Lilith in popular culture

For the term relating to a night monster in the Dead Sea Scrolls and a demon in Jewish mythology see Lilith

Lilith, a female demon from Jewish mythology, has been developed into characters in popular culture.^[1][2] One writer on witches has written "No spirit exerts more fascination over media and popular culture than Lilith. Her appearances are genuinely too numerous to count."^[3][4][5] Lilith is one of several demonic figures with biblical or related origins taken into popular culture.^[6][7]

Books

This section only includes direct references to the Lilith of Jewish legend (as documented in Jewish sources) in popular culture. It does not include references to the many dozens of derivative female characters called "Lilith" in comics, video games, cartoons, supernatural films, TV series, and so on. See Lilith (disambiguation) for a complete listing of characters named Lilith

The March 1973 issue of the Warren magazine, Eerie, contains a story written by Nick Cuti titled "Lilith," illustrated by Jaime Brocal. The story is based on the medieval stories of Lilith being Adam's first wife, but there are several interesting turns on the tale, such as the archangel Gabriel being substituted for Samael.^[8]

In books the legendary Lilith, presumed wife of Adam, appears in various fantasy novels. For example Lilith is a principal character in Stephen Brust's To Reign in Hell, (1984) where she is the love interest of both Satan and Lucifer at varying points. In Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series of fantasy novels Lilith appears in For Love of Evil (1988) and the last in the series Under a Velvet Cloak (2007). In Cassandra Clare's young adult fantasy series The Mortal Instruments (2007–2014) Lilith is the first wife of Adam in the garden of Eden. In Jaye Wells' urban paranormal series the Sabina Kane novels, Lilith is the Queen of Hell and wife of Asmodeus, and the mother of the vampire and mage races; while Lilith only makes brief cameos in the first four books, the prophecy of her return drives the central plot of the series and she is a major character in the fifth installation. She's also named as Adam's first wife in the fantasy series Fallen by Lauren Kate.

Lilith is Resurrected in Author Kevin R. Given's "last Rites: The Return of Sebastian Vasilis which is book one in the "Karl Vincent: Vampire Hunter" series. She, along with the Egyptian Sekhmet Sekhmet and Hindu Kali Kali form an evil female trinity bent on destroying mankind and taking over the earth. She is also seen in the comic book version of "Karl Vincent: Vampire Hunter" #1-6

Lilith appears in the 40th issue of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman series from DC Comics' Vertigo imprint. She is later present in several issues of the Lucifer comic series, where she is found to be the mother of Mazikeen.^[9] She was first wife of Adam, who, when rejected by Adam and God for being a person in her own right, slept with many (if not all) of the angels to give birth to the first demons, who she then organized into building the Silver City.

In Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, Humbert Humbert says of himself, “Humbert was perfectly capable of intercourse with Eve, but it was Lilith he longed for.”

Excerpt From: Nabokov, Vladimir. “The Annotated Lolita: Revised and Updated.” iBooks. ".

In the Simon R. Green's Nightside book series, Lilith is the main hero's mother.

There are two characters named Lilith in the Marvel Universe.

In the Larissa Ione book series The Lords of Deliverance, Lilith is the mother of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

In C. David Belt's "The Children of Lilith" trilogy, Lilith is the Queen of the vampires and the granddaughter of Cain.

Lilith plays a major role in Kevin Kauffmann's Forsaken Comedy trilogy. In this depiction, Lilith is the sister, wife, lover, and queen consort to Lucifer. She is a powerful participant in the War in Heaven, then assists Lucifer in discovering Hell after they are cast from Heaven by God. Lilith dies after giving birth to Mammon, Lucifer's child.

In the Stargate Atlantis spin-off novel Blood Ties, Lilith is an Ancient researcher from Atlantis who became obsessed with defeating the Ori to the point of insanity. To this end, she created the creatures of mythology, most of whom died out in the Great Flood. However, her succubi, incubi and cambion survived and are the main enemies of the novel. One of the factions of these creatures is called the Lilith after her.

Television, movies, and music

The Lilith myth is the subject of the episode "Lilith: Queen of the Night" from the third season of the Canadian documentary series The Naked Archaeologist.

In the US TV series Supernatural, a white-eyed and very powerful demon called Lilith appears in season 3 (2007) and season 4 (2009). She is said to be the first human ever tempted into Lucifer's service, thus becoming the first demon. In the season 4 finale, it is revealed that she is also the last of the 66 seals, and when she is killed, the Devil is unleashed from his cage.

In the episode "Night on Haunted Mountain" (2012) of the Cartoon Network television series Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, the main villainess was a flying phantom which is named Dark Lilith and protects a mountain named Mount Diabla.

In season 5 of the television series True Blood, Lilith is the goddess that the Sanguinistas (an underground religious group composed mainly of vampires) worship and pray to. Lilith is acknowledged in The Original Testament, the vampire Bible and predecessor to both the Old and New Testaments, as the second vampire—after God himself—and is portrayed as the messiah of vampires. The Sanguinistas also possess a vial which they believe contains the blood of Lilith.

Lilith is the subject of the horror film "Night Angel" (1990). The horror movie 30 Days of Night: Dark Days features a vampire called Lilith. In the 2012 horror anthology film V/H/S, the segment "Amateur Night" features three friends who run afoul of a succubus-inspired creature, played by Hannah Fierman, who is listed in the credits as Lily. Lilith is the name of the demon in the film Evil Angel (2009). Also in 2009 comedy movie Year One Lilith is represented as daughter of Adam, sister of Cain.

Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa (2010)—the ninth studio album from the British extreme metal band Cradle of Filth—is a concept album focused on Lilith. The Swedish black metal band Dissection has a song called "Dark Mother Divine" featured on the 2006 album "Reinkaos" which refers to Lilith. Therion has a song called "Lilith" featured on the album Les Fleurs du Mal, also "The Perennial Sophia" refers to Lilith in the lyrics, which is on the album Gothic Kabbalah. Genesis' sixth studio album, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (1974), features the song "Lilywhite Lilith". On the album Concentration (1993) by the American industrial rock band Machines of Loving Grace, there is a song called "Lilith/Eve" that is also based on this legend. The electronic producer Varien released the song "Lilith", which is about this legend. Deathcore band Chelsea Grin released a song titled 'Lilith' on their 2012 EP, 'Evolve'.

In the webseries Carmilla, a series based on the vampire novella of the same name, Carmilla's sire and "mother" is named Lilita and has been heavily hinted in transmedia for the series to be based on or connected to Lilith.

In the movie "The Chosen", an Independent Thriller the story revolves around Lilith as a demon that possesses children and takes them to hell if six blood relatives are not sacrificed. The movie also references Lilith as being the first wife of Adam.

In Zero (2016), a south indian fantasy-horror movie, Lilith , the 'first wife of adam' is mentioned. She is said to have cursed the protagonist.

Anime

In the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion—a show that makes innumerable references to Jewish mysticism—Lilith is stated to be the Second Angel, the progenitor of the human race. She is confined in the lowest level of NERV headquarters and impaled with the Lance of Longinus in order to keep her compliant to NERV/SEELE's goals. However, she's wrongly identified as Adam until episode 24, when Kaworu Nagisa sees her and realises what SEELE is planning.

There is a Digimon known as Lilithmon who is based on the mythical Lilith and is one of the Seven Great Demon Lords. The character's first anime appearance is in Digimon Fusion.

In the manga Chrono Crusade, Lilith is the mother of Chrono and Aion. Lilith was turned into a replacement core for Pandemonium. At the end of the story, Aion beheads her, making clear his contempt for her. He further requests that it never be disclosed that Chrono and he are both humans turned into demons. In the penultimate chapter, Asmaria has a vision of a pregnant woman walking through the countryside when the ancestral demons came to Earth, and this woman happens to be Lilith.

Games

• Lilith is a character in Darksiders and Darksiders II.

• Lilith appears as a Succubus in the Darkstalkers series.

• Lilith is a recurring enemy in the Final Fantasy series, here referring to the demons that share her name, which are portrayed as snake-women.

• Lady Lilith is the main antagonist in an expansion to the game Final Fantasy XI. She is a version of one of the heroes of the expansion, in an alternate timeline.

• Lilith is a character in DmC: Devil May Cry. She is the wife of the main antagonist, Mundus, and is fought as a boss alongside her unborn son.

• There is an enemy named Lilith in Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. Although she is only encountered in a multiplayer-only special quest, her character is expanded in the tie-in novels, which reveals that she is the niece of Diablo and is in fact the mother of humanity's forerunners, the nephalem.

• Lilith has several appearances in The Secret World, most notably in the updates "A Dream to Kill", "Nightmares in the Dream Palace" and "Reaping the Whirlwind". The game describes Lilith as one of the first humans, and claims that she turned against her own species in favor of Samael, one of the Nephilim. She claims to be the Mother of Monsters, but she is still considered human, and a lot of her power stems from ancient artifacts. She is allied with an organization that is repeatedly encountered in the game, and she is also responsible for starting several cults.

• Lilith, the "Mother of Monsters," is one of the primary leaders in Malifaux.

• Lilith is recurring enemy in the Castlevania series, and is usually a palette-swap of the series' Succubus enemy.

• Lilith, evolved from a Succubus, is a 4-star healer in the Japanese mobile game, "Puzzle & Dragons"

• Lilith is a playable character in the popular indie game The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth DLC Afterbirth.

• Lilith is a playable character in the action role-playing first-person shooter video game Borderlands and as a non-playable character in its sequels Borderlands 2 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!.

• Main article: Lilith - Megami Tensei Wiki Lilith is a recurring character in the Megami Tensei series by Atlus: in the Nintendo 3DS game Shin Megami Tensei IV, she is Chaos-aligned, and can be fused via special fusion. The Ring of Gaea cult she heads in her human form, Yuriko, has the final boss demon Mem Aleph from the Nintendo DS game Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey as an idol in the temple in the Ginza district. She is killed by Jonathan and Flynn by order of Tayama in Tsukiji Hongwanji if siding with Jonathan, and assigns Walter and Flynn to go to Camp Ichigaya if siding with Walter. Regardless of choice, she is still slain, implying more than one Flynn exists, within the events of the game. If the Chaos path is chosen, she will later be seen in the Barracks at the end of the game, simply laughing, most likely because the world has been populated by demons, and now she has free rein.

Characters named Lilith

See the disambiguation page for characters merely named Lilith, such as Lilith Sternin in Cheers and Frasier.

References

1. Josef Steiff, Tristan D. Tamplin Battlestar Galactica and Philosophy 2008 But popular culture has given Lilith and, by extension, Eve, the opportunity to recast those aspects of their characters that have been vilified and associated with their gender.
2. Jim Leach - Claude Jutra: Filmmaker - Page 267 1999 "Although part of a popular and not necessarily Jewish belief, Lilith became a very important component of Lurianic kabalah, being part of the powers of evil that hamper the struggle to purify and redeem the universe. Thus popular culture ..."
3. Judika Illes The Weiser Field Guide to Witches: From Hexes to Hermione Granger Page 153 2010 "Some legends depict her as a powerful guardian spirit. No spirit exerts more fascination over media and popular culture than Lilith. Her appearances are genuinely too numerous to count. Lilith herself, or characters named in her honor ..."
4. Alejandra Elenes Transforming Borders: Chicana/O Popular Culture and Pedagogy Page 77 - 2010 "Chicana/O Popular Culture and Pedagogy Alejandra Elenes. European Syncretism Some of the Western figures that are believed to be related to La Llorona include Medea, Lilith, Lamia, and the White Lady. The distinct relationship between ..."
5. Mary Lynn Kittelson The soul of popular culture: looking at contemporary heroes Page 109 1998 "Indeed, one of the most popular American cinemyths is the demonization of the Other Woman. This is not a new story, for its roots go back to Biblical mythology and the legend of Lilith, first wife of Adam. Lilith was Adam's equal and therefore ..."
6. Philip Leroy Culbertson, Elaine Mary Wainwright The Bible in Popular Culture Page 52 - 2010 "Trouble ensues when the head vampire, lilith (yes, that lilith), sends her best assassin, Sistine centuria, to new Vatican city (nVc) to deal with Jesus."
7. Marcel Danesi X-rated!: the power of mythic symbolism in popular culture 2009 "This book delves into the reasons why pop culture, and all of its “X-Rated” features, are so appealing to masses of people, even though they may hate to love it."
8. Eerie No.47, Warren Publishing, New York, March 1973, "Lilith" story by Nick Cuti, artwork by Jamie Brocal, p. 18-36
9. "Lilith (comic book character)". Comic Vine. Retrieved 4 October 2012.