Lilith

 

Lilith is a creature who can be found in the lore of many different societies, including Jewish, Talmund and somewhat in Christian religion. (However, I do not think this is mentioned in the Bible) The image of Lilith may have been conjured up during the captivity of the Hebrews by the Babylonian's. Here is a look at the three beliefs:

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Jewish Lore: According to Jewish belief, Lilith is a female spirit of the night who is said to seduce men while they sleep. The men emit semen, and Lilith uses their spirm in order to breed her children. If she should produce any human children, Lilith will usually stangle them during or after their birth. Any female offspring she produces are called Lilim.

Talmud Lore: The Talmud say that Lilith is a threat to the men who sleep alone. It is thought that during the one hundred and thirty years in which Adam was away from Eve, he accidently eitted spirm, and from it many ghosts, male and female demons were harbored, and the female night demons became known as Lilim.

Christian Lore: Though not directly mentioned in the Bible, Lilith is believed to be the first wife of Adam, made from dust like him. Lilith went from the garden to a cave when Adam refused her the equality she wanted, and it was here where she consorted with demons. In time, Lilith gave birth to demonic children. When Adam complained to God, He sent three angels, Senoy, Sansenoy and Semangolef, to bring her back. The three angels found her in the cave and told her that if she did not go back to Adam she would lose one hundred of her children daily to death. Lilith, however, preferred this over living with Adam. As revenge, she injures or kills human children. The three angels continued to harass her until she swore that if she saw the names and images of these angels in an amulet worn by or near a child, she would not harm that child.

Some General Information:

Lilith is known as the Queen of the Night, Lili, Lilu or the Mother of Demons. She is said to be a beautiful woman marred only by the coarse black hair which covers her legs. When hunting her prey, men, she will keep her legs hidden, and the men only discover their mistake when it becomes too late. She attacks her prey not by draining their blood, but rather by seducing her  victims into somnambular intercourse, and when they awake the next day, they are exhausted and drained. She was also known to loiter in rooms when couples are making love and steal away some semen to create new evils.

It was during her reign of terror when she was believed to have bit into a man with her razor sharp teeth and feasted on him during intercourse. He later rose as a vampire, so beginning the race. She had done this several times in the Middle East; Vampires are believed to have originated from areas like Egypt and Greece, and her bite became symbolic in that those bitten by a Vampire would rise from the grave as a Vampire.

The largest concentration of Vampires is believed to be in the eastern part of Europe, a region known as Magyarorszag, the Country of the Magyars, which includes Hungary and Romania. It is believed that these places became the Vampires haven shortly after the Turkish invasion, when the Vampire population wished to branch out to other parts of the world. It can be hypothesized that this Lilith legend, making it's way into Europe after the Jewish Diaspora of 70 A.D., is the basis for the other female, vampire-like demonesses who attacked children, such as the Bruja of Spain, or the Lamia of Greece.

The Link Between Lilith and Cain:

According to legend, Cain wandered until he found Lilith by the Red Sea. It is said that she took him in and showed him the power of blood. I understand that the Tree of Life is represented by blood, which is why the Jewish drain meat of all its blood before cooking and then eating it; this is why the drinking of blood and becoming a Vampire is seen as wrong in religion.

From Cain and Lilith came many demons and Vampires. In the Bible, Cain is said to have fathered, with an unnamed woman, a number of legitimate children. Some of the children of Cain are highly regarded, as they are listed with their inventions, such as the harp and metal working. The myth of Cain and Lilith, however, does not appear in the Bible. Lilith only appears in the Jewish apocrypha texts, but not in either the Torah or the Bible.