Throughout the course of human history the devil and demons have been blamed for everything from insanity to women asserting their individuality. In the modern world, the devil is no longer seen as the cause of everything evil. As a matter of fact, the devil has taken a backseat. Evil is seen as being caused by some biological process the devil isn’t lurking behind every tree and demons are viewed just as religious myths.
It’s always been my opinion that myths come from someone where and sometimes people do evil things without a clear understanding of why they have acted in a certain manner. The concept of a night demon seeking to hurt the living is a concept that is found in the histories of several major religions.
My first stopping point on the demonology journey is with a study of Lilith.
· The plural form of Lilith in Hebrew is lilim which if found in Talmudic and kabbalistic literature as a term for spirits of the night. Lilith is most often depicted as a beautiful woman with long, unkempt hair and large bat like wings. According to the Midrash, Lilith preys not only on males as they lay sleeping.
· Lilith quite likely was the first feared in ancient Babylon as Lilitu who together with Ekimmu wandered the night world in search of victims for their insatiable blood lust. In Hebrew folklore, Lilith was Adam’s wife before the creation of Eve. The true chosen mother of humankind. The terrible night creatures known as the incubi and the succubi were the children of Adam and Lilith. The incubi materialize before women as handsome men hypnotically seducing them and withdrawing from them their life force.
· Succubi appear to human men as lovely sensual women tempting and promising disqusing their thirst for human blood.
· The sacred magic of Ahramalin the mage translated by MacGregor Mathers from a manuscript written in French in the 18th century is dated 1458 and claims to be translated originally from Hebrew. The text states that the universe is teeming with hordes of angles and demons that interact with human beings. On many levels humans are somewhere between the angelic and demonic intelligences on the spiritual scale and each human entity has both a guardian angel and a malevolent demon hovering near him or her from birth until death (Steiger, B (2010) P. 1)
· Lilith is a female Mesopotamian storm demon associated with wind and was thought to be a bearer of disease illness and death
· The figure of Lilith first appeared in a class of wind and storm demons or spirits as Lilitu in Sumer Circa 4000 BC. Many scholars place the origin of the Phonatic name Lilith at somewhere around 700 BC despite post-dating even to the time of Moses
· The earliest reference to a demon similar to Lilith and companion of Lillake/Lilith is on the Sumerian King List where Gilbamesh’s father is named Lillu.
· Little is known of Lillu and he was said to interfere with women in their sleep and had functions of an incubus while Lilitu appeared to men in their erotic dreams.
· Such qualities are further suggested by the Semitic association made with the names Lila and Lilitu namely those of lalu or wandering about lalu meaning lasciviousness
· The Assyrian Lilitu were said to prey upon children as women and were described as associated with lions, storms desert and disease. Early portrayals of such demons are known as having Zu bird talons for feet and wings. They were highly sexually predator towards men but were unable to copulate normally. They were thought to dwell in west, desolate and desert places like the Sumerian Dimma a male wind demon named Pazuzu was thought to be effective against them
· Other storm and night demons from a similar class are recorded around this period:
Lilu an incubus
Ardat (Lilith’s handmaid) who would come to men in their sleep and beget children from them and
Irdu lili the incubus counterpart to Ardat lili.
These demons were originally storm and wind demons however later etymology made them into night demons
· Lilith’s epithet was the beautiful maiden she was described as having no milk in her breasts and was unable to bear any children. Babylonian texts depict Lilith as the prostitute of the goddess Ishtar. Similarly older Sumerian accounts assert that Lilitu is called the handmaiden of Inanna or hand of Inanna. The Sumerian texts state that Inanna has sent the beautiful unmarried and seductive prostitute Lilitu out into the fields and streets in order to lead men astray.
· The Lilitu the Akkadian Ardat Lili and the Assyrian he-ber-tu like Lilith were figures of disease and uncleanness. Ardat is derived from adatu a title of prostitutes and young unmarried women meaning maiden.
· Lilith is further associated with the Anzu bird, lion and owls and serpents which are animals associated with Lilitu. It is from this mythology that the later Kaballah depictions or Lilith as a serpent in the Garden of Eden and her associations with serpents are probably drawn.
· In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh was said to have driven Lilith an Anzu bird and snake which fears no spell from a tree that was in a sacred grove dedicated to the Goddess/Ishtar/Inanna/Agherah other legends describe the malevolent Anzu birds as lion-headed and pictures them as eagle monsters like wise to this letter amulet from Arslan Tash site features a sphinx like creature with wings devouring a child and has an incantation against Lilith or similar demons incorporating Lilith’s correlating animals of lions and owls.
· Lamashtu (Summer Dimma) was very similar Mesopotamian demon to Lilitu and Lilith seems to have inherited many of Lamashtu’s myths. She was considered a demi-goddess and daughter of Anu the sky god. Many incantations against her mention her status as a daughter of heaven and exercising her free will over infants this makes her different from the rest of the demons in Mesopotamia unlike her demonic peers, Lameshtu was instructed by the gods to do her malevolence she did it on her own accord. She was said to seduce men, harm pregnant women, mothers and neonates kill foliage drink blood and was a cause of disease, sickness and death. Some incantations describe her as 7 witches. The space between her legs is a Scorpio her head is that of a lion she has Anzu bird feet like Lilitu her breasts are sucked by a pig and a god and she rides on back of a donkey.
· Two other Mesopotamian demons have close relationship to Lilitu Gellus and AIU. AIU was originally an asexual demon who took on female attributes but later became male demon. AIU liked to roam the streets like a stray god at night and creep into people’s bedrooms as they slept to terrify them. He was described as being half-human and half-devil. He appears in Jewish lore as Ailo here he is used as one of Lilith’s secret names. In other texts Ailo is daughter of Lilith that has had intercourse with a man. The other demon Gellu is of the Utakku group. Gallu’s name like Utukku was also used as a general term for multiple demons.
· Gallu appears as Gello or by llou in Graco-Byzantine mythology as a child stealing and child killing demon. This figure was likewise adopted by the Jews as Gilu and was also considered a sacred name of Lilith’s(Lilith (n.d) Wikipedia)
References:
Lilith (n.d.) Wikipedia. Retrieved September 25, 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilith
Steiger, B. (2010). Real Vampires, Night Stalkers and Creatures from the Darkside. Canton. MI: Visible Ink Press
