Abstract
The first liberated woman was Lilith, Adam’s first wife before Eve was created. Although hardly a role model for modern feminists, Lilith believed in sexual equality. She was tired of always being on the bottom, and maintained that she should have her turn on top. A Hebrew legend has Lilith so shrewish, or Adam so staid and unexciting, that they couldn’t stand each other, so Lilith departed. Lilith is derived from a figure in Babylonian mythology named Lilitu,from the Semitic word meaning “night,” and referred to in The Book of The Prophet Isaiah as “screech owl,” and in the Revised Standard Version of the Bible as “nighthag.” According to one story, Lilith connived with the serpent in a plot to bring about the fall of Adam and Eve. Lilith became “a demon of the night,” and embittered by being childless, was a threat to children at night.1
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Endnotes
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© 1996 Kenneth Maxwell
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Maxwell, K. (1996). The Sex Wars. In: A Sexual Odyssey. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-3462-8_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-3462-8_5
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