Lilith in popular culture

Lilith, a female demon from Jewish mythology, has been developed over time into distinct characters in popular culture.^[1][2] One writer on witches wrote, "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 integrated into popular culture.^[6][7]

This article should only include 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.

Books

• 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]
• 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, a demoness named Lilith appears in For Love of Evil (1988) and 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 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.
• Lilith is named as Adam's first wife in the fantasy series Fallen by Lauren Kate.
• Lilith is resurrected in 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 and Hindu Kali, form a female trinity bent on destroying mankind and taking over the earth.
• 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 the 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."^[10]
• In Simon R. Green's Nightside series, Lilith is the main hero's mother.
• One of the two characters named Lilith in the Marvel Universe was an ancient demon goddess and the mother of the Lilin.
• In Larissa Ione's 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 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 Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated episode "Night on Haunted Mountain" (2012), the main villainess was a flying phantom which is named Dark Lilith and protects a mountain named Mount Diabla.
• In season 5 of 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—and is portrayed as the messiah of vampires.
• 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.
• In the 2009 film Evil Angel, the Lilith legend is examined while investigating murder sprees that may be related to demonic possession.
• In the 2009 comedy movie Year One, Lilith is represented as daughter of Adam, sister of Cain.
• Lilith features in the occult-themed lyrics of several metal bands. American industrial rock band Machines of Loving Grace's 1993 album Concentration contains the song "Lilith/Eve" that is based on the legend. Swedish black metal band Dissection's 2006 album Reinkaos has a song called "Dark Mother Divine" which refers to Lilith. British extreme metal band Cradle of Filth's 2010 concept album Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa focuses on Lilith. Deathcore band Chelsea Grin released a song called "Lilith" on their 2012 EP, Evolve. Therion's 2012 album Les Fleurs du Mal features the song "Lilith", and Lilith is referred to in "The Perennial Sophia" from their 2007 rock opera, Gothic Kabbalah. Lilith is also mentioned with respect to Eve in In This Moment’s 2017 song “Oh Lord”.
• Genesis' sixth studio album, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (1974), features the song "Lilywhite Lilith".
• The electronic producer Varien released the song "Lilith", which is about this legend.
• In the webseries Carmilla, 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, 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, a South Indian Tamil fantasy-horror movie, Lilith, the 'first wife of Adam' is mentioned. She is said to have cursed the protagonist.
• In the 2001 opera, Lilith, following Adam's funeral, Eve returns to the ruined paradise of Eden and confronts Lilith, the notorious "other woman".
• In the TV sit-com Frasier, Lilith Sternin is Frasier's ex-wife. She is hinted at being related to the demoness Lilith by Frasier's father and his father's dog Eddie.

Anime and manga

• 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 (who collectively form the 18th and final angel, Lilin). She is confined and impaled with the Lance of Longinus in order to keep her compliant to NERV/SEELE's goals. However, she is wrongly identified as Adam by everyone other than the three characters who secretly put Lilith's soul into a clone, creating the artificial human Rei Ayanami. In the Rebuild of Evangelion movie adaptation, Lilith is the second angel and progenitor of humanity kept under NERV headquarters, but NERV personnel all identify her as Lilith.
• Trinity Seven has a mage, named Lilith Asami, whose power is based on the sin of lust.
• 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, a female demon-queen that created the Nephilim, angel-demon hybrids.
• Lilith appears as a succubus (in fact, a sentient fraction of Morrigan Aensland's power) in the Darkstalkers series.
• Lilith are a class of snake-woman demons who are a recurring enemy in the Final Fantasy series. In an expansion to Final Fantasy XI, Lady Lilith is a main antagonist.
• Lilith is a character in DmC: Devil May Cry. She is the mistress 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, described as one of the first humans, and claims that she turned against her own species in favor of the Nephilim Samael. She claims to be the Mother of Monsters, but is considered human and her power stems from ancient artifacts.
• 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 expansion "Afterbirth".
• Lilith is a recurring character in the Megami Tensei series. In Shin Megami Tensei IV, she is Chaos-aligned, and if the Chaos storyline is chosen, she is seen laughing at the end of the game, likely because the world has been populated by demons and now she has free rein.
• Lilith is one of three heroines in the visual novel Tokyo Babel. ^[11]

Characters named Lilith

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

References