The Sumerian Legend of Lilitu

For anyone who wonders if Lilitu was truely considered a goddess,

here is a Sumerian poem about her, an agricultural/ fertility goddess.

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http://www.lilithgallery.com/library/The_Legend_of_Lilith.html

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Before the stars were born

Before people built great cities

The great mountain Atlen shook

And bled fiery blood

As it gave birth to Lilitu

The land all around burned

Many animals and people died

When Lilitu opened her eyes

Lilitu saw the ashes of her birth

And wept tears like rain

Lilitu's tears became rivers and streams

Flowers grew where Lilitu walked

Trees grew where Lilitu sat

The ashes became fertile soil

And an orchard became Lilitu's home

In Lilitu's orchard many animals are

People came to live in paradise

Lilitu gave them grain and taught them to harvest

Lilitu made bread and beer

The people rejoiced, ate and drank

One day a great prince came to the land of Atlen

He spied Lilitu and wooed her

But Lilitu spurned and rejected him

The great prince became very angry

He spied two lions and killed them both

Lilitu wept for the lions

She cradled their heads in her arms

The lions awoke to her tears

The lions licked away her tears and became strong

They became Lilitu's loyal friends

The great prince saw this

And again he wooed Lilitu

But Lilitu became a bird

She flew away from him

Angry, the prince began hunting birds

Lilitu saw this and was upset

To spite the prince she spat at him

And mated with a serpent

Lilitu gave birth very quickly

Her child was like no other

The child had six arms

The child had a serpent's tail

The child was very strong

Lilitu called the child a marilitu

The Marilitu attacked the great prince

The great prince and the marilitu fought

The fought day and night

For night after night

And day after day

But neither could win the fight

Lilitu saw this and mated again

Another marilitu was born

And another and another

Two hundred and sixteen were born

In fear the great prince ran away

The people of the orchard rejoiced

The marilitu's farmed the land

The marilitu's protected the people

But the great prince swore vengeance

He cursed the mountain Atlen and its land

Atlen became angry at this curse

The mountain and the land shook

Atlen shook and bled and cried

Its fiery blood made fires

And its tears made floods

Afraid Lilitu turned into a great bird

She grasped people in her feet

She carried animals on her back

The marilitu's and the lions carried people too

Together they fled the land of Atlen

Lilitu went west and east

Lilitu went north and south

Finally she came to dry land

The people thanked Lilitu greatly

The people built statues in her honour

Lilitu wept for her lost home

Her tears formed two rivers

The rivers joined together

They flowed into the ocean

The people grew grain by the river

The people grew great orchards

They built buildings and towers of stone

The people grew healthy and the land rich

Merchants from far places travelled there

News of the wealth of the land grew

The great prince heard of the land

He sent his heralds to inquire of its lady

But Lilitu fed his heralds to her lions

The great prince sent an army

But the marilitu's destroyed his army

Finally the great prince went

When he saw the beautiful orchards

When he saw the six-armed marilitus

The great prince knew the lady was Lilitu

In fear he disguised himself as a woman

The great prince went to Lilitu's temple

His disguise fooled the people

But the lions knew his scent

The two lions warned Lilitu

So Lilitu prepared a trap

Lilitu summoned thirty-six young men

She filled a hall with thirty-six silver platters

She ordered thirty-six beasts slaughtered

At last she was ready

She invited the people to the feast

People came from all over the land

The great prince came too

The great prince arrived in disguise

But Lilitu knew him eagerly

She welcomed him as an honoured guest

The great prince accepted her hospitality

He sat before all the people

The thirty-six young men were brought forth

"Please choose a man," Lilitu commanded

Not wanting to be rude the great prince chose one

Lilitu bade the great prince to sit beside the young man

The silver platters were brought forth

The people feasted on the meat of thirty-six beasts

Great gifts were brough forth

Lilitu gave the gifts to the great prince

Confused the great prince accepted

Then the feast was finally over

Curious, the great prince questioned Lilitu

"Do you always give such grand gifts to strangers?"

"Only when someone is married," Lilitu answered

Realizing what had happened the great prince became angry

He ripped off his disguise

He drew his sword and his dagger

"Why have you made me marry this man?" he demanded

"Because you can never marry me," Lilitu answered

Enraged the great prince attacked Lilitu

The two fought endlessly for Lilitu was very strong

Whenever the prince would get too bold

Lilitu would change into a bird

The great prince fell to the ground and wept in despair

The great prince professed his love

He promised that he would never quit

He prepared to cut his own throat

Finally Lilitu grew tired of this game

She felt pity for the great prince

"I will grant you one kiss," Lilitu declared

Desperate the great prince accepted

The moment the great prince's kiss had been dealt

His body flooded with life and then death

So great was the pleasure of one kiss that he died

Lilitu wept for the great prince

But the great prince remained dead

Saddened Lilitu knew she could never love

No mortal man could taste her kiss and live

Her tears brought life

But her kiss brought death

Origins of Lilith, Lamia and Djinn - part 1

(I expect to rework this entry later, but for now I just need a place to put down and organize some thoughts.)

I believe that to find the truth about something, one should look for hard external evidence as well as looking within for subjective, internal validation. External evidence might be found in a collection of anacdotal stories, in myth or legend that's backed up with archeological evidence, or possibly in science.

I've been obsessed lately with trying to find the historical origins of succubae/incubi-type beings. This obession comes recently from a desire to try to figure out what kind of otherkin I might be, but it's roots go back to the beginings of my interest in vampires.

The picture above is a reproduction in the probable original colors of a Sumarian relief sometimes thought to be an image of the goddess Inanna, sometimes thought to be of Lilith (or some earlier version of her), and sometimes thought to be of Ereshkigal, goddess of the Underworld. To understand all of these dieties/deity concepts, one first needs to look back to some of the oldest concepts of diety. Wiccans say that all the goddesses are but faces of the Great Goddess and all the gods are but faces of the Great God. I believe there is truth in this idea, both anthropologically and metaphysically. I believe there are real powers that we call dieties, but I also believe that we give form and function to these powers with the power of our belief in them. I believe that we humans are essentially co-creators (and co-destroyers) of our Reality with our gods.

Anthropological evidence strongly suggests that the first form humans gave to Deity was as the Great Mother Goddess, creator of all Life as well as of Death. Early humans lived in close contact with the inseperability of life and death. They killed animals to eat, and often those same animals killed them too. The constant renewal of the seasons and of Life itself was evident to them. Thus they must've acknowleged that whatever power brought them Life also brought Death. There was no way to avoid this dichotomy. It was just what was true and unchanging.

Early images of the Goddess also took into account the symbolism humans saw in the animal world around them. The Lioness is a gentle nurturer of her young, but also a fierce killer. Birds fly away as a soul might be envisioned to fly (and probably as shamans "flew" in dreams and visions). The Snake ventured into the hidden places of the earth, came back out again, and shed it's skin to renew itself. Thus from the Paleolithic period to the Neolithic period to the period of the first cities and writing, these animal symbols have been important aspects of our mythologies and worship.

Many of the earliest creation myths tell of some great serpent or pair of serpents who created the world out of itself/themselves. Other myths tell of later generations of deities who slew these frightful primal beings. In Assyrian mythology this primal Serpent Mother is known as Tiamat, but it has other names in other cultures. In Voudoun this is the primal couple Dahmbala and Aiyda Wedo. In Aboriginal Austraila it is the Rainbow Serpent. I don't think it's just coincidence that the same symbols show up time and again in the mythologies of diverse cultures. I think that we humans carried these themes with us as we migrated over the face of the earth, and that we gave them metaphysical/magical power as we did so.

Who is represented in the image above? The answer to this question is still unclear. We can tell by her symbols what she represents, however. The crown on her head and the ring-like objects in her hands show that she is not simply a demon, as some would argue, but a goddess. The objects in her hands have been called the Sumarian version of the Egyptian ankh, a pretty reasonable assumption since a circle usually represents eternity, as in the concept of eternal life. Her wings identify her as having a connection to the concept of Heaven, though pointing down they may also connect her to the Underworld and Death. The Lions she stands on show her to be both a protective and a destuctive diety. Likewise the owls and her talon-feet show her to be connected to darkness, wisdom, and the transcendence of death. I don't personally think she represents Inanna, because I know of no other image that shows Inanna with owl-feet. She might represent Ereshkigal, but I'm more inclined to think she represents some goddess prototype of the spirit many pagans now think of as Lilith.

For me the name "Lilith" conjures images of a patriarchal subjugation and demonization of an earlier Goddess culture that honored and respected the old symbols of eternal Life, Wisdom and Transcendence. Before the myth of the Fall in the Garden of Eden, the serpent was the guardian of the Tree of Knowledge and Eternal Life. The Old Testiment story then turns almost every symbol that was previously positive into one that is now meant to be negative. Thus, I don't like to use the name "Lilith" for this goddess or spirit, but instead prefer "Lilitu" . (I realize, of course, that modern pagans and feminists have reclaimed the name and thus the very spirit of Lilith as one with a positive character, but for my purposes I prefer the older name.)

In the ancient Sumerian language the word "lil" meant "air" or "wind". Thus, Ninlil was "Lady Air" (goddess of air and wind) and Enlil was "Lord Air" (god of air and wind). Sometime around 3000 BCE to 2400 BCE Sumerian myths mention other beings that also have this "lil" portion in their names.

One myth tells of a sacred tree with a bird nesting in it's top branches, a serpent entwined in it's roots, and a female spirt called either Lilitu", "Lilake" or "Kisikil-lillake" hidden within it's very trunk. As the story goes, the young goddess Inanna wanted to make a throne and a bed out of this tree, but was frightened by the creatures in it. (That a Goddess of Heaven and Earth would be frightened by a couple of animals and a possible demoness seems odd, unless this is a later version of the myth with its own patriarchal twist.) She calls on the hero-king Gilgamesh to split open the tree and drive away the "demoness" inside it. What's odd, though, is that Gilgamesh is himself said to have been fathered by a "Lilu" demon and in part of the story of his great deeds, Inanna sends her handmaiden, an "adrat lilitu" to seduce and civilize the wild man Enkidu. That the the "lilitu" or "wind-demoness" is seen as both threatening to Inanna and as her servant seems contradictory. Also in Akkadian(?) writings the "adrat lilitu" seem to be young women who work as sacred prostitutes in the temples of Inanna/Ishtar, going out into the streets to bring men into the temples.

In later Akkadian magical writings a "lilu"or "irdu lili" is described as a male "wind-demon" or incubus, a "lili", "lilitu" or "ardat lili" is a female "wind-demon" or succubus, and men who waste away for no apparent reason are called "bridegrooms" of the ardat lili.

Compare this concept to that of the Hebrew demoness Lilith and her children (both male and female), the lilim.
(more later)

- Persephone