“Lilith” is a sculpture I would pay money to take a pilgrimage to see. Created by artist Kiki Smith in 1994 out of bronze and glass, the statue of Lilith crouches, tense and fierce. Her eyes stare out with a contact that seems physical.
The stories of the demon Lilith emerged over hundreds of years, but this sculpture takes its queue from a tradition documented in a Jewish text of the Middle Ages (8th-10th centuries) called _The Alphabet of Ben Sira_, that tells the story of Lilith becoming the first wife of Adam, the first man.
In the legend, Adam demands that Lilith be subservient to him during sex, and she refuses: “She said, ‘I will not lie below,’ and he said, ‘I will not lie beneath you, but only on top. For you are fit only to be in the bottom position, while I am to be the superior one.'” Lilith was uncompliant, and flew away. God sent his angels to chase after her, but they only brokered a deal. Lilith, more aptly characterized as a demon by this point, would cause sickness to infants unless they wore a protective amulet. However, 100 of her own children would die each day. Adam, in the story, then gets Eve as a more obedient wife.
Scholars like Wojciech Kosior think that this version of Lilith’s origins are really all about showcasing Eve’s character — Lilith is really there to be her foil. But feminist thought has interpreted the demon more sympathetically, as a character with her own agency and ability to choose what sorts of relationships she wants. In that, she has been a sort of heroic figure.
Source(s): Statue is at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Photos from article by Dana Newkirk, 19 August 2014 “‘Lilith is one of the spookiest sculptures in America,” _Roadtrippers_. Wikipedia for info about and quote from _The Alphabet of Sirach_. Also information from _Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women’s Studies & Gender Issues_, 2018, by Wojciech Kosior, “A Tale of Two Sisters: The Image of Eve in Early Rabbinic Literature and It’s Influence on the Portrayal of Lilith in the Alphabet of Ben Sira,” pages 112-130.
