Island & Jacob theories

[erikau]

Rich, that's actually more along the lines of what I was trying to get to, but I found myself sidetracked by my own thoughts on pregnancy. I am actually a student of comparitive religion, which is why I am OBSESSED with Lost haha.

So now I;m going to talk about Lilith haha. Lilith, the person in myth, and lilith, demons/gods of myth.


Judeo-Christian mythology: Lilith is the first wife of Adam. She refuses to submit to him (literally she refuses to lie beneath him to have sex, and he refuses to let her be on top) as she knows herself to be his equal, so Adam whines and God makes Eve as a more suitable mate. She is a dark woman, associated with the night and moon. Some say that she was the serpent that lured Eve into eating the apple. She is sometimes symbolized by a screech owl or a snake. Jewish boys would wear an amulet with 3 angels on it, to protect them from Lilith until their circumcision.

In Kabbalah, sometimes it is said she was actually created before Adam, on the 5th day, and it was with HER offfspring that God filled the waters and such. She is literally the mother of all, except Adam and Eve, and their descendants. Ohter times, it is said that she isn't human at all, but was spontaneously created from an aspect of God's power, but from the lowest power so she is connected with evil. In Kabbalah, she is treated as the evil balance to God's good.

In any case, in Kabbalah Adam becaomes upset when he realized that his sin with Eve is the reason that people are dying. So he goes away to fast, but is seduced by Lilith the demon, and their offsrping are basically everything that is wrong with the world. OR, with the other Kabbahlic traditions, she and Samael are merged, they make up an androgenous being, both male/female, good/bad. Samael and Lilith are "married," their children are demons, and collectively they are known as "the Angel Satan" or "the Other God." They are God's evil twin.

In the Alphabet of Ben-Sira (written/compiled about 700AD), the story continues: After refusing Adam, she says the name of God and takes off into the air. Adam is upset that the woman "God made for him" (reminds me of Ben and Juliet) flew away, so God sends 3 angels to bring her back. God tells Adam that if she agrees to come back all will be good, but if not 100 of her children (HER CHILDREN? When/where did they come from?!) will die every day. The angels catch her in the sea, in the same place where "Egyptians are destined to drown" (Moses, Red Sea) , but she refuses to come abck with them. She tells them, "I was created only to cause sickness to infants. If the infant is male, I have dominion over him for eight days after his birth, and if female, for twenty days." Basically, she was going to kill some babies. BUT, she promises that whichever children wear an amulet with the 3 angels on them will be spared by her. So it is: every day 100 of Lilith's children die, and she kills any baby who isn't protected from her.

Now, she is only mentioned in the Bible once, and it is debateable. However, if they are talking about her, then WHOEEEEE does this fit with Lost. If you have not read about my thoughts on Ben/Locke : Jacob/Esau, they are contained here: http://forums.buddytv.com/lost-theor...ben-jacob.html they'd be helpful in following what I say next.

The destruction of Edom, the land of Esau, is to be destroyed as part of God's favoritism to his twin, Jacob, and there were to be "no survivors to the House of esau." Isaiah 34:14 says: "The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl (Hebrew is lilith) also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest." I mean, wow. This actually talks about the House of Jacob coming after the House of Esau on the Island, and when its over Lilith can be at peace. But anyway...



Sumer: Lilu/Lila/Lilitu demons. Haunted peoples dreams, were especially cruel to woman and children. Highly sexualized and aggressive towards males, but unable to to copulate normally. More specifically, Lilith: the beautiful maiden. Unable to bear children, and with "no milk in her breasts." Handmaiden to the goddess Inanna, who while being associated with fertility, was NOT connected with motherhood or childbirth. Hmmmm...fertility but no birth... Inanna was also known for trying to rule the Underworld. The Assyrian and Babylonian counterpart to Inanna is Ishtar, and in legend Lillith was Ishtar's prostitute. Lillith's job was to seduce and lead men astray. Lillith was symbolized by something like teh Sphinx...an eagle with a lions head...and parents protected their children with amulets so that she didn;t devour their souls. So overall in this stream of thought, Lilith was a seductress, associated with sex but not with procreation. She is pestilence, like Pandora, but the fact that she hurts unborn or young children stuck out to me.


Greek: Lamia, a witch who steals children, and/or Lilith, a mistress of Zeus. In that myth, Hera gets jealous and hurts the child Lilith and Zeus had together, so Lamia/Lilith gets her revenge by stealing other women's children. Her gift is called "teh Mark of Sybil" and it is the gift of second sight. This story, by the way, was told by Horace.


Mesopotamia: Shedim cults...worshipped the shedim, or the spirit/ghost children of Adam and Lilith


So all in all, Lilith is as follows: in older traditions, a lilith is a demon of sorts, specifically one of the night that attacks babies and can visit you in dreams. In later traditions, the idea of Lilith (giving her a negative connotation by connecting her with a demon) as the rebellious woman comes into play. Overall though, different traditions have used this name as a foil for a type of person: female, dark, supernatural (either as demon or goddess), sexual and fertile but opposed to children and birth. Actually, now that my interest was piqued and I read more, I CANNOT believe that this has not been brought up before. According to a bunch of crap I'm reading haha, since the Middle Ages it has been common to blame Lilith (based on any of these traditions above and a bunch of other stuff) for being unable to successfully birth a child. Wow.

I found this PARTICULARLY interesting, because of my Native Father's theory: "It is said that every mirror is a passage into the Otherworld and leads to the cave that Lilith went to after she had abandoned Adam and Eden for all time. In this cave, Lilith takes up demon lovers, who father upon her multitudes of demons who flock from the cave and infest the world. When these demons want to return they simply enter the nearest mirror." Well maybe she didn;t abandon Eden, but waited until adam got himself kicked out, and then it was fun time for Lilith in Paradise.

I know this is a LOT of information, but if you read and digest it all you get the general idea of the archetypal Lilith character throughout the ages. To me, she sounds very much like a Pandora type figure, which brings back the "You've opened Pandora's box" quote. I don't know what to make of all this really, but thought it was useful to this discussion, and really freaking interesting.