Lilith is the great female demon of Jewish folklore and mysticism: the night-demoness, the first wife of Adam who refused to submit and fled Eden, the slayer of newborn children and the seductress of men in their sleep, the queen of demons and the dark feminine of the tradition. From a marginal figure she grew into one of the most powerful and resonant of all demonic beings.
The First Wife of Adam
Lilith’s most famous legend, told in the medieval Alphabet of Ben Sira, makes her the first wife of Adam — created, like him, from the earth, and therefore his equal. When Adam sought to dominate her and she refused to lie beneath him, insisting on equality, Lilith spoke the secret name of God and flew away from Eden, abandoning Adam to dwell by the Red Sea among the demons. God sent three angels to bring her back, but she refused to return; and so, as a curse and a bargain, it was decreed that a hundred of her demon-children would die each day, and in revenge Lilith vowed to prey upon human infants — unless warded off by amulets bearing the names of the three angels.
The Slayer of Children and Seductress of Men
Lilith’s dread roles flow from this. She is the slayer of newborn children — the demoness blamed for infant death, miscarriage, and crib-death, who steals or strangles babies in the night — and against her, protective amulets, charms, and the names of the three angels (Senoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof) were hung over the cradles of newborns and women in childbirth. She is also a succubus, who comes to men in their sleep to seduce them and to bear demon-children (the [lilin]) from their seed, and the mother of a host of night-demons. Older still, she derives from the lilitu, the night-demons of ancient Mesopotamia.
The Queen of Demons
In the Kabbalah, Lilith grew into a figure of cosmic significance — the queen of demons, the consort of [sammael] (the great demon, the “other side”’s counterpart to God), the dark feminine of the demonic realm (the Qliphoth), the shadow-counterpart of the Shekhinah (the divine feminine presence). She became the embodiment of the dangerous, untamed, rebellious feminine, and in modern times a complex symbol reclaimed in many ways. From night-demon to first wife to queen of demons, Lilith is one of the most powerful and many-layered of all demonic figures. In Lilith, Jewish folklore and mysticism gave form to the dark and rebellious feminine — the first wife who would not submit and fled Eden, the night-demoness who slays children and seduces men, the queen of demons and consort of Samael, the most resonant and enduring of all the demon-figures of the tradition.