The Pop Culture History of Lilith

On supernaturally focused television shows from The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina to, well, Supernatural, the character of Lilith has become nearly as common a character in biblically inspired media as Lucifer or Gabriel. She seems to be everywhere, if you’re looking. But who was Lilith in myth and legend? And why has she emerged as such a compelling character and feminist icon?

Lilith, as we know her, though she’s associated with the garden of Eden and the Old Testament, isn’t actually in the Bible, except as a passing reference to a wilderness demon called Lilit (who might be an owl). Rather she’s a figure from greater Jewish mythology and folklore with roots going back millennia.

In fact, Lilith’s origins might go back before Judaism, all the way to Sumer. She’s all over the fertile crescent. In Jewish myths, Lilith is Adam’s first wife, created from the same material as Adam, who refuses to submit to him and is thus cast out of the Garden. Some stories say she had children that angels killed, while in others she meets with the archangel Samael (who is later conflated with Lucifer), and she gives birth to a race of demons, sometimes called lilû. 

Sometimes Lilith’s demon children are Adam’s, sometimes she’s impregnated by human masturbation or nocturnal emissions. Whether Lilith or the demons she’s associated with came first in folklore is lost to time, but what isn’t lost is the most popular myth about her.

Found first in the satirical collection of legends known as the Alphabet of Ben Sira written in the 9th or 10th century, we find the story of Lilith refusing to submit to Adam’s demands. The way in which she refused to submit to Adam was that she wouldn’t be on the bottom when they have sex or submit to missionary style intercourse. She literally wanted to be a woman on top … and was also, quite literally, demonized for it.

Lilith represents all forms of “deviant” sexuality beyond marital, missionary sex. Indeed, she represents all non-conforming female behavior. She’s supposed to be a warning against those things. For many centuries, Lilith has been a dark, dangerous figure associated with the death of children in infancy, maternal mortality, and, excitingly, vampires, since in some stories she drinks the blood of babies. She’s also associated with the Greek Lamia, who also drank baby blood and were proto-Vampires.

Lilith’s myth and attraction have grown as feminist ideas, and specifically, feminist movements within Judaism have progressed, seeing Lilith transform from a dark, cautionary tale, to an icon of liberated sexuality, female freedom, and all the joys and sorrows those things entail. In some written works she’s Eve’s lover; in others, she is Eve before she gave up her “self” to be with Adam. She’s all the dark, dangerous things that women aren’t supposed to be and do in a polite, patriarchal world.

In modern pop culture, there are many Liliths. The first I ever remember hearing of was Fraisier’s frosty, uptight wife played by Bebe Neuwirth on Cheers. She was hardly a vampire or a demon, but she was a powerful, straightforward woman and that power was a joke. The world at the time wasn’t ready for the “real” Lilith, but that changed in the late nineties when Sarah McLachlan chose Lilith as the patron of her famous female-only summer music fair.

Lilith Fair, for so many, was a transformational and affirming moment for women in music and culture. I attended two summers in a row and to be in a space that was for and about women was so powerful. And while Lilith Fair became something of a punchline for misogynists, it was an incredibly important moment for culture and feminism, and it was a true embodiment of Lilith’s spirit.

And then … pop culture found her. Lilith had shown up in non-Jewish text many times before the 21st century, of course. She’s mentioned in Goethe’s Faust and all over other cultural productions. While Lilith was a queen vampire in the 1909 horror-comedy Bordello of Blood, it was after Lilith Fair that she really started popping up in movies and TV. And one of the first places she shows up post-Lilith Fair is Supernatural.

On Supernatural, Lilith is the first demon, released from hell and on a mission to free Lucifer throughout most of seasons three and four (which aired around 2007-2009) of the series. In contrast to her mythological role as a killer of children, she first shows up possessing a child who kills people and tortures her family. She eventually takes on different, more mature bodies and better expresses Lilith’s sexual aspects, but she’s also eventually killed by Sam (after drinking demon blood, there’s the vampire thing), to free Lucifer.

Lilith on Supernatural is not really the Lilith of myth and archetype, because unlike her folklore counterpart this Lilith only exists to serve men and male presenting characters and dies for it, something the “real” Lilith would scoff at. Though she did come back for a tick this season, she was killed by men, again. Sigh. The same goes for the version of Lilith we saw in seasons five and six of True Blood.

With episodes that aired around 2012 and 2013, once again Lilith was the first vampire and she was powerful … but all her stories revolved around men, first Warlow, and then Bill Compton. Bill even became her new vessel (remember “Billith”?) but the story wasn’t about her so much as it was about the men that were in her life. Again, very annoying when you look at things from Lilith’s perspective.

Then we have her appearance in The Chilling Adventures of Sabrin. Played brilliantly by Michelle Gomez, “Madame Satan” is not just a demon, she’s the first witch who made a pact with the devil after she was cast from Eden. It’s an interesting spin on Lilith because she is again relying on a man for her power … but her journey in the series is realizing, like most of the women on the show, that she doesn’t need The Dark Lord or any man to be powerful.

At certain points in Sabrina, Lilith rules hell and is worshipped for herself. It’s a great progression for her; though she’s eventually relegated back to stealing sperm (from Lucifer at this point) and having the devil’s baby, that’s more in line with her lore than some other depictions.

At this point, I don’t think there really has been a version of Lilith that truly embodies her as a woman that chose freedom over everything. She chose liberation over Eden, and refused to submit to a man in a way that cost her so much. She’s a figure that feminists rightly honor now, because she represents the power of choice and refusing to be ashamed of simply wanting to be the person she is.

Lilith is part of astrology, not as a planet or moon, but a point in space representing the moon’s apogee. “Black Moon Lilith” in a natal chart represents the aspects of someone’s personality that they should be proud of and should reject being ashamed of. That’s the lesson of Lilith that pop culture still hasn’t quite been able to crack, though I’m hopeful.

Lilith is a figure who takes no shit, who feels no shame. She’s seen and done it all and she’s kept going. She’s been called a monster and a demon and she’s cool with that because she’s free. She’s the things that women are told not to be, the original Nasty Woman who would not yield.

For centuries, patriarchy painted her as a monster, killer of men and children with her abhorrent behavior. But Lilith’s story is not about death, it’s about the first woman who chose to be unapologetically and fully alive, no matter the cost.

(image: Diya Pera/Netflix)

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