Rough Magic: The Wicked Queen

Lilith has been called the Queen of Witches.  Like Diana and Herodias her name appears in witch trials and folklore.  One well known story links Lilith's cave by the Red Sea with "every mirror." In it, a mother buys a mirror in connection to several furnishings for her home.  She places the mirror in the room of her daughter who later becomes possessed by a daughter of Lilith because, "every mirror is a gateway to the Other World and leads directly to Lilith's cave...That is why it is said that Lilith makes her home in every mirror..."  That said, is it likely that such traditions made their way to the mythos collected by the Brothers Grimm?  Enter the Wicked Queen.

   We are all familiar with Snow-white and the Seven Dwarves.  In the earliest version, Snow-white offends her jealous stepmother, the Queen, by possessing richer beauty than her own.  This is discovered by a magic mirror the Queen consults everyday.  "Looking glass upon the wall, who is fairest of us all?"  After the huntsmen tries to deceive her with a deer's heart the Queen makes three attempts on Snow-white's life.  Each time she poses as a peddler and tempts Snow-white with fatal wares.  At first she uses a corset and a comb "poisoned with witchcraft."  In the end she offers Snow-white the fabled apple and temporarily ends her life.  The Queen herself is captured when the heroic Prince weds Snow-white.  Her life ends after she is forced to dance in a pair of red-hot shoes.  Typically, abridged reincarnations omit this part, taking a page (perhaps) from Walt Disney.

   Modern renditions featuring Snow-white and the Wicked Queen attempt to flesh out her back story.  In both  The 10th Kingdom and Once Upon a Time (owned by Disney subordinate ABC) the "Evil Queen" represents a pact or bond between two women, a sort of lineage.  Diane Weist's Evil Queen from The 10th Kingdom was chosen as the successor of the original Queen to continue her work and ruin Snow White's entire house.  Lana Parrilla's Evil Queen from Once Upon a Time was forced into power by conniving mother, who arranges her marriage to the father of Snow White.

   Concerning her connection to the Queen of Demons in Jewish mythology, the Wicked Queen shares several of her motifs.  An apple is used to tempt Snow-white and an apple is used to temp Eve by the serpent in the Garden of Eden.  In art, the serpent has been depicted as Lilith, reflecting an older belief in the Fall of Man.  Consider too the Wicked Queen's fascination with mirrors   Everyday she stood before the magic looking-glass to assess her beauty, not unlike the daughter in the famous Jewish tale.  While it is unlikely that the Wicked Queen is a Brothers Grimm avatar of Lilith she makes an appropriate totem.  Even more likely, their shared features stem from Lilith's lineage in world mythology. Lilith is "the soul of every living thing which creepeth," and the genetrix of every spirit, demon, goblin and fatal entity from the ancient world.  Perhaps like Jadis in C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, the Wicked Queen could be viewed as her descendant.

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.