Lilith
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| Name | Lilith |
| Actor | Rachel Pattee (3.12) Sierra McCormick (3.16) Katie Cassidy (3.16) Katerine Boecher (4.18) |
| Dates | |
| Location | Originally - Hell |
| Occupation | High-tier Demon |
| Episode(s) | 3.12 Jus in Bello 3.16 No Rest For The Wicked 4.06 Yellow Fever (hallucination) 4.18 The Monster At The End Of This Book |
Contents
Lilith in Supernatural
Lilith is a demon with an affinity for possessing little girls. It stands to reason that she is a little girl, acting and talking like one despite being around for centuries.
She has been plotting a "take-over" for some time now. Lilith sees Sam as her competition, and according to several demons, has given orders for his death. She holds all the contracts that the Crossroads Demon has made.
3.09 Malleus Maleficarum
The demon Tammi makes the first reference to her - though not by name - she tells Sam that a new leader has risen "in the west", and wants to kill him.
3.12 Jus in Bello
When Sam and Dean are captured by the FBI and held at a local police station, they find themselves under siege by a horde of demons. When Ruby shows up to help, she explains that the demons are trying to kill Sam at Lilith's command. At the end of the episode Lilith shows up looking for Sam & Dean before destroying the sheriff's office and and killing everyone inside including Special Agent Victor Henriksen and Nancy Fitzgerald.
3.15 Time Is On My Side
It is revealed that Bela made a deal with a crossroads demon, and that Lilith holds her contract. She has made a deal with Lilith that would release her from the deal if she killed Sam.
3.16 No Rest For The Wicked
Lilith is in New Harmony, Indiana, on what Ruby refers to as 'shore leave'. This involves possessing a small girl, and tormenting her family, killing them if they disobey her.
When Sam and Dean enter the house, Sam is about to kill the girl, when Dean reveals that she is no longer possessed. Sam turns to Ruby, who has followed the boys, for help again, but she says it is too late to save Dean. As the hellhounds come for Dean, the boys barricade themselves in a room. Dean, who is able to see the true face of demons, realises that the body possessed by Ruby now contains Lilith. She pins Sam to a wall, and Dean to a table. She says Sam no longer has anything she wants, and makes him watch as the hellhounds tear Dean to pieces. She then turns her power on Sam, but it has no effect. He takes Ruby's Knife, and is about to kill Lilith when she disinhabits the body.
4.02 Are You There, God? It's Me, Dean Winchester
Castiel tells Dean that when Lilith released the Witnesses, she broke the first of sixty six seals, and that when the last one is broken Lucifer will be freed.
4.06 Yellow Fever
Lilith appears to Dean in the form of the little Fremont girl as a hallucination and taunts him about dying all over again. She reminds him of his time in hell, saying four months was more like forty years in hell.
4.18 The Monster At The End Of This Book
Lilith appears as an adult woman, possessing the body of a dental hygienist from Bloomingday, Indiana. Sam and Dean have been warned of her arrival by the author and prophet Chuck Shirley. He also forsees a "night of fiery demonic passion" between Lilith and Sam. Dean wants them to avoid Lilith, but Sam is keen for a confrontation.
Eventually, Lilith confronts Sam in his hotel room determined to make a deal; she will stop breaking the seals (that bind Lucifer in hell), in return for Sam and Dean's life’s. Sam is reluctant at first; he questions Lilith's motives as to why she has had a change of heart. Lilith tells Sam that apparently she dies before the apocalypse is set in motion - this is why she wants to make a deal. Sam reluctantly agrees to Lilith's terms; however Lilith tells Sam that the deal has to be consummated before they are bound to its terms.
As Sam embraces Lilith on the bed he grabs Ruby's knife in order to kill her; however she overpowers him and seizes the knife. Dean and Chuck abruptly enter the room, with Dean demanding that Lilith leave, before the Archangel who protects Chuck comes and kills her. As the room is slowly being engulfed by light, Lilith heeds Dean's words and departs from the body, leaving it motionless on the floor.
Later Dean asks Sam whether he would've taken the deal, but Sam says no, because Lilith would've found some way to 'weasel out of it'. He does not that she's scared and that she was right about dying before the apocalypse because he'll make sure of it.
Lilith in Myth and Religion
The demon Lilith is one of the most infamous in demonology. In ancient Hebrew tradition Lilith is depicted as Adam's first companion, created equally to Adam from the dust of the earth. In medieval Europe, Lilith was variously the wife, concubine or grandmother of Satan.
According to Hebrew tradition, the Lilin are Lilith's daughters and are dangerous demonic entities, considered in Hebraic writings to be the children born to Lilith after her escape from the garden of Eden. In Islamic tradition, once Lilith left Adam and joined with Shaitan/Iblis, their children became the djinn, humanoid creatures created from smokeless fire.
The etymology of 'Lilith' strongly points towards an association with night and with air, and later translations of the Bible have referred to Lilith as a 'screech owl.'
Within Paganism, Lilith has various standings. For followers of Wicca, Lilith tends to be seen as one of many names for the Goddess, the supreme feminine divine power. For other polytheistic Pagans, Lilith is often seen as a misunderstood deity or entity, an example of the denigrated feminine as the patriarchy gained prominence. She is often seen as;
- a fertility Goddess; on leaving the garden of Eden, Lilith was thought to have given birth to a hundred children a day
- a Goddess of unrepressed sexuality; the example of a woman at her sensual peak
- a Goddess of air and night; in the King James Bible, Lilith is referred to as the 'screech owl' and the etymology of her name indicates air related abilities and her region of power is in the night time
- a Dark Goddess; similar to the Hindu Dark Goddess, Kali-Ma, embodying the dark-side of the feminine
- a Goddess of Witches; in a role similar to that of the Goddess Hekate of the Greek pantheon
