Lilith, Queen of the Night
Written by Louise Pieper and Tonia Waiden

Lilith, Queen of the Night
Her sweet tongue could deceive
And her enchanted hair the first gold
And still she sits, young while the earth is old
And subtly of herself contemplative
Draws men to watch the bright web she can weave
Till heart and body and life are in its hold

- Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Body's Beauty

Lilith, the Queen of the Night, is the original femme fatale, a being whose existence depends on draining the life from men; the seductress and slayer - la-belle dame sans merci.

Lilith's story is a very ancient one and she underwent a number of transformations in mythology before she became the bloodsucking lamia of Jewish religion. The Sumerian and Akkadian civilisations existed in 3000 BC along the banks of the Euphrates and Tig (is rivers in Mesopotamia.

One of the most powerful Sumerian goddesses was Inanna, The Lady of Heaven, who represented womanhood and was credited with influencing people's fortunes. She was worshipped for 2000 years but over this period of time her worship became merged with the Akkadian goddess lshtar, the personification of the planet Venus "the goddess of the moon and the goddess of the evening". Ishtar was a goddess of many different personalities and she seemed violent and intolerant compared to Inanna. She was the mother goddess of fertility, motherhood and sex; she was said to be the "courtesan of the gods" and her priestesses were sacred prostitutes. She was also a goddess of war and would take on a terrifying aspect when she went into battle. One of her more malevolent aspects was known as Lilith - in this she appeared naked and winged with bird's talons. She was credited with the powers of divination, incubation and interpretation of dreams. She was beautiful, terrible and could tenderly heal a man or turn rivers to blood.

One of the most interesting tales about Inanna was the story of her descent into the underworld and it stands as one of the oldest myths of journeys of souls from the land of the living to the lands of the dead. It is said Inanna/Ishtar once went to the realms of the dead to battle with her sister Ereshkigal the mistress of the underworld. As she went through the seven gates of the underworld each gatekeeper required and item of clothing before she could pass that gate. Naked, she had no protection against the death glance of her sister and she became a corpse. She was helped by another of the gods and was returned to life and accompanied back to the world be evil ghouls or demons who "knew not food, knew not water". She had to provide a substitute for her release from the underworld and sent back her consort, who to her chagrin was enjoying himself and not mourning her death.

The erotic aspect of the goddess and her cults associated with sacred prostitution incurred the wrath of the Old Testament prophets. In their doctrine they changed Lilith from a goddess of the storm to the night demon of Jewish mythology. According to Jewish legends Adam had a wife before Eve, whose name was Lilith, who was created in the same way as him from the soil. But she quarrelled with Adam and fled from Paradise into the airy void. Three angels pursued and overtook her and ordered her to return but she refused. She hates the children of Eve and tries to destroy them, especially newborn infants who she seeks to kill or feed off their blood. She endangers women in childbirth and seduces sleeping men so she might breed more demons who accompany her in her night flights. She is the first of vampires, the Queen of the Night, the image of women as a temptress and destroyer. In some versions of her legend, she is an unearthly beauty with her only physical flaw being her legs which are covered in coarse hair, of which she is quite ashamed and keeps covered.

To guard against her it was appropriate for young men to hang the following script on their bedroom door or wall: "Adam and Eve may enter herein, but not Lilith the Queen".

Reprinted without permission from Australian Realms, July 1995