Who Is Lilith?

Two different types of lies, omission and stereotypes, are illustrated by anecdotes. In a widely known story, Ericsson explains the “Sumerian goddess Lilith from Genesis,” and how the omission of Lilith ultimately led to patriarchy. Lilith was purposely left out because she was portrayed as a strong independent woman. By leaving this key person out of the Bible, it resulted in the oppression of women and the dominance of men around the world for thousands of years. It enforced the idea that women are inferior to men, and has caused lasting effects on humanity today. Ericsson also recounts her own personal experience to uphold her claims about stereotype lies. She

’‘Lilith is complex in that she makes decisions for what she wants to happen, but in every choice she still considers what the group as a whole would like to see happen’’(p 180, Dawn). Lilith accepts the label as a traitor by the humans because she knows that with every choice she has made, she has thought about

Eve was so fond of Adam; her attachment to Adam blinded her from subservience. Adam knew he was in charge, and he liked that Eve was his companion. This provided him

The Greek civilization suggest the Gender gap as being of a more strategic implication rather than a gender viewpoint. The male having dominance over woman is a theme in Greek mythology, from sons allying with mothers to defeat the fathers, to the rape of Persephone. As Homer and Hesiod describe Hera as being second and subservient to her husband, using trickery to overcome Zeus’ plans. Although the feminine does play an important role it is one of creation and nurturing. Likewise, in the Genesis story, woman is created from man and is made to give him aid. After they had eaten of the fruit from the tree of good and evil, God was as a parent and correcting, or punishing the children. God said to Eve in Genesis 3:16 “your desire will be for your husband and he shall rule over you.”

ed to counter the sinister powers of this winged spirit who preyed on pregnant women and infants. Lilith next migrated to the world of the ancient Hittites, Egyptians, Israelites and Greeks. She makes a solitary appearance in the Bible, as a wilderness demon shunned by the prophet Isaiah. In the

But despite these similarities, Eve and Pandora are characteristically different. Unlike Pandora, Eve is not naturally evil. She was created from one of Adams’ ribs, making Eve of the same material and nature as her husband. Pandora, conversely, is basically different from man. I figured this because Hesiod does not give a significant story of how man came to be in these sections, but Pandora’s attributes from the gods, including both her beauty and her deceitfulness, marks her as a separate individual. However, Eve is meant to be a companion for Adam, to say that Pandora was a gift is plainly ironic. This inconsistency is at the difference between the women. Pandora is a punishment for man. Theogony exposes this, by calling her evil for man or through the instance with the jar, which is an indicator of her deceitful nature. Neither work specifies if Pandora actually undergoes suffering alongside man. Eve, however, is a victim of her actions as much as Adam is, and these two suffer together, if not wholly in the same way.

Sometimes nobody remember that eve can be harm. Everyone seems to ignore her, they called her when they were on the point of dying. She seems like a rough person and she do everything to reinforce that image. But, as everyone, she has weak spot and those were things for her impossible to admit. One of then was the fact of being ignored, to them to think she was useless.

2:20). Eve is thus created to be Adam’s ‘helper’, but as David Clines points out, she does not help him in the two tasks he has been assigned: to till the garden and name the animals (1990:33). Rather, she fulfils the role in continuing the human race that God has created. This can be seen further with the naming of Eve, which means ‘life’, with Clines describing this as how a woman’s function is denoted in the Bible (1990:40). I agree with Clines in this respect as by using language such as ‘helper’, it is suggested that Eve was not created independently of Adam but to help him as the more dominant figure. It is understandable how this text would not sit well with feminist scholars as it belittles women’s role in society in being secondary to man and only valuable for procreation, highlighted by Eve’s name. This has implications for women today who cannot have children because if they accept this interpretation that women were made to procreate then they may feel a lack of purpose in life. This could create issues for feminist scholars who are Christian or Jewish as they may question why they would adhere to a religion that does not promote a positive picture of every woman and could make some women feel worthless.

Eve has been considered as the mother of femmes fatales. Karen L. Edwards, in “The Mother of All Femmes Fatales: Eve as Temptress in Genesis 3” argue that “allusions to the story of the fall regularly assume Eve to be the archetypal femme fatale: she tempts Adam to participate with her in a divinely forbidden act in order to gain illicit knowledge, thus luring him to death, and with him the rest of human kind” (35). Another good illustration of the fatal woman is Lilith, who has been dismissed from the Garden of Aden after claiming her equality with Adam in terms of sexuality and desires. Moreover, Lilith is seen as a destructive women who brought death to humanity by murdering children. This turns her into an evil woman in the masquerade

God did not breathe life into her but took her from man. This is where the justification of oppression of woman begins. Due to woman not having the breath of God blown into her, she is not as holy as men, not deserving of God’s breath but rather only deserving of man’s rib and flesh. God is a man who created man, he could not create woman in the image of him because he is a man, so he took Adam’s rib. Adam also had the power of naming all animals in the kingdom, including woman; since she could not name herself, the underlying message from this example is that women do not have the privilege to be knowledgeable and make decisions.

Adam is adm(nst) and Earth is adamah (vnst). After Lilith got extremely aggravated with Adam and their dis-likeness, she shouts out Yahweh (YHWH) which is translated into Lord God, and it is so holy that it should remain unspeakable. Due to her speaking out the holy name, it provided proof that she was undeserving of paradise. She sprouts wings and flies off of the earth (even though she was made of the earth, she is not an earthbound) (Gaines NP Online ). Before explaining what Lilith’s, midrash is, it is important to know what exactly a midrash is. A midrash can be described as the last or final word that is given as “explanation” of the Holy Scriptures. The rabbi’s use it as an interpretive act for seeking answers to religious questions

actions of Eve God placed a special curse on the female race, “Unto the woman he said, I

The stories of The Epic of Gilgamesh and Genesis are demeaning to women. Genesis accuses women of being problematic, and made only for men. The Epic of Gilgamesh makes us perceive women as harlots. Both epics imply that women are unimportant and lesser than men. The stories of The Epic of Gilgamesh and Genesis are a slap in the face to women.

In Biblical imaginary, the image of woman often originated from the image of Eve. Eve was allured by the devil and impelled Adam to disobey God and eat the forbidden fruit, resulting in their exclusion from the paradise, mortality and hardship in their lives living on Earth. Since then, the female descendants of Eve were held responsible for this loss of paradise.

The classic Greek myths found in Mythology and ancient stories told in the Bible, often show striking resemblance to each other in narrative, symbolism, and thematic content. In both texts’ respective “Creation Stories”, women are portrayed similarly, cast in a rather unflattering light. The representation of women in both Mythology and the Bible and their portrayal has lasting impact on the way woman are perceived in the present day.