Feature Writer: Howard Schwartz
Feature Title: The Many Names of Lilith
Link: From “Lilith’s Cave,” Lilith’s Cave: Jewish tales of the supernatural, edited by Howard Schwartz (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988)
The Many Names of Lilith
Lilith was known by many names. In Jewish lore, Elijah met Lilith and forced her to reveal her various disguises. Here are the names, as well as a collection from other sources, as well (Ashley 77):
Abeko, Abito, Abro, Abyzu, Ailo, Alu, Amiz, Amizo, Amizu, Ardad Lili, Avitu, Batna, Bituah, Eilo, Gallu, Gelou, Gilou, ‘Ik, ‘Ils, Ita, Izorpo, Kalee’, Kali, Kakash, Kea, Kema, Kokos, Lamassu, Lilith, Odam, Partasah, Partasha, Patrota, Petrota, Podo, Pods, Raphi, Satrina, Satrinah, Talto, Thilthoh, Zariel, Zephonith
Rosetti: “Lilith”
Appealing to both magicians and feminists past and present, Lilith, or Lilitu (“wind-spirit” in Assyrian-Babylonian mythology) was a ravenous sexual entrepreneur. In legend, Lilith was the first wife of Adam. She was either created as Adam’s Siamese twin (joined together at the back), or was made from filth. Either way, Lilith demanded equality with Adam.
Presumably, Lilith and Adam led a happy enough life until they got horny. When it came time for Lilith and Adam to share carnal knowledge, Adam was upset that Lilith wouldn’t assume the missionary position. She wanted, according to some accounts, to lay side-by-side. In other accounts, she wanted to be on top. In either case, Adam was miffed and refused Lilith’s wants. When he tried to force himself upon her, she uttered the magical name of God, rose into the air, and flew away to find more amenable sexual partners.
Her sex life soon changed dramatically. She had riotous erotic adventures with fallen angels, and together they spawned a huge family of demons called the lilim, creatures virtually identical to the succubi of Christian demonology.
In Muslim lore, however, Lilith indulged in her sexual wants with Satan, and together they spawned the djinn or genies.
Angelic Intervention
In the meantime, Adam was left alone and complaining. Three angels, Semangelaf, Sanvi, and Sansanvi, were sent to retrieve the wayward Lilith. The three angels discovered her by the Red Sea where she was giving birth to more than one hundred lilim a day. The angels entreated her to return to Eden with them.
She refused, saying, “Leave me! 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.”
Semangelaf, Sanvi, and Sansanvi then resorted to blackmail. For each day that Lilith refused to return to Eden, the angels would slaughter one hundred of her demon children. Again, she refused, and she was punished accordingly.
Since Lilith would not return and Adam wouldn’t stop whining, God acquiesced to Adam’s wishes. He created the much-more-subservient (although not quite subservient enough) Eve. We all know what happened afterwards.
Because Lilith left before the Fall, she wasn’t plagued by the curse of death as were Eve and Adam. Lilith went on to become a demon in her own right, or perhaps an avenging angel. She sought revenge for the deaths of her children. She launched a war on women in childbirth and on newborn babies (especially boys).
Nevertheless, she was forced by the three angels to swear she would not harm mothers and children protected by certain amulets. These amulets bore the names of Sanvi, Sansanvi, and Semangelaf.
As late as the 18th century, mothers and children across many cultures took advantage of the protection offered by these amulets. Charms and rituals accompanied the use of the amulets, protecting mothers and infants from the retribution of Lilith. Baby girls were considered vulnerable in their first three weeks of life. Boys were believed to be vulnerable for longer periods of time, however. Any boy under the age of eight was possible prey.
To protect their children, parents drew a charcoal or natron circle of protection on a wall of the child’s bedchamber. Inside the circle was written “Adam and Eve, barring Lilith,” “protect this child from harm,” or “Adam and Eve. Out, Lilith!” The names of Sanvi, Sansanvi, and Semangelaf were written on the door. “Sometimes amulets with such inscriptions were placed in all corners and throughout the bedchamber. If a child laughed in its sleep, it was a sign that Lilith was present. Tapping the child on the nose made the demon go away”
However, it wasn’t only women and children who feared Lilith. Men sought explanation for their wet dreams. The retribution unleashed by Lilith in response to her children’s deaths was also aimed at men who slept alone. According to the Talmud, “It is indiscreet for one to sleep in a house as the sole occupant, for Lilith will seize him” (Wedeck 88).
Men who experienced nocturnal emissions believed they had been seduced by Lilith, queen of the succubi, in their sleep. These men said incantations in order to prevent any resulting offspring from becoming demons. Some men weren’t so lucky. The unlucky ones had their blood sucked out of them. In this way, the insatiable Lilith, along with the equally ancient Lamia, was a vampire.
As queen of the succubi, Lilith was believed to have been aided in her nightly endeavors by her minions. Her demon lover Samael (whose name means “sinister” or “left”) would frolic with Lilith and the succubi near the “mountains of darkness.”
Lilith in Holy Writings
Several Biblical scriptures reference Lilith, although the references are not inherently obvious. The only reason, in fact, that I suspect these verses are about Lilith, is that I’ve discovered so many other sources which claim this is so. I’ll let you judge for yourself:
Psalm 91:5 — “Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night.” (This terror is Lilith.)
Isaiah 34:14-15 — “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. There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate.”
I Kings 3:16 — “Then came there two women, that were harlots, unto the king, and stood before him.” (The king here is Solomon, who suspected the Queen of Sheba to be Lilith because of her hairy legs.)
Numbers 6:26 — “The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.” (In other translations, this priestly blessing becomes “The Lord bless thee in all thy doings, and preserve thee from the Lilim!”)
In addition, it was believed to have been Lilith who murdered the sons of Job.
The following is an excerpt from a Jewish folktale:
The wife brought the mirror and all of the fine furnishings in the cellar to her own home and proudly displayed it. She hung the mirror in the room of their daughter, who was a dark-haired coquette. The girl glanced at herself in the mirror all the time, and in this way she was drawn into Lilith’s web … For that mirror had hung in the the den of demons, and a daughter of Lilith had made her home there. And when the mirror was taken from the haunted house, the Demoness came with it. For every mirror is a gateway to the Other World and leads directly to Lilith’s cave. That is the cave Lilith went to when she abandoned Adam and the Garden of Eden for all time, the cave where she sported with her demon lovers. From these unions multitudes of demons were born, who flocked from that cave and infiltrated the world. And when they want to return, they simply enter the nearest mirror. That is why it is said that Lilith makes her home in every mirror …
Now the daughter of Lilith who made her home in that mirror watched every movement of the girl who posed before it. She bided her time and one day she slipped out of the mirror and took possession of the girl, entering through her eyes. In this way she took control of her, stirring her desire at will … So it happened that this young girl, driven by the evil wishes of Lilith’s daughter, ran around with young men who lived in the same neighborhood.