I saw a show, maybe on Discovery awhile back ostensibly about Angels but more about the history of the human perception of spirit beings.
I didn’t catch it all but they spoke a little regarding a character called “Lilith” who apparently, in non Biblical sources, has something to do with Adam and Eve.
I thought I would look it up but then decided to present the question to my favorite highly educated, diverse and opinionated group.
Anyone?
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~humm/Topics/Lilith/
For all your Lilith requirements.
Interestingly…
“…she is often countered by invoking the powers of her nemesis angels: Snvi, Snsvi, and Smnglof (we don’t know what vowels to use with these names, but presumably they were intended to be pronounceable).”
One wonders whether the invocation was the forerunner of the Schni schna schnappi tune?
That tune has been in my head all morning, Gary, and I hadn’t even seen this thread yet!
I’ll hold of reading that link until I see what others post.
If Snvi, Snsvi, and Smnglof is a forrunner of Schni Schna Schnappi then I’d guess they appeared as crocodiles.
My guess is that Lilith is tied in with the Earth Mother concept (i.e Astarte, Isis, Persephone etc) and by extension the Sacred Queen and Sacrifical King idea upon which Robert Graves bases his interpretation of Greek Mythology.
It was a stroke of comic genius to name ‘Lilith’ the
feminist Jewish psychotherapist
on Cheers.
In the Jewish creation myth, Lilith was Adam’s first wife. It didn’t work out, so she became a kind of demon, and Adam got another wife, Eve.
When they were assembling the “official” books of the Bible, they picked a version of Genesis that didn’t mention Lilith, probably an early case of the KISS principle at work.
–James
It looks like the earliest mention of a Lilith as Adam’s first wife is in a medieval document called “The Alphabet of Bin Sira”. Since the Pentatuch was written and compiled much earlier then the 10th century AD I’d be hard pressed, (at this point), to believe there was ever a competition between the Biblical account of creation and the Lilith story. A cursory scan of online sources indicates a lineage of Jewish mysticism distinct from orthodox Judism.
References to “Secret Knowledge” and the duality between spirit and matter indicates at least a minor relation to Gnosticism but I will reserve opinion until I’ve searched further. This could take a year or two.
Any other thoughts, insites?
Yes, Flydood, it’s that minor relation to Gnosticism that’s got me thinking too.
That and the fact that in some of the early portraits extant, Lilith was a well fit bird.
Another striking observation about the Lilith story as told in the Alphabet is her unwillingness to be subservient to Adam. The message of equality of the sexes surprised me considering the date of writing. A Google search revealed, as I expected, an embracing of Lilith by many modern feminist groups. Note that I don’t use the word feminist in a derogatory sense, it’s just the best word I could think of.
The Gnostic connection has panned out. The Gnosis Archive Online contains an interesting page about Lilith. Their source is good old Robert Graves. I’d missed the androgyny factor earlier or I would have been convinced.
Graves equates Lilith with the Babylonian “Lilitu”. A wind spirit. He does not make a clear connection between Lilith and the fertility goddesses I mentioned earlier. Instead he connects her with Hecate, goddess of the underworld and a host of other, unsavory, creatures. Some of these creatures kill infants, suck blood and seduce sleeping men. Are these related at all to vampires and succubi?
My scepticism may have been wrong earlier as well regarding the earliest use of the word “Lilith”
Isaiah 34 deals with the fate of Edom and verse 14 has several interesting translations.
Here’s the KJV:
The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest.
An interesting translation on “screech owl”. Other English translations have “night creature”,“night monster”,“night creatures” and “Lilith”.
According to Strong’s the Hebrew is “liyliyth”, pronounced lee-LEETH.
It’s used only once in the bible. It appears the translators of the KJV were quite liberal with the word “owl.” Most owl references refer to an unclean bird of some type. This may connect with what Gary mentioned in his post and may be why they translated lilyliyth to screech owl.
It’s even more curious since verse 15 uses “great owl” for “qippowz” itself is of uncertain meaning. The KJV also translates “yanshuwph” as “great owl” three times. Yanshuwph actually means “owl” or unclean bird.
So why is liyliyth translated screech owl? Now I need to search out this “liyliyth”.
Graves. Hmm. Please read him with a grain of salt.
Lilith is associated with Dark Goddesses, such as Hecate, but all that other “unsavory, seducing, bloodsucking” stuff is patriarchal folderol. If you look to other Goddesses associated with owls (Blodeuwedd, for example), you always get some sort of negative connotation. These types of Goddesses tend to be Initiators. They are catalysts for setting forth change in others. More often than not, as culture shifted to become more patriarchal in nature, Their stories were perverted to show them to be manipulators-- unsavory, blood-sucking, baby-eating seductresses. This was done in effort to shift public perception of them… wanting them to appear evil, as society moved away from its more pagan beliefs.
Many of the lessons They held were part of the deeper Mysteries… as the Priests and Priestesses who served them died off, so did the knowledge of Their true nature. Slowly but surely, however, the knowledge is being reclaimed and renewed.
A good book to read for some comparisons of Lilith is Women of the Celts, by Jean Markale. Though the book primarily deals with a Celtic archetype, the chapter called “The Rebellion of the Flower-Daughter” offers some great insight into Lilith and Her story. You can see a lot of similarities in the stories of Blodeuwedd, Lilith, and Pandora, as well as some others… always helpful when trying to extrapolate. 
Hi Ad. Thanks for the input. I was hoping you’d chime in.
Can you elaborate on the Owl association? That probably explains the translation I spoke of in Isaiah.
Any other parallels besides the aforementioned?
I’m still interested in the word origins. I may find more info there.
“folderol”? Cool word.
I think in Hebrew vowels are often left out or implied so it could be something like Sanevi, Sonosovi, Samengolof…or something. I’m not sure which vowels should be there, but think some probably should.
Gesundheit!
Cheers,
David
I’m not as pale as THAT Lilith. Just as pale as Frazier Crane’s ex-wife Lilith.
How does a person stay pale in Florida?
I can certainly try…I am by no means a “Lilith expert”, as my studies are with Celtic Goddesses and archetypes. Owls, throughout many cultures, are associated with the Feminine, and also with death. A lot of the European countries have superstitions regarding owls being a sign of a family member dying, the owl was the hieroglyph for death in Egypt, etc. Owls are not necessarily symbols of physical death, but rather the spiritually transforming death and rebirth, and the Goddesses associated with them are usually (as I said before) Initiators and catalysts. They are also, more positively, seen as wise and clear of sight… which of course, combined with the association to the Feminine, could be threatening to a patriarchal culture.
There are a lot of similarities between Lilith and Blodeuwedd’s myths, from what I have been able to tell. They were both “created” for men (though this is very much a surface representation-- they played active roles in their own creations, I believe, because how else could they have been Initiators?). Through a series of events they both are rebirthed–Blodeuwedd actually into the form of an owl–and they also act as catalysts for the growth and rebirth of others around them, such as the shifts that Lleu goes through because of the direct actions of Blodeuwedd. I’m assuming that Lilith’s association with the owl is because of similar reasons, though the one source I had on my shelf had her being transformed into a serpent-like creature (the serpent is also a symbol of death and rebirth).
Marija Gimbutas’ book, The Language of the Goddess, she has Lilith being a Mesopotamian Goddess whose name means “screech owl”, but I wasn’t able to find anything more specific about Lilith and her association to owls in any of my other books. I have friends who are much more well-versed regarding Lilith. Let me see what I can find out for you regarding the specific owl association and the word origins.
Oh, regarding the words with the missing vowels… Markale has them as: Senoi, Sansenoi and Samangloph.
This is also true in contemporary Cherokee society, particularly screech owls.
If I remember correctly, the owl (in its various forms) is the only type of bird native to all continents, isn’t it?