Lilith and the "The Little Faces"

Ancient Christianity is littered with references of semi-divine women and full blown female deities   Figures like Asherah, Sophia, Mary Magdalene and Lilith fascinate us in the modern age, now that we have the resources to revisit them.  Lilith is the most notorious.  There is no denying that.  Most likely this is due to her popularity as Judaism's Queen of Demons.  There is no great emphasis placed on the rest of the story, what transpired before she arrived in the desert and after she left Eden.

     The Zohar paints an interesting picture of Lilith's adventures.  Some time after leaving Adam behind in Paradise (or immediately after) she flew to Heaven.  There she noticed the Cherubim:

"She desired to cleave to them and to be shaped as one of them, and was loath to depart from them.  But the Holy One, blessed be He, removed her from them and made her go below...

Then He...gave him [Adam] a partner, as soon as Lilith saw Eve clinging to his side she was reminded by his form of the supernal beauty, she flew up from thence and tried as before to attach herself to the 'little faces' [Cherubim].  The supernal guardians of the gates, however, did not permit her.  The Holy One, blessed be He, chide her and cast her into the depths of the sea."

So Lilith, the "Queen of Demons" is capable of feeling affection and loss.  She left Eden because her mate insisted he was superior to her.  She found a new home and attempted to join a community.  Ultimately she is rejected in a very serious way. Sometime after Adam and Eve are expelled, God brings Lilith out from the depths of the sea:

"...and gave her power over all those children, the ''little faces' of the sons of men, who are liable to punishment for the sins of their fathers.  She then wandered up and down the world.  She approached the gates of the terrestrial paradise [Eden], where she saw the Cherubim, the guardians of the gates of Paradise, and sat down near the flashing sword, to which she was akin in origin.  When she saw the flashing sword revolving, indicating that man had sinned, she fled and wandered about the world...finding children liable to punishment."

     Lilith's fate has strong parallels with the legend of La Llorona, the roving specter explored in a previous entry concerning Latin America.  La Llorona was once Maria, a Mexican divorcee who drowned her children to punish her adulterous husband.  Maria was turned away from the gates of Heaven and instructed to find her children, which is why she roams the world, finding children who resemble her own.

Lilith's story does not end after she leaves Eden.  She does not deteriorate and become the Queen of Demons.  Like Moses, Elijah or Jesus himself, her story is told in layers.  In Midrash, the Talmud and the Dead Sea Scrolls we have additional chapters in the evolution of a turbulent character.  But unlike her Biblical contemporaries  Lilith's name occurs in older parts of the world, linking her with past lives and an older class of gods and heroes. 

Lilith and Gilgamesh

Ancient Sumeria gives us the following tale:

After heaven and earth had been separated 

     and mankind had been created,

after Anûum, Enlil and Ereskigal had taken possession 

         of heaven, earth and the underworld;

after Enki had set sail for the underworld 

     and the sea ebbed and flowed in honor of its lord;

on this day, a huluppu tree 

     which had been planted on the banks of the Euphrates 

     and nourished by its waters

was uprooted by the south wind 

     and carried away by the Euphrates.

A goddess who was wandering among the banks 

     seized the swaying tree

And -- at the behest of Anu and Enlil -- 

     brought it to Inanna's garden in Uruk.

Inanna tended the tree carefully and lovingly 

     she hoped to have a throne and a bed 

made for herself from its wood.

    After ten years, the tree had matured.

But in the meantime, she found to her dismay 

   that her hopes could not be fulfilled.

because during that time 

     a dragon had built its nest at the foot of the tree

the Zu-bird was raising its young in the crown, 

     and the dark maid Lilith had built her house in the middle.

a dragon had built its nest at the foot of the tree 

    the Zu-bird was raising its young in the crown, 

and the demon Lilith had built her house in the middle.

   But Gilgamesh, who had heard of Inanna's plight, 

came to her rescue.

  He took his heavy shield 

killed the dragon with his heavy bronze axe, 

  which weighed seven talents and seven minas.

Then the Zu-bird flew into the mountains 

   with its young,

while Lilith, petrified with fear, 

     tore down her house and fled into the wilderness..."

     Here we have the first reference of Lilith written around 2,000 BCE.  The story follows a historical King of Uruk who struggles against the female divinity Ishtar.  The narrative is very similar to Marduk's quest in the The Enuma Elish of Babylon and the journey of Aeneas in The Aeneid   Marduk comes face to face with Lilith before she is reinvented (or relocates) o the Garden of Eden.  Both stories are incredibly similar and both center around a a fabled tree near the Euphrates.  Lilith herself leaves her green home to inhabits the wilderness.  The goddess Inanna who I've often described as a Sumerian Mary can also be compared to Eve and has been several times by scholars and theologians.  Review the evidence for yourself and ask, "Just how old are you, Lilith? Why are you so prevalent?  Why can we find you in every corner of the globe?