Home » Reading & Literature » Mythology » Lilith – a Feminist?

Lilith – a Feminist?

© Linda Casselman

Was Lilith, Adam's first wife, really a demon? Was she bent on evil or was she just misunderstood? Did the ancients fear her because she was a demon or was it something else?

They certainly did not take long to replace her, however, when she rebelled against Adam, as God soon created another woman for him. This time God made Adam's new wife from his rib instead of from the same ground as He made Adam. Curiously, some tales report that Lilith was made from filth. Filth? Ground is filth. And both Adam and Lilith were said to have been made from the same ground. So why say that Lilith was made from filth? To reinforce the idea that Lilith is evil, I would guess.

And what does Eve being made from Adam's rib suggest? If she is made from him this could propose that she is subservient to him. But it could also mean that Eve is a part of Adam. Woman is part of Man. Adam and his new wife, Eve, fit well together. They are truly bonded through the rib. Whereas Lilith was created from the same stuff as Adam, but she was created separately. Eve, on the other hand, is part of Adam.

This question is left to your judgement my dear readers.

So let us then compare Adam's two wives, Lilith and Eve.

Lilith is strong-willed, fiercely independent, rebellious, instinctive, uninhibited, and sexually unrestrained.

Eve is more demure and submissive. She is thought of as weak and she takes much blame from the Fall of Man from Grace. And she is certainly not sexually unbound.

Lilith and Eve seem to present the flip side of each other. Yet both women are necessary for a complete picture of WOMAN. But is something missing?

There is an underlying feeling that men, both past and present, fear the power of female sexuality. They are both drawn and weakened by female sexual energies, so they feel they must control it, lest it destroy them. How do they do this? They oppress it. And they banish poor Lilith from Paradise turning her into a demon figure to be feared. She is the bad girl.

But what about Eve? Eve follows lovingly by her husband's side. Soft and gentle. Obedient and subservient. She is the good girl. But she strays one day causing the Fall of Mankind so she is also sinful, shameful, and weak. This is the other popular view of women.

The copyright of the article Lilith – a Feminist? in Mythology is owned by Linda Casselman. Permission to republish Lilith – a Feminist? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.