MoreLilith3

1) The Dual Aspect of Lilith
Of all the motifs in Jewish mythology, none - other than that of the Messiah - remains so vivid to this day as the myth of Lilith. She occupies a central place among the demonic images of Judaism because she is by far the most distinctive figure among this religion's numerous evil spirits.
Originally, Lilith was an archaic goddess who, on her very first appearance in the historico-religious tradition, presented just one single aspect: that of a terrible mother-goddess. However, this character changed in the course of the development of the myth. By the time of the Talmudic-Rabbinic and Graeco-Byzantine traditions at the latest, Lilith had acquired a strange dual aspect. Depending on whether she is faced with a man or a woman, one or other side of her becomes more apparent. Faced with a man, the aspect of the divine whore or, psychologically speaking, that of the seductive anima comes more to the fore. To a woman, however, she will present above all the aspect of the terrible mother. As the anima figure, Lilith attempts to seduce not only the first man, Adam, but also all men, even today - because, according to one of Jewish mysticism's ancient traditions, she is immortal. She will meet her death only on the Day of Judgement.
As the terrible, devouring mother, she tries to harm pregnant women and to steal their newborn children. She is always poised to kill the child so that she can drink its blood and suck the marrow from its bones. This aspect of Lilith is already conveyed in early texts, in which she is called "the strangler."
There are definite historico-religious and psychological reasons why the aspect of the divine whore and seductive anima only appeared much later, historically speaking. The feminine always appears first within the development of consciousness in the form of the Great Mother, who is a bipolar, archetypical figure, in that she contains the aspect both of the nurturing, caring mother and of the terrible, devouring mother. The figure of the anima was only detached from the mother figure in a later phase of consciousness.
The figure of Lilith as we encounter her in Jewish literature is, however, by no means restricted exclusively to Jewish mythology. She occurs among both Semitic and non-Semitic peoples - among the Babylonians, Assyrians, Jews and Arabs on the one hand and among the Sumerians and Hittites on the other. But only in Jewish mythology has the Lilith myth existed for more than two and a half thousand years and has even managed to develop still further. Indeed, its radiations can be traced into the most immediate present: even today, for apotropaic reasons, Orthodox Jewish families, especially in the East and South, hang various amulets in the maternity room or round the necks of the mother and her newborn child to protect them from the dangerous machinations of this ill-omened, demonic figure.
The two sides of Lilith had already been personified in Babylonian literature, in the two goddesses Lamasht� and Ishtar, out of which the figure of Lilith crystallized. For this reason, I have designated them as the Lamasht� aspect and the Ishtar aspect.
The Babylonian goddess Lilit� later underwent several strange transformations within the Jewish tradition. First, she lost her original divine character and became a colorless, nocturnal desert ghost.
To attain a deeper understanding of Lilith's transformations, it is necessary to make a short digression into Jewish, and from there back still further into Babylonian teachings on demons. Starting from this point, it is possible to illuminate the two opposing aspects of Lilith.
In Jewish literature, Lilith is one of the numerous demons who are mentioned in the Bible, the Talmud and Rabbinic tradition. But even outside this canonical literature, in apocryphal and pseudepigraphic works, in the Aramaic magic texts of Nippur, in Gnostic and Mandaean literature, as well as later in Jewish Mysticism and Jewish popular belief, Lilith occupies a considerable space.
Jewish demons occur under quite different names. One moment they are described as spirits (Ruchot), the next as pests (Masiqim) and the next as destroyers (Chabalim). They can be grouped under the collective name Shedim, sing. Shed, Aramaic Shida, i.e., demons. Shedim are either benevolent and helpful, or - more frequently - dangerous troublemakers. On the whole, the demons who meet humans and have dealings with them are male, but now and then there are female ones. From time to time, too, there are goblins or poltergeists - generally harmless and benevolent, though in the habit of teasing humans.
The Hebrew word Shed can almost certainly be traced back to the Akkadian word Shed�, which for its part corresponds to the Sumerian word Alad�. In Babylonia, the Shed� was originally a predominantly chthonic deity who was worshipped as a bull with a bearded human head. The ideograms for bull and Shed� are identical. At the same time, however, they are also the same as that for Nergal, the Babylonian rule of the underworld and the kingdom of the dead, so that it may be assumed that the Shed� also had some connection with the souls of the dead.
Since the Shed� is always represented as a winged bull, it is to be presumed that, as well as his chthonic aspect, he possessed a spiritual aspect. Facing the male Shed� is the female Lamass� or Lama, called Kal in Sumerian and whom the Sumerians portrayed as a winged cow. In contrast to the rather negative or ambivalent Shed�, Lamass� is always a kindly and helpful being. Shed� and Lamass� were erected at the gate of the palace of King Assurnazirpal, and on his accession to the throne, King Assarhaddon prided himself on having set up Shed� and Lamass� to the right and left of the palace entrance as guardians of the royal house and tutelary gods of the Assyrian people. The Sumerian Lamass� was later included in the Babylonian pantheon, though in so doing she - like Shed� - underwent certain transformations, because she was changed into a demon and worshipped as the great and terrifying mother-goddess Lamasht�, who has lost almost all her positive features.

a) The Lamasht� Aspect
Lamasht� is one of the two original images that left their mark on the figure of Lilith. She has many features in common with Lilith. Both watch the pregnant woman vigilantly - especially when she is in labor. They try not only to harm her personally, but also to steal her newborn child from her and to kill it. On amulets, both goddesses were named together and enjoined to leave mother and child alone.
A birth scene is depicted in an impression of a Babylonian cylinder seal from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, published by Stephen H. Langdon and which shortly after was also described by Bruno Meissner. According to an interpretation given by C. Frank, in this scene, a woman in labor is being attacked by demons led by Lamasht�. However, this interpretation is disputed by Meissner.
A few authors have already pointed to a close connection between Lamasht� and Lilith. According to F. Perles, it even appears that:
"... in the Jewish consciousness above all, Lamasht� and Lilith are almost identical."
However, this could hardly be the case, since Lilith - along with her Lamasht� aspect - also has other characteristics that Lamasht� lacks completely. On the other hand, it is true that, in the Lilith myth, the Lamasht� aspect is historically older. For this reason, we ought to consider this Babylonian goddess somewhat more closely.
Unlike other frequently rather hazily portrayed Near Eastern goddesses, the personality of the goddess Lamasht� is defined with absolute clarity. The best sources for an understanding of this figure are the so-called Labart� texts published by D.W. Myhrman. The texts have been corrected and expanded in certain respects over the last few decades.
In these sources, Lamasht� is always invoked as a goddess. Her father is the Babylonian god of heaven, An�, and thus she is, generally called simply "daughter of An�." She is the "chosen confidante" of Irnina, a goddess who is related to the Sumerian Inanna and the Babylonian Ishtar.
The Labart� texts say:
"Her abode is on the mountains, or in the reedbeds. Dreadful is her appearance. Her head and her face are those of a fearsome lion, white as clay is her countenance, she has the form of an ass, from her lips pours spittle, she roars like a lion, she howls like a jackal. A whore is she. Fearsome and savage is her nature. Raging, furious, fearsome, terrifying, violent, rapacious, rampaging, evil, malicious, she overthrows and destroys all that she approaches. Terrible are her deeds. Wherever she comes, wherever she appears, she brings evil and destruction. Men, beasts, trees, rivers, roads, buildings, she brings harm to them all. A flesh-eating, bloodsucking monster is she."