Supernatural’s Lilith – The Lilith of Jewish folklore?

Okay, my mind is still reeling from the season finale of Supernatural, in a completely awesome way. I have so many questions, and I simply cannot wait for the new season to start. I’m already going through withdrawal, if that’s possible.

Just about everything lived up to my expectations, not only with the finale, but throughout the season as a whole. Lilith proved to be an excellent foe for the Winchesters, and I loved the way everything played out with her in the end. Still, her character, in general, was somewhat of a mystery to me. Maybe we’re not supposed to wonder so much about the big bads, but I do. Especially in Lilith’s case.

When Lilith first appeared to us in season three, in little girl form, one of the first things to pop into my head was the Lilith of Jewish folklore, aka Adam’s first wife, pre-Eve. At first, I dismissed the name as a coincidence, but after watching the last two episodes of the season, I’m not so sure. After all, this series has been carefully planned out long in advance. I don’t know if there are many coincidences that can be thrown away lightly.

For those who are not familiar with the mythology of Lilith, there are many different versions of the story. The one I’ve heard most often is the aforementioned first wife of Adam. Because she was created out of the earth as Adam was, she felt they were equals and refused to be subservient to him. For many women, Lilith is hailed as a positive figure and a hero (albeit a fictional one) of women’s rights, as the first feminist.  Hence, the estrogen fest known as Lilith Fair, which, in the interest of full disclosure, I admit I have attended not once, but twice.

So, Lilith flew away to the sea (because for some reason, she has wings) and started to churn out demon-babies in scores. Three angels were sent to bring her back, but she refused. They threatened to kill her, but she said her only purpose was to sicken newborn infants, so they made a deal(?!). One hundred of her demon-spawn would die every day, and she would have no power over babies who bore medallions with the three angels’ names on them. Adam called God out on the fact that he created a willful, disobedient wife for him, so God created Eve for him instead, this time out of his own rib to assure her obedience.

I have yet to find any actual text from traditional stories on the web to back this up, but a couple of websites claim that some of the folktales include Lilith stealing and eating babies, which was her dinner of choice on Supernatural, as well, as we now know.

It’s true the writers often take great liberties with the mythology of certain demons and monsters, but that never bothered me. I would have liked for them to expand a little more on Lilith, since it seems obvious after a couple quick Google searches that the character was indeed inspired by the myth. Like Brett wrote in his review of the finale, what they’re doing with the story is amazing, and they could have easily taken tome creative licenses to give us just one episode that focused, at least in part, on the backstory of Lilith. Lord knows it would’ve been better than “Family Remains.”

Or maybe I’m just beating a dead demon horse, since Lilith is now out of the picture, and we have the biggest big bad of all to worry about now, with Lucifer himself about to make an appearance. I’m pretty sure everybody already knows how he came to be, though. What do you think?

Clacked by Cate Cropp
on May 18, 2009 @ 14:00 EST5EDT