Lilith

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   A Mesopotamian storm demon, a bearer of disease and death.

2. 2

   The first wife of Adam in Jewish folklore.

   • Of Adam's first wife, Lilith, it is told / (The witch he loved before the gift of Eve,) / That, ere the snake's, her sweet tongue could deceive, / And her enchanted hair was the first gold.
3. 3

   The "dark moon" or "black moon", a fictitious invisible second moon of Earth proposed by…

   The "dark moon" or "black moon", a fictitious invisible second moon of Earth proposed by astrologers in the early 20th century. Now often interpreted as the position of the apogee of the actual Moon, or as the empty focus of the Moon's elliptical orbit (Earth occupying the other focus).

4. ›+ 2 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      A female given name from Hebrew.

   2. 5

      A type of female Mesopotamian demon, typically seen as coming to men in dreams and as…

      A type of female Mesopotamian demon, typically seen as coming to men in dreams and as endangering women during pregnancy or childbirth.

      • [A] Mandaic specimen from Kutha (BM 91715) which contains two independent incantations separated by a line: a historiola relating the expulsion of a particular lilith and the report of a dream purportedly dreamt by the client[.]
      • It describes the liliths who are divorced with these words: “naked are you sent forth, nor are you clad, with your hair disheveled and let fly behind your backs.” And indeed, the drawing of the lilith depicts her as naked[.]
      • A drawing and a few inscriptions indicate the appearance of a lilith, as a young naked woman with long dishevelled hair and prominent breasts and genitals […].

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