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July 1994

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Subject:
From:
Eric Rabkin <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 13 Jul 1994 09:54:00 EDT
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Someone suggested, in reply to a request for characters like Glen
Close's in _Fatal Attraction_, "a Biblical character by the name
of Lillith." Just to keep matters straight, there is only one
Biblical ref to Lilith, and that not in the King James
translation, where the "screech owl" of Isaiah 34:14 is elsewhere
translated as Lilith, a word that in fact is etymologically
related to "air" and is a pre-Hebrew storm goddess. The _legends_
of Lilith, putative first wife of Adam, are mostly available in a
book by ben Sirah and are the basis of many works, perhaps most
famously George MacDonald's _Lilith_, a religious allegory. In
the Bible itself, that one ref says nothing about Lilith, her
character, whether she was the wife of anyone, etc.
 
Eric
 
Eric Rabkin                [log in to unmask]
Department of English      [log in to unmask]
University of Michigan     office    : 313-764-2553
Ann Arbor MI 48109-1045    dept      : 313-764-6330
                           deptl fax : 313-763-3128
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