–
352.
doi
10.1524/aofo.2001.28.2.338
S2CID
163723903
Davidson, Gustav (1971)
Dictionary of Angels.pdf
A Dictionary of Angels including the Fallen Angels
, New York, The Free Press, p. 174.
ISBN
002907052X
B., Shapiro, Marc (2008).
Studies in Maimonides and his interpreters
. University of Scranton Press. p. 134.
ISBN
978-1-58966-165-3
OCLC
912624714
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link
Scurlock, JoAnn; Anderson, Burton (2005).
Diagnoses in Assyrian and Babylonian Medicine: Ancient Sources, Translations, and Modern Medical Analysis
(print)
. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press. p. 273 & 434.
ISBN
0-252-02956-9
The lilû-demons and their female counterparts, the lilītu or ardat lilî-demons... If a girl or boy had the misfortune of dying before having had the opportunity to marry and have children, it was believed that his or her ghost was forever doomed to prowl the earth." - page 273; "Lilû, lilītu, and ardat lilî were a class of demons who were believed to be recruited from among young persons who died just before or just after marriage. These demons tended to victimize persons of the opposite sex but of the same age as themselves. For example, the adolescent female ardat lilî was responsible for Gilles de la Tourette syndrome, a disorder that primarily affects boys in the first two decades of life (see Chapter 13)."- page 434
Farber, Walter (1990)
Reallexikon der Assyriologie und vorderasiatischen Archäologie
RLA
), 7, Berlin, de Gruyter, pp. 23–24,
ISBN
3-11-010437-7
Hutter, Manfred (1999) "Lilith", in K. van der Toorn et al. (eds.),
Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible
, Leiden, Brill, pp. 520–521.
ISBN
90-04-11119-0
"Stalking Us for 9,000 Years: The Levantine Origins of the Undead"
Haaretz
Archived
from the original on 5 December 2022
. Retrieved
7 January
2024
Marlene E Mondriaan (UP).
"Lilith and Eve – wives of Adam"
Sabinet African Journals
Emrys, Wendilyn (March 2018),
The Transformations of a Goddess: Lillake, Lamashtu, and Lilith
– via Research Gate
Genesis 1:27
Genesis 2:22
Schwartz, Howard
(2006).
Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism
. Oxford University Press. p. 218.
ISBN
978-0-19-532713-7
Kvam, Kristen E.; Schearing, Linda S.; Ziegler, Valarie H. (1999).
Eve and Adam: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Readings on Genesis and Gender
. Indiana University Press. pp.
220–
221.
ISBN
978-0-253-21271-9
Archived
from the original on 17 August 2023
. Retrieved
26 March
2017
Freedman, David Noel (ed.) (1997, 1992).
Anchor Bible Dictionary
. New York: Doubleday. "Very little information has been found relating to the Akkadian and Babylonian view of these figures. Two sources of information previously used to define Lilith are both suspect."
Isaiah 34:14
Hammer, Jill (n.d.).
"Lilith, Lady Flying in Darkness"
My Jewish Learning
. Archived from
the original
on 25 March 2015
. Retrieved
20 November
2023
Johnson, Martin (2026).
"Lilith: How the Translation History of a 2,700-Year-Old Word Came to Impact 21st Century Culture"
Journal of Translation
22
(1):
1–
26.
doi
10.54395/JOT-MJLIL21
"Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Shabbath"
Archived
from the original on 20 July 2023
. Retrieved
4 June
2024
Shaked, Shual (2013).
Aramaic Bowl Spells
. pp.
120–
130.
Ebeling, Erich; Meissner, Bruno; Edzard, Dietz Otto
Reallexikon der Assyriologie
Vol. 9, pp. 47, 50. De Gruyter.
Astour, Michael C. (1965)
Hellenosemitica: an ethnic and cultural study in west Semitic impact on Mycenaean. Greece
. Brill. p. 138.
Archibald Sayce
Hibbert Lectures on Babylonian Religion
1887.
Charles Fossey
La Magie Assyrienne
, Paris: 1902.
Fossey, Charles (1902).
La magie assyrienne; étude suivie de textes magiques, transcrits, traduits, et commentés
(in French). Paris: E. Leroux. p. 37.
Le
lilú
, la
lilît
et l'
ardat lili
, un mâle et deux femelles, formant une trinité de démons que les textes ne séparent guère. Ils personnifient les forces perturbatrices de l'atmosphère...
Kramer, S. N. (1938)
Gilgamesh and the Huluppu-Tree: A Reconstructed Sumerian Text
. Assyriological Studies 10. Chicago.
George, A. (2003)
The epic of Gilgamesh: the Babylonian epic poem and other texts in Akkadian
. p. 100
Tablet XII. Appendix The last Tablet in the 'Series of Gilgamesh'
ISBN
9780713991963
Chicago Assyrian Dictionary
. Chicago:
University of Chicago
. 1956.
Manfred Hutter article in
Karel van der Toorn
, Bob Becking,
Pieter Willem van der Horst
– 1999 pp. 520–521, article cites Hutter's own 1988 work
Behexung, Entsühnung und Heilung
Eisenbrauns
1988. pp. 224–228.
Sterman Sabbath, Roberta (2009)
Sacred tropes: Tanakh, New Testament, and Qur'an as literature and culture
Sex and gender in the ancient Near East: proceedings of the 47th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale
, Helsinki, 2–6 July 2001, Part 2 p. 481.
Ribichini, S. (1976) "Lilith nell-albero Huluppu", pp. 25 in
Atti del 1° Convegno Italiano sul Vicino Oriente Antico
, Rome.
Frankfort, H. (1937). "The Burney Relief".
Archiv für Orientforschung
12
128–
135.
JSTOR
41680314
Kraeling, Emil (1937). "A Unique Babylonian Relief".
Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research
67
(67):
16–
18.
doi
10.2307/3218905
JSTOR
3218905
S2CID
164141131
Lowell K. Handy article Lilith Anchor Bible Dictionary
Albenda, Pauline (2005). "The "Queen of the Night" Plaque: A Revisit".
Journal of the American Oriental Society
125
(2):
171–
190.
JSTOR
20064325
Bible Review Vol 17 Biblical Archaeology Society – 2001
Jacobsen, Thorkild (1987). "Pictures and pictorial language (the Burney Relief)". In Mindlin, M.; Geller, M.J.; Wansbrough, J.E. (eds.). Figurative Language in the Ancient Near East. London: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. pp. 1–11. ISBN 0-7286-0141-9.
Gaster, T. H. (1942).
A Canaanite Magical Text
. Or 11:
Torczyner, H. (1947). "A Hebrew Incantation against Night-Demons from Biblical Times".
Journal of Near Eastern Studies
(1). University of Chicago Press:
18–
29.
doi
10.1086/370809
S2CID
161927885
Ann, Martha; Myers Imel, Dorothy (1995).
Goddesses in World Mythology
. Oxford Uni Press. p. 336.
ISBN
019509199X
Childs, Brevard S.
(2001).
Isaiah: A Commentary by Brevard S. Childs
. The Old Testament library (1st ed.). Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press.
ISBN
978-0-664-22143-0
de Waard, Jan (1997).
A handbook on Isaiah
. Winona Lake, IN.
ISBN
1-57506-023-X
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link
"Isaiah 34:14 (JPS 1917)"
Mechon Mamre
. Archived from
the original
on 19 January 2021
. Retrieved
28 May
2020
Morray-Jones, Christopher R. A. (2002)
A transparent illusion: the dangerous vision of water in Hekhalot
. Brill.
ISBN
9004113371
. Vol. 59, p. 258: "Early evidence of the belief in a plurality of liliths is provided by the
Isaiah scroll
from Qumran, which gives the name as liliyyot, and by the targum to Isaiah, which, in both cases, reads" (Targum reads: "when Lilith the Queen of [Sheba] and of Margod fell upon them.")
Jahrbuch für Protestantische Theologie 1
, 1875. p. 128.
Levy, Moritz Abraham.
Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft
. Vol. ZDMG 9. 1885. pp. 470, 484.
Archived
from the original on 18 October 2011
. Retrieved
12 September
2010
"The Old Testament (Vulgate)/Isaias propheta"
. Wikisource (Latin).
Archived
from the original on 18 April 2023
. Retrieved
24 September
2007
"Parallel Latin Vulgate Bible and Douay-Rheims Bible and King James Bible; The Complete Sayings of Jesus Christ"
. Latin Vulgate.
Archived
from the original on 10 June 2023
. Retrieved
28 May
2020
Davis, Michael T.; Strawn, Brent A. (2007)
Qumran studies: new approaches, new questions
. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.
ISBN
9780802860804
. p. 47: "two manuscripts that date to the Herodian period, with 4Q510 slightly earlier".
Chilton, Bruce; Bock, Darrell and Gurtner, Daniel M. (2010)
A Comparative Handbook to the Gospel of Mark
. Brill. p. 84.
ISBN
9789004179738
"Lilith"
Biblical Archaeology Society
. 31 October 2019
. Retrieved
30 May
2020
Baumgarten, J. M. (1991). "On the Nature of the Seductress in 4Q184".
Revue de Qumran
15
(1/2 (57/58)):
133–
143.
JSTOR
24608925
Baumgarten, J. M. (2001).
"The seductress of Qumran"
Bible Review
17
(5):
21–
23, 42.
Collins, J. J. (1997)
Jewish wisdom in the Hellenistic age
. Westminster John Knox Press.
ISBN
9780664221096
"Jerusalem Talmud Shabbat 6:9:6"
Sefaria
In the Leiden manuscript a dash has been inserted between לי and לית to create לילית, presumably by the Venice printers, who indeed print לילית. Cambridge T-S F 17:32 f. 1r attests לי לי[ת], separated but with the final character lost to lacuna.
Moses Margolies
reads "Lilith" but
David Hirsch Fränkel
, followed by all modern scholars, restores the manuscript text.
Tractate Niddah in the Mishnah is the only tractate from the Order of Tohorot which has Talmud on it. The Jerusalem Talmud is incomplete here, but the Babylonian Talmud on Tractate Niddah (2a–76b) is complete.
Aish (18 August 2011).
"Lillith"
Aish.com
. Retrieved
29 May
2020
Kosior, Wojciech (2018).
"A Tale of Two Sisters: The Image of Eve in Early Rabbinic Literature and Its Influence on the Portrayal of Lilith in the Alphabet of Ben Sira"
Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies & Gender Issues
(32):
112–
130.
doi
10.2979/nashim.32.1.10
S2CID
166142604
Archived
from the original on 6 January 2023
. Retrieved
5 September
2018
Numbers Rabbah, in: Judaic Classics Library, Davka Corporation, 1999. (CD-ROM).
Shaked, Shaul (2013).
Aramaic bowl spells : Jewish Babylonian Aramaic bowls. Volume one
. Ford, James Nathan; Bhayro, Siam; Morgenstern, Matthew; Vilozny, Naama. Leiden.
ISBN
9789004229372
OCLC
854568886
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link
Lesses, Rebecca (2001). "Exe(o)rcising Power: Women as Sorceresses, Exorcists, and Demonesses in Babylonian Jewish Society of Late Antiquity".
Journal of the American Academy of Religion
69
(2):
343–
375.
doi
10.1093/jaarel/69.2.343
JSTOR
1465786
PMID
20681106
Descenders to the chariot: the people behind the Hekhalot literature
, p. 277 James R. Davila – 2001: "that they be used by anyone and everyone. The whole community could become the equals of the sages. Perhaps this is why nearly every house excavated in the Jewish settlement in Nippur had one or more incantation bowl buried in it."
Yamauchi, Edwin M. (October–December 1965). "Aramaic Magic Bowls".
Journal of the American Oriental Society
85
(4):
511–
523.
doi
10.2307/596720
JSTOR
596720
Isbell, Charles D. (March 1978). "The Story of the Aramaic Magical Incantation Bowls".
The Biblical Archaeologist
41
(1):
5–
16.
doi
10.2307/3209471
JSTOR
3209471
S2CID
194977929
Montgomery, James Alan (2011).
Aramaic Incantation Texts from Nippur
. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 156.
ISBN
978-0-511-79285-4
The attribution to the sage
Ben Sira
is considered false, with the true author unknown.
"BEN SIRA, ALPHABET OF - JewishEncyclopedia.com"
www.jewishencyclopedia.com
. Retrieved
23 June
2022
Alphabet of Ben Sirah, Question #5 (23a–b).
Humm, Alan.
Lilith in the Alphabet of Ben Sira
Archived
22 February 1997 at the
Wayback Machine
Segal, Eliezer.
Looking for Lilith
Archived
18 December 2001 at the
Wayback Machine
Geoffrey W. Dennis,
The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic and Mysticism: Second Edition
"Jewish Encyclopedia demonology"
Humm, Alan.
Lilith, Samael, & Blind Dragon
Archived
22 February 1997 at the
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