Lilith From The Lost Books From The Bible

In the Sixth Day God made Adam, but Eve did not yet exist. God made
Adam, and then set him to name every animal, and when they passed
before him in pairs, male and female, he felt jealous of their loves,
and tried to get satisfaction himself, coupling with each female
creature (interesting passage which, in some way, gives reason to the
birth of those fantastical creatures which Borges was fond of: hybrid
with human torso, but ass or horse or goat legs). Adam and Lilith were
not a happy couple. When he wished to lie with her, Lilith alleged
that the recumbent position he wanted was denigrating to her. «Why
must I lay beneath you?» -she asked-, «I also was made from dust, and
am therefore your equal». As Adam tried to force her, Lilith, in a
rage, uttered the magical name of God, rose into the air and left him.
(Theatrical and magnificent fleeing which recalls the end of
Euripides' Medea). Adam complained to God: «I have been deserted by my
helpmeet». God made at once a command, formed by angels Senoy,
Sansenoy and Semangeloph, and sent them with the order of bringing
Lilith back. The angels toured the orb, and found her at last beside
the Red Sea, a region plentiful of lascivious demons: Lilith matched
them happily, and gave birth to lilim (children made in her image) at
a more than hundred per day ratio. «Come back to Adam without delay» -
the angels told her- «or else we'll drown you!». Lilith asked: «How
can I come back to Adam and live like an honest housewife after my
stay beside the Red Sea». «You'll die if you refuse!», replied they.
«And how can I die» -asked Lilith again- «when God has ordered me to
take charge of every newborn children: boys up to the eight day, that
of circumcision, and girls up to the twentieth day? None the less, if
I ever see your names or likeness displayed in an amulet above a
newborn child, I promise to spare it. Undoubtedly surprised with this
agreement with God, which they knew not, the angels agreed with
Lilith's conditions and, without achieving their mission, came back to
Empireum. As the only reprisal, to please the unsatisfied Adam, God
punished Lilith by making one hundred of her demon children perish
daily; and it's said that, if she could not destroy a human infant,
because of the angelic amulet, she would spitefully turn against her.
Lilith story is specially appealing, as it's something like «the Black
Book of Genesis», the true story of what happened to first man and
woman in the beginning. While Eve admits that she's inferior to man
and submit her fate to him, Lilith considers herself superior, and
distances herself from his authority, fleeing from Paradise, and
getting so free also of the terrible curse of Fall. While Adams gets
mortal and perish, Lilith remains immortal for ever; and, opposite
Eve, who obeys the double male authority of her husband and her
Father, and which has been made secondarily from male flesh, Lilith,
which is as ancient (or more) than Adam, refuses to accept machismo
(or phalocratism, as they say in Greek) in any way: not only the
missionary position that her husband applies for, but even the
commands of God through his angels. In spite of the boasts of these,
she stands still, and, though with statutory restraints, keeps on with
her temptation job. Anyway, leaving aside the feminine and even
feminist value of this indomitable woman, the most fascinating trait
of this story is, as far as I can see, just what it doesn't say: the
secret that allows Lilith flee from Paradise and, later on, to even
disobey the divine commands. The question is: how did Lilith know the
hidden name of God, that name which God didn't want to reveal to
Moses, shielding himself with paraphrases (Ex. 3, 14), and which is so
important in Kabbalah: the name of infinite power which was written in
Solomon's Seal, according to the Talmud, and which gave him power
above all the demons? As for Isis, she was a woman versed in words, a
powerful magician who preferred the company of gods to that of humans.
Isis retrieves the decadent spittle of Ra, which soaks the earth, and,
taking dust in her hand, she makes with it a magical serpent, which
she puts on the route that Ra (the Sun God) makes every day and every
night, from dawn to sunset, and from sunset to dawn. When he passed
through that way, the serpent bites him, and, receiving the serpent
bite, the god is victims of the most terrible anxiety: his limbs
shake, the flame of life flees from them, and the inoculated poison
makes him sweat copiously. The gods asked Ra which is it, what has
happened, and he says he finds no words to answer about it: A deadly
thing has bitten me. My hearts knows it, but my eyes haven't seen it.
My hand has made it not. I never felt such a pain. There is no pain
greater than this, (nor I know) who has made this to me. ...It isn't
fire, it isn't water, but I'm colder than water, hotter than fire. In
return, of course, Isis demands to know His Name. Ra tries to resist
in vain: the poison doesn't leave its way, and Ra's heart is about to
leave him. At the very doors of death, he gives up: »I do consent to
be investigated by Isis, and that my name passes from my body to her
body». In a extreme of cunning, worthy of the worst femme fatale, Isis
takes advantage of the situation and manages that Ra promise to give
his two eyes to her son Horus; and only after taking away from him his
two greatest treasures (his name and his eyes), she recites then her
spell and save the God Father of everything from death. We are told
that, in times of emperor Trajan there lived a woman, named Meletine,
whose six children were robbed by the wicked and impure Gylu. When she
gets pregnant for the seventh time, she builds a fortified tower, and,
locked up there with twelve damsels, she gives birth to her child. One
of those days the saints Sinisius, Sines and Sinodorus, brothers of
Meletine, get by to pay her a visit. Meletine refuses to open the
door, fearing Gylu, but she ends giving in to fraternal love and give
them free way. She should never have done it! Just as the saint
knights cross the ditch, the wicked Gylu, having taken the form of a
little mouse, takes the chance to jump in, and, that very night,
already inside the fortress, annihilates the seventh child. The
knights leave in search of Gylu, who, when she sees them, throws
herself into the sea (remember the Red Sea). Saint Sinisius captures
her on time and, torturing her, demands her to confess which God she
adores, which power she has and, above all, to return alive the seven
children of Meletine. «That,» replies Gylu, »is impossible, unless I
drink from Meletine's breasts.» St. Sinodorus leaves at once for his
sister's tower, and comes back with the requested nectar. The demoness
drinks then, and she brings up each of the seven children, with their
vital constants perfect[1]. In Lilith's story the magical name theme
already works both ways: we still have (unexplained) the fact that
Lilith knows God's name, but as a counterbalance it appears the
element of the three angels' names, which has power to keep her away.
Wherever a talisman with these names appears, she will respect it and
keep the distance. The power of God commands respect, and in the end
it wins over female magic; but this keeps its defiant independence..
In the Byzantine text (the most recent one), this evolution has
reached its peak: the theme of the demoness knowing the name of God
has disappeared completely. On the other hand, the prophylactic value
of the talismans with the three angels (made into saints) does remain.
And it's added that the talismans need, to be effective, to have also
the twelve and a half secret names of Gylu , that she confesses to the
saints[2]. So, it's now the Goddess who, by losing her name, becomes
defenseless before the Male Enemy, and must move back under his
authority. Many more things could be told. But I think it's enough
with this glance into the darkness to show that there are paradigms,
not much known, that reveal a autonomous and fascinating view of
womanhood. Enemies of socially established female status, of matrimony
and motherhood, grandmothers in the end of Romantic vamps (of Carmila,
or Dracula brides), Isis, Lilith, Gello, the tree ladies of the
darkness, counterbalance and complete the usual scheme of Eve and
Pandora, providing us a less radically biased image.

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