Lilith?

In the 1930s, scholars identified the voluptuous woman on this

terracotta plaque (called the Burney Relief) as the Babylonian demoness
Lilith. Today, the figure is generally identified as the goddess of love and
war, known as Inanna to the Sumerians and Ishtar to the later Akkadians.
(Both characters are featured in the poem Gilgamesh and the Huluppu-Tree,
quoted on this page.) The woman wears a horned crown and has the wings
and feet of a bird. She is flanked by owls (associated with Lilith) and stands
on the backs of two lions (symbols of Inanna). According to Mesopotamian
myths, the demoness Lilith (liltu or ardat lil) flew at night, seducing men and
killing pregnant women and babies. This night creature makes one
appearance in the Bible, in Isaiah 34, which enumerates the fierce denizens
of the desert wilderness: hyenas, goat-demons and the lilith (Isaiah 34:14).
(In the King James Version, lilith is translated screech owlapparently
alluding to the demons night flights in search of prey.) Image: From The Great Mother.

The evil Lilith is depicted on this ceramic bowl from

Mesopotamia. The Aramaic incantation inscribed on the bowl
was intended to protect a man named Quqai and his family
from assorted demons. The spell begins: Removed and
chased are the curses and incantations from Quqai son of
Gushnai, and Abi daughter of Nanai and from their children.
Although Liliths name does not appear, she may be identified
by comparison with images of her on other bowls, where she is
shown with her arms raised aggressively and her skin spotted
like a leopards. Dating to about 600 C.E., this bowl from
Harvard Universitys Semitic Museum attests to the longevity of
Liliths reputation in Mesopotamia as a seducer of men and murderer of children. Image: Courtesy of the Semitic
Musuem, Harvard University.

Eve, meet Lilith. Lilithdepicted with a womans face and a serpentine body
assaults Adam and Eve beneath the Tree of Knowledge in Hugo van der
Goess Fall of Adam and Eve (c. 1470), from the Kunsthistorisches Museum,
in Vienna. According to medieval Jewish apocryphal tradition, which attempts
to reconcile the two Creation stories presented in Genesis, Lilith was Adams
first wife. In Genesis 1:27, God creates man and woman simultaneously from
the earth. In Genesis 2:7, however, Adam is created by himself from the earth;
Eve is produced later, from Adams rib (Genesis 2:2122). In Jewish legend,
the name Lilith was attached to the woman who was created at the same time
as Adam. Image: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY.

Bind Lilith in chains! reads a warning in Hebrew

on this 18th- or 19th-century C.E. amulet from the
Israel Museum intended to protect an infant from
the demoness. The image of Lilith appears at
center. The small circles that outline her body
represent a chain. The divine name is written in
code (calledatbash) down her chest. (The
letters yhwh appear instead asmzpz.) Beneath this
is a prayer: Protect this boy who is a newborn
from all harm and evil. Amen. Surrounding the
central image are abbreviated quotations from Numbers 6:2227 (The Lord bless you and keep you. . .) and
Psalm 121 (I lift up my eyes to the hills. . .). According to the apocryphalAlphabet of Ben Sira, Lilith herself
promised she would harm no child who wore an amulet bearing her name. Image: Israel Museum, Jerusalem.