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. 

Doctor Lilith Sternin

No blog about Lilith is ever complete without mentioning the character played by Bebe Neuwirth on Cheers and Frasier.  A Jewish research scientist and Jungian psychiatrist, Lilith Sternin was married and subsequently divorced to Kelsey Grammar's Frasier Crane.  She is often characterized by her "corpse-like" complexion and constant allusions to vampires, demons and witches.  At one point she is directly linked to her namesake, the "demon goddess," by a potential boyfriend.  Lilith, in her uniquely sharp monotones replies, "I make her look like a vacillating cream puff."  This is a typical example of Lilith's dry, wordy, and emasculating sense of humor.

   Lilith has strange effects on the world around her.   According to self-proclaimed psychic Daphne Moon, she creates disturbances in the space-time continuum and represents a supernaturally malign force.  Frasier once portends her arrival by dreaming of an "ice volcano."  Contrary to Dr. Crane's over zealous, scientific nature, the writers go out of their to demonstrate the fact that there is something cosmically twisted about Lilith.

   Concerning her relationship with the famous spin-off's title character, Lilith meets Fraiser early on as a guest star on Cheers.  They quickly become rivals and Fraiser dubs her the "ice cube in heels."  Under the surface she represents the sum of his desires.  Diane Chambers, Fraiser's ex-fiance and Cheers barmaid helps Lilith play on this by unbinding her seductive long hair.  Freed from constraints she becomes an unparalleled sex symbol, a theme revisited for the rest of the character's long life on NBC.  While she often strives to become Fraiser's equal they are written as combustible opposites.  Lilith, interestingly enough, is Jungian, while Fraiser is Freudian.  There's a subtle theme in this affiliation that ties Lilith to her namesake, especially when coupled with her Jewish faith.  This difference also supplies them with a great deal of sexual electricity, as noted by Fraiser several times.  The two of them become married after a forced engagement and finally divorce between the Cheers finale and Frasier premier episodes.  According to Lilith, she felt there was more to her identity as a woman than powerful sex.

   In each of her appearances on Frasier Lilith corresponds with change, regret, sex and fate.  She often inspires her ex-husband with brushes of sexual-relapse and bitter-sweet visions of the past.  She appears randomly to tempt him with forbidden fruit.  Sometimes this occurs subconsciously or accidentally.  Once she even sleeps with his divorced brother Niles.  However well or ill-meaning she brings Fraiser to a place of solid content or finalized realization.  "How will I ever move forward if I don't put you behind me!" ; "You can't use the past to fill what's missing in the present...it's gone."

   A strange brew of repression and sexual energy Lilith Sternin could be described as someone who plays both sides of her female identity.  Bebe Neuwirth describes her as shy, she relates Lilith as, "very innocent, very sweet, very naïve. She's socially inept. She has no idea how to react with other people. She's shy and uncomfortable with people. She's a scientist, she's very analytical, she's very honest."  But she can also be seen in your Netflix Queue dancing provocatively for Sam Malone.  For my money, Lilith Sternin is someone who truly enjoys being a woman.  And she's damn good at it.