Lilith, Sumerian Demoness
Long before she was Adam's first wife, she was a feared creature of the night...
You may recognize the name Lilith from her brief but colorful role in Jewish folklore as the first wife of Adam, created separate and equal from the same earth as her husband, not an animated rib taken from the chest of her mate.
Lilith famously abandoned the Garden of Eden after refusing to submit to Adam, becoming a symbol of independence and defiance. She’s historically been interpreted as either a cautionary tale about the evil nature of the dark feminine, or a modern fuck-the-patriarchy icon.
Ancient Origins
But rewind the clock to around 3,000 BC, and Lilith was a species of night demon in ancient Sumerian and Akkadian mythology, associated with chaos, storms, and the untamed wilderness.
Her named derived from Sumerian and Akkadian words like lilu, lilītu, and ardat lilî, demons of the night and wind known for bringing disease and death, especially to pregnant women and newborns.
These demons were believed to roam the night, carried on the desert winds, preying on the vulnerable and seducing men in their sleep.
The Real Danger
It’s funny (if that’s the word) trying to imagine the real world anxieties and tribulations that fed into these kinds of ancient cautionary stories.
Throughout ancient times in every part of the world, women of childbearing age succumbed to mysterious diseases and misunderstood side effects of pregnancy. I mean, it wasn’t until the late 19th century when germs were finally identified by microscope, that doctors delivering babies realized the importance of washing their hands first. (Thank you, Dr. Semmelweis!)
Pregnancy and childbirth have always been fraught with dangers, but disease and medical malpractice weren’t the only things fertile young women had to fear. Then as now, statistically speaking, no one presents a greater danger to women than the male partners and relatives to whom they entrust their safety.
In fact, the murder of new brides and pregnant wives by their husbands has been one of the leading causes of death for women ever since the advent of marriage.
Marriage, after all, is an institution, and any institution that entraps people and leaves them with few—overly complicated and socially stigmatized—means of getting out, creates an incentive for some to commit unspeakable acts in order to escape.
Think of all the true crime stories of men murdering their wives because they fell in love with someone else and didn’t want to go through the messy, fault-finding process of divorce.
These narcissists don’t want to be known as the asshole who abandoned the mother of their children, so they roll the dice that they won’t find her body, and trace it back to the one person with a motive to kill her.
That shit’s been going on since the dawn of time. But back in the day, they could blame it on night demons.
Feminist Icon
So how did Lilith the devourer of young mothers get the mother of all makeovers to become the feminist icon she is today?
The duality and enduring appeal of Lilith across the millennia just goes to show how deeply rooted and conflicted our feelings about strong, independent woman are.
Is she an evil temptress, out for the blood of innocent young mothers, or a solitary child of the divine, who wouldn’t take shit from anyone, not even the original son of god?
Yes! She contains multitudes, just like all the women who came after her.