Lilith: The Mother of Demons or The First Woman? (Demonology Explained)

when looking at demonology and the various figures that appear all throughout religion there is one female figure one name more so than any other that has transcended across numerous cultures and even to this day still routinely appears as a character in all sorts of popular culture and that name is Lilith [Music] [Music] [Music] some of you may remember in the video discussing the succubus Lilith was a name that appeared as an early example the most common description of Lilith however is as a demon of the night seductive and sexual in nature but also deadly and if that wasn't enough she also waits until the cover of darkness to steal babies and young children this concept can be traced all the way back to ancient Mesopotamian religion where there once existed a figure known as Lamaze - the daughter of the sky God our new to some she was an evil goddess to others a demon a monster that plagued women during childbirth one that would steal their children suck out their blood and marrow only to gnaw on the bones that remain the mothers themselves are not safe from lemaster and neither were their unborn children as she could make women miscarry as one of the most terrifying demons in Mesopotamian myth her actions were not just limited to pregnant women she would drink the blood and eat the flesh of men she infected ones dreams until only nightmares were left wherever she went she was followed by sickness disease and death with these stories of lamashtu we can definitely see a parallel with creatures such as vampires and succubi today many think of lilith as the first wife of Adam who rebelled and was later replaced by Eve this idea stems from the book of Genesis the very first book in both the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament Genesis one details the creation of the universe as well as everything inside of it it says that God created the heavens the earth vegetation animals and lastly mankind in his own image to rule over what he had created what's important to note is that Genesis 1 states that he created both man and woman at the same time Genesis 2 is very similar discussing the creation of the universe but it differs in regards to the creation of man and woman here a man was created first not wanting his creation to be alone God sent man into a deep slumber and took from him a rib which he would use to create the first woman so essentially you have two contradicting accounts of our creation one right after the other too many the Word of God is sacred and therefore cannot contradict itself this led to scholars explaining the differences between Genesis 1 and 2 as describing two separate events rather than two accounts of the same event this in turn created the need for a story that explained these differences which would be found in what is referred to as Midrash the explanation here is that God needed to create woman twice once with man and then again from man the woman in the first story isn't identified in Genesis but would eventually be known as Lilith the woman in the second story is who we know from the Bible as Eve so if you've ever heard the story of Eve being created from Adam's rib that is the story found in Genesis 2 lilith also appears in the talmud and these accounts are far less ambiguous than what we see in genesis she appears here a total of four times and is never referred to as Adams wife where the Babylonians referred to Lilu as winged male demons the talmud speaks of Lilith or Lily - as a demon with wings and the face of a woman it says that a man sleeping in a house alone may be seized by Lilith it said that she collected the semen of men while they slept in order to create more demon offspring which again can be seen as one of the earliest examples of the succubus she is then also associated with several demons one of these be in the a Grethe a demon of the Knights who preys on children and the vulnerable so far we can see two distinct images of Lilith the woman and the demon but what happened in this middle ground from when she was created all the way up until she became a demon stories explaining this were developed in much more detail around the Middle Ages so from the 5th century to the 15th details of Ben Sira and the alphabet of serac are pieces of work that echo a sentiment that many scholars and scribes seem to agree upon when Adam and Lilith were created neither one of them wanted to submit to the other two somnus justement who assumed the dominant role in the relationship whereas others took this to mean neither one wanted to assume the bottom position during sex as it was a sign of subservience with neither one of them willing to compromise lilith then fled the Garden of Eden out loud she then pronounced God's real name and in doing so she instantly became a winged demon when the Angels pursued her in the hopes of bringing her back she told them she had no intention of returning as punishment for her disobedience the three angels who found her promised to kill 100 of her demon children every day her purpose now was only to cause illness and sickness to the infants of others whenever a child was born she would claim dominion over that child for eight days if they were boy and 20 if they were a girl with this they came only one compromise whenever she saw the name over any of these three angels inscribed on a medallion or an amulet that child would be left alone there isn't much surviving material from the Akkadian Empire that allows for an in-depth analysis of Lamaze - or they Lily - in relation to Lilith but what we do know from the Babylonians and Sumerians is that all of these creatures were fairly similar and it's not a huge stretch to say that they may have influenced Lilith story in some way the lack of information regarding her origin is made up for by how popular her story was the Middle Ages mark this period like no other with numerous tellings and interpretations depictions of her varied from a beautiful woman to a more sinister demon and some even saw her as the snake in the Garden of Eden who tempted Eve with the forbidden fruit as one final act of revenge as time went on there were folktales at so Lilith as a demon Queen and thus related to Asmodeus who many consider to be the king of demons Asmodeus been mentioned in the book of Tobit the talmud and numerous other scriptures means it's not really a huge surprise that lilith and he were paired together as the mother and father of demons together they had thousands of demon children and traveled from village to village causing chaos and destruction in some stories she's also closely linked of Samael who himself is a rather odd character some teachings in the cabal go as far to say that Lilith was Sam Isles consort and that it was not God who created her but instead Samael who made himself a demon wife who filled the role later intended for Eve he also gave her a host of demonic children one of these being Asmodeus who we mentioned earlier throughout all these stories there are three main signs to Lilith the woman who rebelled against God and Adam which is the side we see the least of the seductive demoness who plagued the dreams of men to grow her demonic family and lastly the monster who preyed upon pregnant women devouring their children when I first read about Lilith I immediately drew some parallels between her and some of the creatures we see in Greek mythology when you think of an odious and foul-smelling bird-like creature the harpies certainly come to mind but so do the sirens who have a more seductive nature however the character who closest resembles and embodies these three signs of Lilith is Lamia these three stages almost mirrored in her story she begins as a regular woman who falls victim to lust and as a result her children are killed as a punishment she's then transformed into a monster in some telling is Lamia and the Lamia of vampiric demons who feed off the blood of young handsome men there are also versions of this story where instead of young men she hunts for children forever seeking revenge for those she had lost much like Lilith Lamia was intended to be a cautionary tale a boogeyman like figure although her story is much less about rebellion and more so the dangers of lust honestly stories of Lilith are rather confusing it's only really because of stories from Midrash and other scholars that we can even draw a link between the demon and the wife of Adam however this hasn't really harmed her representation in popular culture there are a few references that I remember but looking into it further I was definitely surprised that the number of books movies games and TV shows that her name actually appears in fans of Chronicles of Narnia may or may not know that the White Witch is actually a descendant of the first wife of Adam which in this case is of course Lilith in the TV show True Blood and the movie 30 Days of Night Lilith appears as the name of a vampire and this is honestly quite a common trend when she does appear it's either as a succubus or a vampire old school supernatural fans may remember her as the first human to be tempted by Lucifer into becoming a demon speaking of Lucifer and that show she's also referred to as the mother of demons one that I missed that actually has quite an interesting take on Lilith story is the Fifth Element which sounds quite weird to say considering it's a futuristic sci-fi Lilu is portrayed in a similar way to Adam's first wife and her speaking ancient Aramaic now makes more sense than when I watched the movie as a kid instead of destroying humanity she actually ends up saving it turning the original story on its head when it comes to video games if you've played anything remotely populated slightly you've seen her name somewhere as it appears in final fantasy Borderlands Diablo Darksiders Devil May Cry and many many more personally I think Lilith has an interesting story regardless of how confusing and stitched together the original references may be whether you see it as a fall from grace or a rebellious uprising it's a very universal concept which is why I think it's referenced so often today it may also have something to do with the occult and modern fantasy going hand in let me know what you think about her story and whether you noticed how often she appears today if you have enjoyed the artwork animations for this video they were created by the very talented mando Teresa who also made the Medusa artwork in animations so if you'd like to check her work out there'll be a link to her YouTube channel on other socials in the description of this video I am also excited to announce that due to popular demand many of these episodes will soon be in podcast form on all the major platforms so if that's something you're interested in keep an eye out for that as always I've been your host mythology in fiction explained [Music] [Music]

Channel: Mythology & Fiction Explained

Views: 1,078,118

Rating: 4.9332414 out of 5

Keywords: Lilith, Lilith: The First Wife of Adam, Who is Lilith?, Lilith: The First Woman?, Mythology and fiction explained, Lilith: The Mother of Monsters or First Woman?, Demonlogy, lamashtu, diablo lilith, diablo 4, darksiders lilith, lilith supernatural

Id: yHJP0NaU1ws

Length: 13min 7sec (787 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 21 2020