Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained.  In today’s video, we’re going to discuss Lilith,   the queen of hell, mother of  demons, angel of prosti.tution,   killer of pregnant women and infants, Adam’s first  wife, and seducer of men. We’re going to start off  

By looking at a couple of allusions to her in  the Old Testament. Following that, we’re going   to look at early influences that originated in  Mesopotamia, and finally, we’re going to look at   the tide of information presented in various  works published throughout the Middle Ages. Let’s get into it.

Lilith barely features in scripture: she’s  absent from the Quran and doesn’t appear in   the New Testament; it’s only in the  Old Testament that she’s included,   and even then, her inclusion depends either  on the translation or on the interpretation.

In the Book of Genesis, which is the first book  of the Old Testament that describes the Cosmogony   (the creation of the universe) and the  anthropogony (the origination of humanity),   the creation of women is described  twice, each with different wording,  

Which has led to some interesting theories and  stories that endeavor to reconcile the two. The first instance reads as follows: “So God created man in his own image,   in the image of God created he him;  male and female created he them.”

One interpretation of this passage is that  God created the first man and the first woman   simultaneously, which, by this  reckoning, places it at odds   with the second instance in which the  creation of the first woman is described. Here’s the passage that  describes the second instance:

“And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon  Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs,   and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and  the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man,  

Made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.  And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones,   and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called  Woman, because she was taken out of man.” To reconcile the two accounts, one version, such  as the one given in the Alphabet of Ben Sira,  

Which we’ll expand on later, explains that  the woman created at the same time as Adam   in the first passage is a different person  than Eve, the woman created from Adam’s rib   in the second passage. Moreover, this version  holds that the woman created in the first passage  

Is actually Lilith, making her Adam’s first wife.   Again, we’ll cover this part of lilith’s  story in greater detail later in the video. The other mention of Lilith in the Old  Testament is given in the Book of Isaiah,   though her inclusion by name depends  on the language and the translation.

In the JPS parallel Hebrew and English version  of the Tanakh, Isaiah 34:14 reads as follows: “And the Wild-cats shall meet with the jackals,  and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; yea,   the night-monster shall repose there,  and shall find her place of rest.”

Night monster is indistinct and ambiguous, but  many other translations, either of the Tanakh or   of the Old Testament, have seen various monsters  and animals substituted in, including: Lilith,   night specter, night creature, night hag,  Lamia (a female monster of Greek origin that  

Preys on children), night bird, and screech  owl. This last is especially interesting   because it parallels a detail of the Queen of the  Night plaque, which is nearly 4,000 years old,   made in ancient Babylon sometime between  1800 – 1750 BCE. It depicts a winged woman  

With talons for feet standing on two lions  flanked by a perched owl on either side.   Who this figure is isn’t known for certain, but  the list of possibilities has been whittled down   to just a few candidates: Ishtar,  goddess of war and sexual love,  

Ereshkigal, ruler of the underworld, or the  demon Lilitu, who became later known as Lilith. And this takes us into the part of the  video that looks at Lilith’s origins. Lilith, a female demon infamous for  preying on infants and pregnant women,  

And for copulating with sleeping men, thereby  birthing a plethora of demons into the world, is   a central figure in Jewish demonology. You could  say that Lilith, as conceptualized in Jewish lore,   is but one expression of an archetype, that of  the demon who targets infants and pregnant women,  

That seems to rear its head across cultures and  millenia, particularly in the near East. If this   is tracked backwards through time, it looks as  though Lilith’s origins can be connected back   to ancient Mesopotamia. She briefly  features in the Epic of Gilgamesh,  

A Sumerian work, and she’s identified with Lilu  and Lilitu, respectively, male and female spirits   of ancient Babylon – both of them notorious for  attacking infants and women in labour. Another   figure who shares this MO is Lamashtu, either  a goddess or demon, who endangered women during  

Childbirth and even abducted infants as they  suckled at their mother’s breast. In appearance,   she was a hideous amalgamation of many animals,  having the head of a lion, the talons of a bird   of prey, the teeth of a donkey, a body covered in  hair, blood-stained hands, and long fingers with  

Long nails. Another variety of demon germane  to Lilith is the Ardat-Lili, which rendered   men impotent as a sort of revenge for itself not  being able to copulate. Sometimes women were also   targeted and rendered infertile. In appearance  it looks like a wolf with a scorpion’s tail.

Much of the best known information surrounding  Lilith comes from the Alphabet of Ben Sira,   a work thought to have been written sometime in  the Geonic period, which lasted from the late   sixth to the mid-eleventh centuries CE. The third  part describes Ben Sira recounting 22 stories to  

Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. One of these  gives an alternative anthropogeny. Rather than   Eve being created from one of Adam’s ribs, it  describes Lilith, not only as the first woman,   but also as being created from the earth just as  Adam was. Unfortunately, their relationship is  

Characterized by acrimony and incessant fighting,  and ultimately, Lilith refuses to submit to Adam;   so she invokes God’s name and flies  away. Three angels, Senoy, Sansenoy   and Semangelof, are sent after her, and they  eventually catch up with her; but she negotiates  

Her way out of the encounter, promising to be  repelled by any amulets bearing their likeness,   which is why thereafter such amulets were used to  ward her off, safeguarding those she preyed on:   pregnant women and infants. Furthermore, she also  accedes to 100 of her children perishing each day. 

Here’s a quote that describes this: “He also created a woman, 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…. The angels left God and pursued Lilith, whom   they overtook in the midst of the sea… 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.’”  In one account, after the fall of man, which  resulted in the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the  

Garden of Eden, the first man and the first woman  became separated for 130 years. During that time,   Lilith returned to Adam and copulated with him in  his sleep; supposedly the son that resulted from   their coupling turned into a frog. Another  account, the one given by Rabbi Eliezer in  

The Book of Adam and Eve, claims that at one time  Lilith was bearing Adam 100 children per day. The   Zohar depicts Lilith as “a hot fiery female who at  first cohabited with man”, who “flew to the cities  

Of the sea coast” when Eve was created. The cabala  portrays her as the demon of Friday, who appears   as a naked woman with a snake’s tail for legs.  Another description maintains the nude upper body,   but gives her a column of fire for legs. And in  Talmudic Lore, Lilith is presented as an immortal  

Demon who will continue to plague mankind until  God eradicates evil from the face of the earth. Eventually, a profusion of early traditions  coalesced, and from them emerged two predominant   activities associated with Lilith: the strangling  of newly born children and the seduction of men.  

Regarding the latter, it was thought that  anytime a man woke up with wet undergarments,   made so by the nightly discharge of seed, it was  indicative of Lilith having paid them a visit   and seducing them in their sleep. And in this she  was thought so prolific that a virtually infinite  

Number of demonic spawn were attributed to her,  said to be her brood – legions upon legions   sired by unwitting men as they slept. Apparently,  people were so wary of her erotic powers   that in some Jewish communities it was commonplace  for sons not to accompany their father’s as their  

Bodies were laid to rest in graveyards, sparing  them the shame of bearing witness to all their   demonic half-blood siblings, those conceived when  Lilith seduced the father. Because of this, In the   Zohar as well as other sources, Lilith is known  by many colourful appellations that denigrate  

For lasciviousness and wantonness. These include:  the black, the wicked, the false, and the harlot.  In Zoharaistic cabal, Lilith, along with  Eisheth Zenunim, Naamah, and Agrat bat Mahlaht,   three angels of prostitution, was one of the  consorts of Samael, a figure with many identities,  

Not all of them evil, depending on the version;  among them were: the great serpent with 12 wings,   a prince of hell, and another name for Satan,  especially in Jewish lore. As conceptualised in   Kabbalism, Lilith was given preeminence, becoming  the principal and permanent partner of Samael –  

Basically, in effect, crowned queen of hell. And that’s it for this video! If you enjoy the   content please LIKE the video  and SUBSCRIBE to the channel As always, leave your video suggestions down below

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