{"id":18235,"date":"2025-07-03T07:00:46","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T11:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblicalarchaeology.org\/?p=18235"},"modified":"2025-07-02T12:43:53","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T16:43:53","slug":"lilith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblicalarchaeology.org\/daily\/people-cultures-in-the-bible\/people-in-the-bible\/lilith\/","title":{"rendered":"Lilith"},"content":{"rendered":"

Read Janet Howe Gaines\u2019s article \u201cLilith\u201d as it originally appeared in <\/em>Bible Review, October 2001.\u2014Ed.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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Winged spirits tumble across the night sky in New York artist Richard Callner\u2019s \u201cLovers: Birth of Lilith\u201d (1964), now in a private collection. According to medieval Jewish tradition, Lilith was Adam\u2019s first wife, before Eve. When Adam insisted she play a subservient role, Lilith grew wings and flew away from Eden. Artist Callner identifies the large figure (right of center) as Lilith. Lilith\u2019s character was not created out of whole cloth, however; the medieval authors drew on ancient legends of the winged lil\u012btu\u2014a seductive, murderous demoness known from Babylonian mythology. In recent years, Lilith has undergone another transformation as modern feminists retell her story. In the accompanying article, Janet Howe Gaines traces the evolution of Lilith. Image: Courtesy of Richard Callner, Latham, NY.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

For 4,000 years Lilith has wandered the earth<\/a>, figuring in the mythic imaginations of writers, artists and poets. Her dark origins lie in Babylonian demonology, where amulets and incantations were used to counter the sinister powers of this winged spirit who preyed on pregnant women and infants. Lilith next migrated to the world of the ancient Hittites<\/a>, Egyptians<\/a>, Israelites<\/a> and Greeks<\/a>. She makes a solitary appearance in the Bible, as a wilderness demon shunned by the prophet Isaiah<\/a>. In the Middle Ages she reappears in Jewish sources as the dreadful first wife of Adam<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the Renaissance, Michelangelo portrayed Lilith as a half-woman, half-serpent, coiled around the Tree of Knowledge. Later, her beauty would captivate the English poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti. \u201cHer enchanted hair,\u201d he wrote, \u201cwas the first gold.\u201d1<\/a><\/sup> Irish novelist James Joyce cast her as the \u201cpatron of abortions<\/a>.\u201d2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Modern feminists celebrate her bold struggle for independence from Adam. Her name appears as the title of a Jewish women\u2019s magazine and a national literacy program. An annual music festival that donates its profits to battered women\u2019s shelters and breast cancer research institutes is called the Lilith Fair.<\/p>\n

In most manifestations of her myth, Lilith represents chaos, seduction and ungodliness. Yet, in her every guise, Lilith has cast a spell on humankind.<\/p>\n

The ancient name \u201cLilith\u201d derives from a Sumerian word for female demons or wind spirits\u2014the lil\u012btu<\/em> and the related ardat lil\u01d0<\/em>. The lil\u012btu<\/em> dwells in desert lands and open country spaces and is especially dangerous to pregnant women and infants. Her breasts are filled with poison, not milk. The ardat lil\u012b<\/em> is a sexually frustrated and infertile female who behaves aggressively toward young men.<\/p>\n

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FREE ebook: Exploring Genesis: The Bible\u2019s Ancient Traditions in Context<\/strong>\r\nMesopotamian creation myths, Joseph\u2019s relationship with Egyptian temple practices and 3 tales of Ur, the birthplace of Abraham.\r\n<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t