A student's notes on Lilith.
The concept of Lilith varies throughout history and her legend
evolved a lot during the Middle Ages. She predates the Jewish faith,
speculated to have her origins in Sumerian folklore. Between the 8th
and 10th centuries CE, she appeared in the satirical work, The
Alphabet of Ben Sira, which marks her major introduction into Jewish
myth.
Lilith, the first of Adam's three wives*, was created at roughly
the same time and from the same primordial clay as her husband. She tried to
declare her equality, but he would not recognize her as equal. When she
refused subservience to Adam, she left the Garden of Eden. She later mated
with the archangel Samael, became the mother of demons, and took up the
time-honored art of baby-stealing (though she made a promise not to abduct
children if they wore a protective amulet of certain angels--what a
classy broad!).
As a character, she has become demonized, and her name associated
with lamias, demons (namely succubi), vampires, night hags, and all manner
of night-beasts (e.g., screech owls).
In The Bible, she is only vaguely alluded to in Isaiah
34:14:
Wildcats shall meet with
hyenas,
goat-demons shall call to each other;
there too Lilith shall
repose,
and find a place to rest.
Her name itself, is often translated as "lilitu,"a Babylonian word that came to mean "night."
I find it interesting that the "crime" of asserted equality is met
with eternal notoriety and I think her story is a lot like Lucifer's
(consider: "A son of fire should be forced to bow before a son of clay?"),
as both were eternally spurned for refusing to subjugate themselves.
I find Rossetti's poem to be an interesting approach to Lilith. It
reflects on her nature to tempt and corrupt, but expresses the
poet/speaker's fascination with her as an intriguing character, despite--or
perhaps, because of--her history. She's a cool chick, and Rossetti gets this.
*The second wife is briefly mentioned (Naamah?) in Jewish texts; after Lilith left, God made another wife while Adam observed the process. By the time her form was complete, Adam was so disgusted from seeing the knitting-together of her guts, bones, glands, and sinew, that the relationship just wasn't going to work out. God dismissed this wife to Heaven and created Eve from Adam's rib while he slept.