Adam

  General Notes:

According to Jewish folklore, Lilith was the first wife o
f Adam. She wasbanished from the Garden of Eden when she refused to make herselfsubservient to Adam (specifically, she refused to get into the missionaryposition with him during sex). When she was cast out, she was made into ademon figure, and Adam was given a second wife, Eve, who was fashionedfrom his rib to ensure her obedience to her man. The following is anexcerpt from a Jewish folktale that describes some of the evilsattributed to Lilith:

"The wife brought the mirror and all of the fine furnishings in thecellar to her own home and proudly displayed it. She hung the mirror inthe room of their daughter, who was a dark-haired coquette. The girlglanced at herself in the mirror all the time, and in this way she wasdrawn into Lilith's web.... For that mirror had hung in the the den ofdemons, and a daughter of Lilith had made her home there. And when themirror was taken from the haunted house, the demoness came with it. Forevery mirror is a gateway to the Other World and leads directly toLilith's cave. That is the cave Lilith went to when she abandoned Adamand the Garden of Eden for all time, the cave where she sported with herdemon lovers. From these unions multitudes of demons were born, whoflocked from that cave and infiltrated the world. And when they want toreturn, they simply enter the nearest mirror. That is why it is said thatLilith makes her home in every mirror...

"Now the daughter of Lilith who made her home in that mirror watchedevery movement of the girl who posed before it. She bided her time andone day she slipped out of the mirror and took possession of the girl,entering through her eyes. In this way she took control of her, stirringher desire at will.... So it happened that this young girl, driven by theevil wishes of Lilith's daughter, ran around with young men who lived inthe same neighborhood."

From "Lilith's Cave," Lilith's Cave: Jewish tales of the supernatural,edited by Howard Schwartz (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988)

Other folktales describe of how Lilith captured Jewish babies in thenight and ate them, and how she led young girls and young husbandsastray. Although Lilith was demonized by early Jewish culture as a symbolof promiscuity and disobedience, many modern Jewish feminists see Lilithas a positive figure, a model of woman as equal to man in the creationstory. For further reference, please check out the pages I have listedbelow, or read the introduction to the collection of stories in Lilith'sCave (see above).

Other Sources on Lilith:
The Lilith Myth
Looking for Lilith
The Lilith Page


The follow text is quoted from:
Hebrew Myths by Robert Graves and Raphael Patai (New York: Doubleday,1964), pp 65-69.

Chapter 10: Adam's Helpmeets

(a) Having decided to give Adam a helpmeet lest he should be alone of hiskind, God put him into a deep sleep, removed one of his ribs, formed itinto a woman, and closed up the wound, Adam awoke and said: 'This beingshall be named "Woman", because she has been taken out o f man. A man anda woman shall be one flesh.' The title he gave her was Eve, 'the Motherof All Living''. 1

(b) Some say that God created man and woman in His own image on theSixth Day, giving them charge over the world; 2 but that Eve did not yetexist. Now, God had set Adam to name every beast, bird and other livingthing. When they passed before him in pairs, male and female, Adam-beingalready like a twenty-year-old man-felt jealous of their loves, andthough he tried coupling with each female in turn, found no satisfactionin the act. He therefore cried: 'Every creature but I has a propermatel', and prayed God would remedy this injustice. 3

(c) God then formed Lilith, the first woman, just as He had formed Adam,except that He used filth and sediment instead of pure dust. From Adam'sunion with this demoness, and with another like her named Naamah, TubalCain's sister, sprang Asmodeus and innumerable demons that still plaguemankind. Many generations later, Lilith and Naamah came to Solomon'sjudgement seat, disguised as harlots of Jerusalem'. 4

(d) Adam and Lilith never found peace together; for when he wished tolie with her, she took offence at the recumbent posture he demanded. 'Whymust I lie beneath you?' she asked. 'I also was made from dust, and amtherefore your equal.' Because Adam tried to compel her obedience byforce, Lilith, in a rage, uttered the magic name of God, rose into theair and left him.

Adam complained to God: 'I have been deserted by my helpmeet' God at oncesent the angels Senoy, Sansenoy and Semangelof to fetch Lilith back. Theyfound her beside the Red Sea, a region abounding in lascivious demons, towhom she bore lilim at the rate of more than one hundred a day. 'Returnto Adam without delay,' the angels said,
or we will drown you!' Lilithasked:
How can I return to Adam and live like an honest housewife, aftermy stay beside the Red Sea?? 'It will be death to refuse!' they answered.
How can I die,' Lilith asked again,
when God has ordered me to takecharge of all newborn children: boys up to the eighth day of life, thatof circumcision; girls up to the twentieth day. None the less, if ever Isee your three names or likenesses displayed in an amulet above a newbornchild, I promise to spare it.' To this they agreed; but God punishedLilith by making one hundred of her demon children perish daily; 5 and ifshe could not destroy a human infant, because of the angelic amulet, shewould spitefully turn against her own. 6

(e) Some say that Lilith ruled as queen in Zmargad, and again in Sheba;and was the demoness who destroyed job's sons. 7 Yet she escaped thecurse of death which overtook Adam, since they had parted long before theFall. Lilith and Naamah not only strangle infants but also seducedreaming men, any one of whom, sleeping alone, may become their victim. 8

(f) Undismayed by His failure to give Adam a suitable helpmeet, Godtried again, and let him watch while he built up a woman's anatomy: usingbones, tissues, muscles, blood and glandular secretions, then coveringthe whole with skin and adding tufts of hair in places. The sight causedAdam such disgust that even when this woman, the First Eve, stood therein her full beauty, he felt an invincible repugnance. God knew that Hehad failed once more, and took the First Eve away. Where she went, nobodyknows for certain. 9

(g) God tried a third time, and acted more circumspectly. Having taken arib from Adam's side in his sleep, He formed it into a woman; thenplaited her hair and adorned her, like a bride, with twenty-four piecesof jewellery, before waking him. Adam was entranced. 10

(h) Some say that God created Eve not from Adam's rib, but from a tailending in a sting which had been part of his body. God cut this off, andthe stump-now a useless coccyx-is still carried by Adam's descendants. 11

(i) Others say that God's original thought had been to create two humanbeings, male and female; but instead He designed a single one with a maleface looking forward, and a female face looking back. Again He changedHis mind, removed Adam's backward-looking face, and built a woman's bodyfor it. 12

(j) Still others hold that Adam was originally created as an androgyneof male and female bodies joined back to back. Since this posture madelocomotion difficult, and conversation awkward, God divided the androgyneand gave each half a new rear. These separate beings He placed in Eden,forbidding them to couple. 13

Notes on sources:

1. Genesis II. 18-25; III. 20.

2. Genesis I. 26-28.

3. Gen. Rab. 17.4; B. Yebamot 632.

4. Yalqut Reubeni ad. Gen. II. 21; IV. 8.

5. Alpha Beta diBen Sira, 47; Gaster, MGWJ, 29 (1880), 553 ff.

6. Num. Rab. 16.25.

7. Targum ad job 1. 15.

8. B. Shabbat 151b; Ginzberg, LJ, V. 147-48.

9. Gen. Rab. 158, 163-64; Mid. Abkir 133, 135; Abot diR. Nathan 24; B.Sanhedrin 39a.

10. Gen. II. 21-22; Gen. Rab. 161.

11. Gen. Rab. 134; B. Erubin 18a.

12. B. Erubin 18a.

13. Gen. Rab. 55; Lev. Rab. 14.1: Abot diR. Nathan 1.8; B. Berakhot 61a;B. Erubin 18a; Tanhuma Tazri'a 1; Yalchut Gen. 20; Tanh. Buber iii.33;Mid. Tehillim 139, 529.

Authors’ Comments on the Myth:

1. The tradition that man's first sexual intercourse was with animals,not women, may be due to the widely spread practice of bestiality amongherdsmen of the Middle East, which is still condoned by custom, althoughfiguring three times in the Pentateuch as a capital crime. In theAkkadian Gilgamesh Epic, Enkidu is said to have lived with gazelles andjostled other wild beasts at the watering place, until civilized byAruru's priestess. Having enjoyed her embraces for six days and sevennights, he wished to rejoin the wild beasts but, to his surprise, theyfled from him. Enkidu then knew that he had gained understanding, and thepriestess said: 'Thou art wise, Enkidu, like unto a godl'

2. Primeval man was held by the Babylonians to have been androgynous.Thus the Gilgamesh Epic gives Enkidu androgynous features:
the hair ofhis head like a woman's, with locks that sprout like those of Nisaba, theGrain-goddess.' The Hebrew tradition evidently derives from Greeksources, because both terms used in a Tannaitic midrash to describe thebisexual Adam are Greek: androgynos, 'man-woman', and diprosopon,'twofaced'. Philo of Alexandria, the Hellenistic philosopher andcommentator on the Bible, contemporary with Jesus, held that man was atfirst bisexual; so did the Gnostics. This belief is clearly borrowed fromPlato. Yet the myth of two bodies placed back to back may well have beenfounded on observation of Siamese twins, which are sometimes joined inthis awkward manner. The two-faced Adam appears to be a fancy derivedfrom coins or statues of Janus, the Roman New Year god.

3. Divergences between the Creation myths of Genesis r and n, whichallow Lilith to be presumed as Adam's first mate, result from a carelessweaving together of an early Judaean and a late priestly tradition. Theolder version contains the rib incident. Lilith typifies theAnath-worshipping Canaanite women, who were permitted pre-nuptialpromiscuity. Time after time the prophets denounced Israelite women forfollowing Canaanite practices; at first, apparently, with the priests'approval-since their habit of dedicating to God the fees thus earned isexpressly forbidden in Deuteronomy xxIII. I8. Lilith's flight to the RedSea recalls the ancient Hebrew view that water attracts demons. 'Torturedand rebellious demons' also found safe harbourage in Egypt. ThusAsmodeus, who had strangled Sarah's first six husbands, fled 'to theuttermost parts of Egypt' (Tobit viii. 3), when Tobias burned the heartand liver of a fish on their wedding night.

4. Lilith's bargain with the angels has its ritual counterpart in anapotropaic rite once performed in many Jewish communities. To protect thenewborn child against Lilith-and especially a male, until he could bepermanently safeguarded by circumcision-a ring was drawn with natron, orcharcoal, on the wall of the birthroom, and inside it were written thewords: 'Adam and Eve. Out, Lilith!' Also the names Senoy, Sansenoy andSemangelof (meanings uncertain) were inscribed on the door. If Lilithnevertheless succeeded in approaching the child and fondling him, hewould laugh in his sleep. To avert danger, it was held wise to strike thesleeping child's lips with one finger-whereupon Lilith would vanish.

5. 'Lilith' is usually derived from the Babylonian-Assyrian word lilitu,,a female demon, or wind-spirit'-one of a triad mentioned in Babylonianspells. But she appears earlier as 'Lillake' on a 2000 B.G. Sumeriantablet from Ur containing the tale of Gilgamesh and the Willow Tree.There she is a demoness dwelling in the trunk of a willow-tree tended bythe Goddess Inanna (Anath) on the banks of the Euphrates. Popular Hebrewetymology seems to have derived 'Lilith' from layil, 'night'; and shetherefore often appears as a hairy night-monster, as she also does inArabian folklore. Solomon suspected the Queen of Sheba of being Lilith,because she had hairy legs. His judgement on the two harlots is recordedin I Kings III. 16 ff. According to Isaiah xxxiv. I4-I5, Lilith dwellsamong the desolate ruins in the Edomite Desert where satyrs (se'ir),reems, pelicans, owls, jackals, ostriches, arrow-snakes and kites keepher company.

6. Lilith's children are called lilim. In the Targum Yerushalmi, thepriestly blessing of Numbers vi. 26 becomes: 'The Lord bless thee in allthy doings, and preserve thee from the Lilim!' The fourth-century A.D.commentator Hieronymus identified Lilith with the Greek Lamia, a Libyanqueen deserted by Zeus, whom his wife Hera robbed of her children. Shetook revenge by robbing other women of theirs.

7. The Lamiae, who seduced sleeping men, sucked their blood and atetheir flesh, as Lilith and her fellow-demonesses did, were also known asEmpusae, 'forcers-in'; or Mormolyceia, 'frightening wolves'; anddescribed as 'Children of Hecate'. A Hellenistic relief shows a nakedLamia straddling a traveller asleep on his back. It is characteristic ofcivilizations where women are treated as chattels that they must adoptthe recumbent posture during intercourse, which Lilith refused. ThatGreek witches who worshipped Hecate favoured the superior posture, weknow from Apuleius; and it occurs in early Sumerian representations ofthe sexual act, though not in the Hittite. Malinowski writes thatMelanesian girls ridicule what they call
the missionary position', whichdemands that they should lie passive and recumbent.

8. Naamah, 'pleasant', is explained as meaning that 'the demoness sangpleasant songs to idols'. Zmargad suggest smaragdos, the semi-preciousaquamarine; and may therefore be her submarine dwelling. A demon namedSmaragos occurs in the Homeric Epigrams.

9. Eve's creation by God from Adam's rib-a myth establishing malesupremacy and disguising Eve's divinity-lacks parallels in Mediterraneanor early Middle-Eastern myth. The story perhaps derives iconotropicallyfrom an ancient relief, or painting, which showed the naked Goddess Anathpoised in the air, watching her lover Mot murder his twin Aliyan; Mot(mistaken by the mythographer for Yahweh) was driving a curved daggerunder Aliyan's fifth rib, not removing a sixth one. The familiar story ishelped by a hidden pun on tsela, the Hebrew for 'rib': Eve, thoughdesigned to be Adam's helpmeet, proved to be a tsela, a 'stumbling', or'misfortune'. Eve's formation from Adam's tail is an even more damagingmyth; perhaps suggested by the birth of a child with a vestigial tailinstead of a coccyx-a not infrequent occurrence.

10. The story of Lilith's escape to the East and of Adam's subsequentmarriage to Eve may, however, record an early historical incident: nomadherdsmen, admitted into Lilith's Canaanite queendom as guests (see 16.1), suddenly seize power and, when the royal household thereupon flees,occupy a second queendom which owes allegiance to the Hittite GoddessHeba.

The meaning of 'Eve' is disputed. Hawwah is explained in Genesis III. 20as 'mother of all living'; but this may well be a Hebraicized form of thedivine name Heba, Hebat, Khebat or Khiba. This goddess, wife of theHittite Storm-god, is shown riding a lion in a rock-sculpture atHattusaswhich equates her with Anath-and appears as a form of Ishtar inHurrian texts. She was worshipped at Jerusalem (see 27. 6). Her Greekname was Hebe, Heracles's goddess-wife.

-- Hebrew Myths by Robert Graves and Raphael Patai (New York: Doubleday,1964), pp 65-69. Click here to Buy the Book

Adam married Eve.