Demons in Sumer
I am not really sure where this goes, but I guess this is works
I asked about demons in Sumer in a previous post (Merytsekhmet's Intro Post...sorry about that)
Quote:Question about demons: In Sumer are demons percieved the same as in Judeo-Christian or are they more like nasty mischevious entities?
Saharda was kind enough to give an answer
Quote:That’s a can full of worms, many of the Christian demons were taken from ancient near eastern sources. The main difference is that Christian demons are innately evil. This is a concept that the Christians adopted from the Zoroastrians. Sumerian demons are primarily destructive, but all demons had a glimmer of a good side. Lilith for example was a wind demon and was associated with taking/consuming babies. This indicates that the Sumerians associated her with the death of babies. On the other hand she was probably also one that you would beseech for protection from respiratory ailments as any demon can protect against something that they are the demon of.
In Sumer the demon wasn’t the same as the disease by the way. The demons caused you to get an ailment, but banishing the demon wouldn’t heal the patient on its own. (I’ll answer in a little more lengthy fashion later, as I am in a hurry now.)
And so now I hope that we can continue this thread
And I will help the contiunation of the thread by asking some more questions
Quote:Sumerian demons are primarily destructive, but all demons had a glimmer of a good side.
Other traditions have this same kind of entity.
Quote:Lilith for example was a wind demon and was associated with taking/consuming babies. This indicates that the Sumerians associated her with the death of babies. On the other hand she was probably also one that you would beseech for protection from respiratory ailments as any demon can protect against something that they are the demon of.
Very very interesting.... so where in the world would I "fit in" with this faith if I am a daughter of Lilith? Wouldn't that be a "bad" thing? Like I have stated, I don't think Lilith is a demon so how does that fit into things? Are there other "demons" in Sumer that fall into this same catagory? What explaination do the Sumers give for having demons in their theology?
Sorry, I don't been to sound harsh or rash, demonlogy fastinates me, but as I have said, I don't believe in them. Even in the Judeo-Christian theology demons are nothing more than Fallen Angels...Lucifer being their leader...I guess in that sense I am comfortable with Lilith being catagorized as being a demon for She was the first to tell that god to go take a hike, thus She was a rebel and all beings that rebeled against that god became demons. But that is in the Hebrew myths..how does this relate to the Sumer myths?
Re: Demons in Sumer
Lilith was actually one of many demons called Lilitu. Lil indicates that her form of demon was actually a kind of wind demon. Sumerian demons were the servants of the gods, and Lilith is one of the most popular of these thanks to the Hebrew myth. The Jews used her because they blended two Sumerian stories (Inanna’s garden, and Ninki’s garden.) Inanna’s had a snake, Lilith, and an Imdugud bird in a tree. The other version had a woman formed from Enki’s rib. Lilith wasn’t all that important at the time, but she grew in power over time. She was a free spirited woman that the people of Babylon associated with Inanna.
To be perfectly honest little is actually known about the Sumerian Lilith. There is much we can extrapolate. We know that Lilith was a female Lilitu demon that is similar to a harpy with an owl providing the bird portion. Lilith has been thought of as the mother of demons by later cultures, and I don’t think she would mind the appellation. We know that Lilitu were wind demons and that wind demons were associated with breathing sickness.
At one point in the Gilgamesh myth where she is inhabiting Inanna’s tree she ran away from Gilgamesh’s Axe of the Road. In the myth she hadn’t done anything evil, all she was doing was inhabiting a tree. Lilith is associated with the Owl and is therefore thought of as a violent predator. Owl’s swoop down on their prey and carry them off to be eaten, this is probably what made the Sumerians think of her as a baby thief. If there was a small young animal then owls would find it a tempting treat. Like the Imdugud though you can expect her to protect her own children.
Were I to worship her as a patron I would not play down her bad aspects. I would play them up. I would look to Lilith and the entire Lilitu class of demon and remember that she will strike down the offspring of my enemies (be they children or ideas). I would take pride in her craftiness in avoiding Gilgamesh, as it takes wisdom to pick your battles. Lilith is still around, Gilgamesh died. I would look at the wings of the owl with pride and see their silent swiftness. I would look at the wind aspect of Lilith and call upon her to spare one of her children from the sickness that she inflicts upon others. I would not expect her to protect any children of mine (she doesn’t exactly strike me as the grandmotherly type) but I wouldn’t expect her to harm them if she looked at me fondly. I would look at her associations with Inanna and take pride in the fact that she was a female warrior with passionate sensual qualities.
I think that calling Lilith a demon gives the wrong impression. Demons were destructive, but they were more like angels without rules. They were powerful servants rather than indiscriminant forces of Evil. There were also any number of kinds of demons. Christian demons were often two-dimensional and were more like a whispered boogeyman than anything else.
I’ll write on other demons in my next reply to this thread. I’ll be posting this on my other board along with other general information on Sumer when I get a chance. (Probably tonight.)
Keep in mind though that I accept all Reconstructionist types and all magic using types. If they are not talking about a subject that you are interested in at the moment feel free to change the subject.
Email This To a Friend
Topic Commands
Click to receive email notification of replies 
Click to stop receiving email notification of replies