Genesis 6:1-4
expanded versions in Enoch, Jubilees, etc.
A second etiology of evil
First encounter with Samael
Enuma elish (Babylonian creation story)
Marduk (// God) defeats chaos monster (Tiamat)
before creation
Use of cognate 'Tehom' in Genesis 1
Occasional references in Bible to God's defeat of a
primordial dragon-monster (Rahab)
Demons in Jewish folklore
Portrayal of sorcerers and witches
Rabbis as supernatural adepts (anti-sorcerers)
Demonic world as more 'other' than hostile
hostility stems from boundary/space disputes
Bluebeard theme
Demon bride/husband motif
Journeys through Hell
Historical backdrop to some folk stories?
Lilith and Asmodeus
Lilith
Ancient
Gilgamesh Prologue
Burney Relief
Isaiah
Dead Sea Scrolls, 2 Baruch
role as strangler
parallels in
Lamashtu
Persephone
Amulets and apotropaic magic
Arslan-Tash
Testament of Solomon
Persian demon bowls
Talmud and early medieval references
emerging double nature
strangler (baby stealer) and succubus
Adam's post-paradise laison
Alphabet of ben Sira
Lilith as first wife of Adam
midrash on double creation of woman
Alternative: androgyny of first human
varieties of androgyny / hermaphroditism
etiology of Lilith the demoness
explanation of amulets with names Senoy,
Sansenoy, & Semangelof
dubious origins of story & its eventual rise in
popularity
Question of the story's origin
as man's story:
even as equal Lilith is lesser (created
second and from slime)
as result of demanding own way becomes
demon
is replaced by the better woman
as woman's story:
Adam portrayed as self-centered, whining,
and egotistical
Lilith asserts her equality
Heroically accepts expulsion from paradise,
loss of husband and death of her own children as
necessary cost of freedom
Asserts her own sexuality and right to
sexual pleasure
Kabbala
relation to Gnositcism
God manifest as asexual, androgynous, and in
gendered pairs
Malkut and Shekina
exile of the Shekina
The left emanation
Lilith/Samael as the Din (justice) of
God
Lilith as temptress/executioner
must seek permission from throne of God
before executing punishment
Lilith as the serpent of the Temptation of Adam & Eve
Kabbalistic story in which she sexually seduces Eve
pollution yields menstruation
Adam's sin comes from sexual contact with
polluted eve
some Christian parallels in which the 'fruit of
the tree of knowledge' is viewed as sexual
'knowledge' = intercourse
Late medieval and renaissance Christian iconography
of serpent as woman
question of whether this might be Lilith
what variety of story might be behind it?
Possible connection between kabbala and alchemical
speculation