The Story Behind the Figure of Lilith

Who was Lilith? Was she really Adam's first wife? Or was she a goddess or a demon?

Lilith makes her first appearance as Lillake in 2000 B.C. on Sumerian tablets in the prologue to the tale of Gilgamesh.

On these Sumerian tablets, Lillake is a demon that lives in a willow tree along the banks of the river Euphrates and is looked after by the goddess Inanna. She is the maiden who has stolen the light and identifies herself with the moon. Inanna sent the beautiful and unmarried Lillake out into the night to lead the men of the world astray.

One translation of this reads: "A serpent who could not be charmed made its nest in the roots of the tree. The Anzu bird set his young in the branches of the tree, and the dark maid Lilith built her home in the trunk."

The Gilgamesh passage has been subscribed to the Burney relief which is preserved from Babylonian times and was bought by the British Museum and named "Queen of the Night." The relief shows a woman with bird talons that is surrounded by owls. However, more than a few scholars doubt that this is Lilitu or Lillake.

Lilith also comes from the Assyrian Lilitu, who was said to be a female wind demon or spirit and mentioned in the spells of the Babylonians. In the language of the Sumerians, lil means air. The Sumerian god Enlil was the lord of air.

Lilitu preyed upon children and was associated with things like storms, deserts and disease.

Another place that Lilith was derived from was from the Sumerian-Babylonian Ardat Lili. Ardatu was a word that meant a young woman of marrying age. So the Ardat Lili was a very young spirit who has been given the honor of starting the "night hag syndrome." This is when a person awakens to find that he or she cannot move and is temporarily paralyzed in their beds. The Ardat Lili was also a succubus who caused men to have erotic dreams.

An interesting fact also is that lulu was the Sumerian word for wantonness and lalu for luxuriousness.

The Hebrews took Lilith from the word layil, which means night, as Lilith was said to be a monster who roamed the world at nighttime and was a demon. Solomon secretly believed that the Queen of Sheba was Lilith.