So we are jumping back in time a little bit today and focusing on the play "Back to Methuselah" written in 1921. The play itself divides into five acts, the first act focusing on Adam and Eve, acts 2 through 4 focusing on humanity and it's psychological evolution and the fifth act ending with a reflection by biblical characters on the other arcs. Overall themes include humanity eliminiating suffering, cruelness etc. from the human condition and transcending matter and into something else.
Lilith is an overarching figure, but she stays off stage for much of the play. Act 1 demonstrates that she is the creator figure of Adam and Eve and Eden, not a God figure. She is a maternal figure for certain, but is not the first wife of Adam or anything remotely relating to the mythology that has preceeded her. Indeed, really not any aspect of the Lilith mythology appears in the Lilith character in the play. She is far removed from the first wife of Adam, mother of demons etc. rather she is an insightful, intelligent creator figure.
Very little research seems to have been done about Lilith herself in this play, perhaps only borrowing the name for the sake of a good name.
21.5.08
20th Century Media - Lilith: A Metamorphosis
Forgive me for jumping around chronologically. As it is summer I do not have easy access to my materials and sources and am dependent on a friend of mine who attends Princeton University to deliver me my research material.
As this blog has established in the past, the main goal of this thesis is to discover and explore the connections of media featuring Lilith to the mythology that surrounds her, primarily that of the Alphabet of Ben Sira. As we saw in the quotations from Faust, these connections were fairly limited. However, today's document Lilith: A Metamorphosis shows a strong, will researched understanding of Lilith and her story.
Lilith: A Metamorphosis is a short novella written by Dagmar Nick, originally published in German. The English edition totals 47 pages with German text on the left pages and English on the right, making it a fairly short story over all, perhaps 25 pages or so. The story is told from the point of view of Lilith herself, explaining how she came to be transformed into a snake from a beautiful woman by means of being in contact with Adam.
Here, the ties to Ben Sira and other myths about Lilith are strong. Lilith stumbles across Adam by chance, although Adam calls her "[his] creature" (7), assuming that is the other person that the Voice has promised him. (The Voice, of course, being God.) Lilith comes and goes as she pleases, but always finds herself returning to Adam for some unknown reason. It's an effective means of demonstrating the idea of Lilith as Adam's first wife, although it removes the idea of a simultaneous creation for them both. Rather, the book suggests that there are other humans that live outside of Eden and that Adam is a sort of special project for the Voice.
Another strong tie to the earlier mythology is Lilith's other act ivies. Adam gives Lilith her name because "[she] is a woman of the night; therefore you are called Lilith. Whenever you come, it is night, and whenever you are unexpectedly up and away it is also night. Lilith" (19). In addition to connecting Lilith with the night there is also this passage.
As this blog has established in the past, the main goal of this thesis is to discover and explore the connections of media featuring Lilith to the mythology that surrounds her, primarily that of the Alphabet of Ben Sira. As we saw in the quotations from Faust, these connections were fairly limited. However, today's document Lilith: A Metamorphosis shows a strong, will researched understanding of Lilith and her story.
Lilith: A Metamorphosis is a short novella written by Dagmar Nick, originally published in German. The English edition totals 47 pages with German text on the left pages and English on the right, making it a fairly short story over all, perhaps 25 pages or so. The story is told from the point of view of Lilith herself, explaining how she came to be transformed into a snake from a beautiful woman by means of being in contact with Adam.
Here, the ties to Ben Sira and other myths about Lilith are strong. Lilith stumbles across Adam by chance, although Adam calls her "[his] creature" (7), assuming that is the other person that the Voice has promised him. (The Voice, of course, being God.) Lilith comes and goes as she pleases, but always finds herself returning to Adam for some unknown reason. It's an effective means of demonstrating the idea of Lilith as Adam's first wife, although it removes the idea of a simultaneous creation for them both. Rather, the book suggests that there are other humans that live outside of Eden and that Adam is a sort of special project for the Voice.
Another strong tie to the earlier mythology is Lilith's other act ivies. Adam gives Lilith her name because "[she] is a woman of the night; therefore you are called Lilith. Whenever you come, it is night, and whenever you are unexpectedly up and away it is also night. Lilith" (19). In addition to connecting Lilith with the night there is also this passage.
"Nonetheless, I was still surprised that all of a sudden he had named me so, because the children I frightened and the men I annoyed in my land also took me for a nocturnal creature and called me Lilu, which sounds quite similar. They also call a screech owl, or what they imagine to be a desert kobold, Lilu. I don't know what I had in common with a screech owl other than its tenderness covered by a featherlight gown." (19)
So, here, we see a number of connections to the mythology. Children being frightened, men being annoyed - perhaps a connection to nocturnal emissions, and perhaps most importantly the screech owl connection, which is often another word used in the passage from Isaiah that Lilith is very commonly associated with.
The story itself has little more connection to the mythological Lilith beyond these pages, but the story is still immensely well done. Lilith is very believable, endearing figure and because of an accident where a tree limb accidentally falls on Eve as Eve tries to pull Lilith out of the Tee of Knowledge, is turned into a snake. Moreover, there is real research done into this, as Lilith describes in the passage quoted from page 19, making it an effective means of demonstrating a combination between creative lisence and retaining original mythology.
Works cited:
Nick, Dagmar. Lilith: Eine Metamorphose. Trans. Maren and David Partenheimer. Missouri: Thomas jefferson University Press 1995.
10.5.08
Romantic Lit - Goethe's Faust
The first time that we see Lilith used as a literary character, rather than a figure of religious mythology used within text, is in Goethe's Faust. The mention here is intensely breif, but it is still noteworthy.
Translation by Martin Greenburg, 1992.
So, what do we make of this first apperance? She is called "pretty witch," with keeps in line with the ancient tradition of her being beautiful woman but deadly. Note that the idea that she is Adam's first wife is consistant with Ben Sira. In addition, the idea of her hair being a part of the mythology, as mentioned in Erubin 100b. (See earlier entries.) The focus here seems to be on her ability to seduce and the fact that it makes her a demonic character.
Overall, she is used as an extremely minor character who only briefly appears on Walpugris Nacht, but in terms of the history of her development this is key. She is a demonic figure, certaintly, but the mythology from Ben Sira and earlier corrosponds almost exactly to Ben Sira and the Talmud,
Faust: Who's that there?
Mephisto: Take a good look.
Lilith.
Faust: Lilith? Who is that?
Mephisto: Adam's wife, his
first.
Beware of her.
Her beauty's one boast is her dangerous hair.
Then Lilith winds it tight around young men
She doesn't soon let go of them again.
(4206–4211)
Faust: A lovely dream I dreamt one day
I saw a green-leaved apple tree,
Two apples swayed upon a stem,
So tempting! I climbed up for them.
The Pretty Witch: Ever since the
days of Eden
Apples have been man's desire.
How overjoyed I am to think, sir,
Apples grow, too, in my garden.
(4216 – 4223)
Translation by Martin Greenburg, 1992.
So, what do we make of this first apperance? She is called "pretty witch," with keeps in line with the ancient tradition of her being beautiful woman but deadly. Note that the idea that she is Adam's first wife is consistant with Ben Sira. In addition, the idea of her hair being a part of the mythology, as mentioned in Erubin 100b. (See earlier entries.) The focus here seems to be on her ability to seduce and the fact that it makes her a demonic character.
Overall, she is used as an extremely minor character who only briefly appears on Walpugris Nacht, but in terms of the history of her development this is key. She is a demonic figure, certaintly, but the mythology from Ben Sira and earlier corrosponds almost exactly to Ben Sira and the Talmud,
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