One of the things I hear a lot from Gentile witches and neo-pagans who want to work with Lilith or claim to work with Lilith, is that she is actually a Mesopotamian goddess, usually either Ishtar/Inanna or Erishkigal, and that it was the Jews, with their horrible patriarchy juice, who slandered her and cast her down, and so the Jews do not deserve to say what happens to her and it isn’t antisemitism to work with her, or to completely ignore what the Jews say about what she is in a Jewish context.
Lilith is not Ishtar or Erishkigal. However, there is a Mesopotamian figure that is pretty stinking analogous to Lilith, and is probably her folkloric ancestor, by which I mean the idea of Lilith probably comes from this Mesopotamian figure. In fact, Lilith almost certainly is either a Jewish version of this figure, or, they are both descended from the same Near Eastern and Mediterranean basin folkloric figure. That figure is Lamashtu.
Lamashtu is, much like Lilith, the supernatural embodiment of maternal and infant mortality, a figure of power and terror, who functions as a way to embody and cope with the profound dangers that are pregnancy, childbirth, and infancy without effective medical care. the Mesopotamians never worshiped Lamashtu, but they did seek to appease her, including making symbolic gifts to her, to keep her from visiting them, and killing them or their children.
An interesting side note is that there is also a Mesopotamian figure who specifically opposes Lamashtu and functions as the protector of pregnant women and infants, and that figure is Pazuzu, a wind spirit, who ruled over other wind spirits, including ones called the Iilu in the Akkadian language. Akkadian is a Semitic language, related to Hebrew, and this word is probably a cognate of Lilith, but the Iilu probably have no relationship to the figure of Lilith except her name. You might know Pazuzu as the demon featured in the movie, The Exorcist, and ironic fate for a mythological protector of women and children.
Anyway, if you’ll remember, I implied above that the Lamashtu/Lilith figure, was present in various guises throughout the Mediterranean basin and the Near East, so there are of course figures analogous to both of them throughout the region, such as Lamia of Greece, and the Strix of Rome.
So if you really really want to work with a figure who functions as the supernatural embodiment of maternal and infant mortality, Lamashtu, Lamia, or the strix would all be excellent options that don’t come from an extant closed religious practice. All the baby killing, none of the antisemitism and cultural appropriation.
While all three figures are almost certainly descended from the same folkloric root, they’re all subtly different, because as stories and characters travel, they change. as such, they all have particular good points about them as figures of veneration.
Lanashtu is the OG bad bitch, who commanded fear, respect, and offerings, like a mythological mafiosa, collecting protection money.
Lamia has attached to her the story that she was one of Zeus’s dubiously willing lovers, who was screwed over first by Zeus, the embodiment of patriarchical rule, then by a jealous Hera, the embodiment of patriarchal marriage, so if what attracted you to Lilith was the story from the Alphabet of Ben Sira, about a victim of the patriarchy getting her own back through violent vengeance, Lamia might be the girl for you. With her however, the emphasis is less on her murder of children, then on her seducing and eating men, though she does also get strongly associated with killing children, especially boys.
And the strix is particularly interesting, because the word comes down to us in the modern Italian word for witch, striga. Indeed, one of the theories as to where the witch figure came from in Early Medieval, and then Early Modern Christianity, was as the strix demon made human. This might explain the close association between Early Modern Witchcraft and infant mortality, including Italian stories of witches causing infants to die seemingly natural deaths, so that they could dig them up and eat them after their funerals, something that ties these human supposed witches very closely to demonic folkloric antecedents. If you are looking for a figure of unfairly maligned female power, the strix and her close association with later human witches, might be the one for you.
All three of these figures, much like Lilith herself, are reflections, both of the power women wielded even within patriarchal societies, over the process of pregnancy, birth, and childrearing, and also the powers of death and loss that everyone was subject to. There is something powerful, transgressive, and even healthy in acknowledging the fears and dangers presented by this death and loss,and for some people, that might take the form in venerating the underlying powers. If this is something that would be spiritually meaning for you, and you wish to work with such a figure, and you are not Jewish, please respect the fact that Lilith is part of a closed religious practice, and remember that Lilith has sisters, in other parts of the Mediterranean basin and the Near East, who are not from extant closed cultures, and who might serve your needs better anyway.
Yo, I had this queued and didn’t realize it was going to post yet and I have a few things to add, aka some sources if you want to learn more, and a clarification. The clarification first. I talk in here about Jewish religion and folklore as part of a closed practice. I have seen many people make the mistake that a closed practice is only one in which it is impossible to join or convert to. This is not what a closed practice means. A closed practice is one in which you can only take part in the culture if you were either born into it or were initiated into it.
Many closed cultures, and cultures with closed practices, including Judaism, have a way to join the culture, and become permitted to engage in these practices. In Judaism’s case this is a process usually referred to as conversion, which functions more as a naturalization and adoption into the Jewish community, after a period of study under the auspices of a rabbi, and after an interview with and approval by a group of rabbis. This is a difficult, and long-term process. I have regularly seen the existence of the Jewish conversion process used as an excuse to declare Jewish culture open and free for all to use. The existence of conversion does not make Jewish culture open to non-Jews. It simply means we have a way of allowing people to become Jews.
As for sources, if you wish to learn more about Lamashtu, check out Irving Finkel’s book The First Ghosts, about Mesopotamian ways of dealing with the wandering dead, as they perceived it. Irving Finkel is an Assyriologist par excellence, and you can also find him on YouTube giving interviews and lectures, and presentations for the British Museum.
For Lamia, I am sorry to say I just hit the Wikipedia article. I suggest starting with the article’s references.
