Saturday, December 17, 2005
I Know Lilith Married Fraser, But I Wouldn't Know Her From Adam
Yesterday I was reading "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe." To my boys and there was a couple of lines where the Beavers were explaining the origin of the White Witch. They said that she was a descendant from Lilith, Adam's first wife. I’ve been hearing a lot about Lilith and I know somewhat of the "mythology", but what I want to know is where she came from? Does she have any religious basis in apocrypha or was she cooked up by the women’s movement? This would be highly unlikely since CS Lewis wrote this book before the women’s movement.
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7 comments:
Oh wow. I never paid any attention to that as a child, when I read the books, but you got my mind going so that now I can't do anything else until I satisfy my need for research. (I thank you, truly and not sarcastically, I needed a brain workout this weekend.)
I googled "Lilith" and got tonnes of instant results. Fascinating stuff. I'm currently reading the gamut of articles found here.
Cool. Ditto on not paying attention to it after reading the book myself as a child and reading it to Ben a few years ago. I just got back from digging into the references from Proud Mum's link. Fascinating stuff indeed.
Lilith is mention in Paradise Lost (John Dunne--who was, if I recall--always dangerous to think I'm right--a Scottish minister, or was he Church or England? Anyway, I've often thought over the years that I'd look into it, but sorta never got around to it. Hope someone shares.
I hadn't remembered either and I can see how easily it would be to forget or not notice because the mention is quick quick. Lewis doesn't devote any time to her.
One thing that I cannot understand is that why some women claim her as a mascot (Lilith Fair), when the articles that proud mum supplied show her to be demonesque (if that is aword).
Demonesque is a great word (whether or not it's found in Oxford.) In the reading I did I found that feminists hold to her because she was made of the same stuff as Adam, and not from Adam, thus she was his equal. In some of that reading it even goes on to illustrate the problems Adam and Lilith had as man and wife because she refused to take orders from him, etc.
Okay, my pure nerdiness is coming out now. But I was home all day yesterday with a sick baby; I had to read!
But Alyson, you're totally right, why revere someone so awful? I think they gloss over the stuff she did post-Adam.
By the way, Alyson, I love reading your blog. Your posts are great and your titles always make me smile; you've got a great way with your titles.
demonesque--great word. If it isn't in the dictionary, it should be. After all if a playwright could invent all the words Shakespeare did, why can't we lesser mortals come up with a good one now and then?
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