Lilith

As a fan of the recently ended CW supernatural thriller, Supernatural, I was always impressed by the characters that the writers developed over the course of its' fifteen seasons. Some of my personal favorites were of course the Winchester brothers, Sam and Dean, Castiel, Bobby, Crawley, Ruby, and of course, Mark Pelligrino's portrayal of the pivotal devil, Lucifer. The one character that beyond any doubt shook the first five years of the show was the character, Lilith. Lilith is a popular character throughout history, the Queen of the Demons, the first historical reference to a succubus, and quite possibly the queen of all evil. Why has pop culture, literature, and history enjoyed such a flirtation with this popularly evil she-demon?

To start with, the legend of Lilith, or myth if you will, starts at the beginning of human existence. If Jesus Christ is, as we are lead to believe, somewhere near two-thousand and forty years old, then Lilith predates Christ himself. History is sometimes murky and open to many interpretations, but when it comes to the numbers and our understanding of time, the math would be accurate by mortal understanding. It all starts in the versions of Genesis that are out there. each religion having more than one after years of interpreting dead and obsolete languages. In the beginning, in Jewish folklore, Lilith is believed to be the first wife of Adam in the Garden of Eden. Some scholars believe her association with Adam is to reconcile contradictory versions of creation while others, from different faiths, fail to rule out her existence or the stories.

The first version of Genesis, known as the priestly version, Genesis 1:26-27, has been interpreted to mean as God creates man and woman simultaneously. The text reads "So God created mankind in the divine image, male and female, God created them." This would mean he created both Adam and Lilith of the clay, not making Lilith of Adams' rib. Certainly, the creation of Lilith as Adams' first wife is a subject of debate amongst religious clerics of different faiths but it's an intriguing possibility when we consider the bible and the questions millions have asked about its' word.

The Alphabet of Ben Sira tells that Lilith was the first wife of Adam and that Lilith and Adam fought all the time. Adam insisted on being on top, in the dominant position, when it came to sex. Lilith wanted a turn on top, in the dominant role, perhaps believing they were equals, defying the male dominant role to which Adam felt entitled.

The legend of Lilith goes on to say, as they ultimately could not get along in the garden, that Lilith spoke out in Gods' name, flying up into the sky and out of the garden, leaving Adam alone. She's believed, by Islamic and Jewish clerics to have surfaced later in the area of the Red Sea. Adam cried out to God, alone again in the garden.

God, believed to have sent three angels to retrieve Lilith, entrusted Sanvi, Sansanvi, and Samangelof to return her to the Garden of Eden and to her place with Adam, as he intended her to be. In legend, they were authorized to bring her back by force if she would not willingly return. The angels located Lilith near the Red Sea and demanded she returned to her rightful place. When they failed at their mission, Lilith was smited with a curse, to comb the world for eternity, a succubus, giving birth to demonic children, the undead.

Ancient legends believed that it was Lilith that would come into the nurseries and take the lives of their youth, to feed the souls of children to her undead spawn. When men slept, Lilith was believed to seduce them in their slumber, feeding herself off their nocturnal emissions. By the days of the Sumerians, she was believed a vampiric entity and only the names of Sanvi, Sansanvi, and Samangelof carved over the entries of homes or spoken as shadows haunted those in a dwelling, could ward off Lilith.

In modern times, Lilith is a name that is revered by many as a sign of the stronger, Alpha-female, coming of age in our society. Her character has however appeared throughout the ages, referenced in Egyptian lore, Greek, and Roman theatre, and even believed to have reincarnated as famed characters in history. Could she have been the duplicitous Delila, the lovely Cleopatra, or even the stunning Lady Godiva? She shows up in literature, even in the current era, because she is such an intriguing character and because her existence causes questions about our belief in creation. Steve Alten's book Domain, Resurrection, and Phobos bring Lilith to life on paper in a way that was scary and startling. The creators of Supernatural, in my opinion, did Lilith the most justice by portraying her as the seductress capable of bringing about the apocalypse just using her feminine charms.

While nobody knows with any certainty that Lilith was Adams' first wife, or if she even existed, the belief that it was Lilith that seduced Even into biting the apple and Adam following her, is not out of the realm of possibility. Liliths' anger at her lot in life after being smited by her creator would have been great and as Adam was her husband, seeing Eve there with him, the two of them in harmony, would have made her as jealous as anybody today.