Divine Encounters - Zecharia Sitchin-pages

Page 284 of 384

Page 284 of 384
Divine Encounters - Zecharia Sitchin-pages

Page Content (OCR)

280 Figure 98 out, they are demons, devils created by Enlil." (The officer's report was that he did see blood, whereupon Naram-Sin or- dered an attack; none of his soldiers returned alive.) Of particular prominence among the part-anthropomorphic, part-birdlike demons was the female Lilith (Fig. 98). Her name meant both "She of the night" and "The Howler," and she specialized, according to beliefs (or, as some prefer, superstitions) that endured for millennia, in enticing men to their deaths and snatching newborn babies from their moth- ers. Although in some post-biblical Jewish legends she was considered to have been the intended bride of Adam (hating men because she had been rejected in favor of Eve), it is more plausible that she was the erstwhile consort of the evil Zu (or AN.ZU, "The celestial Zu"); in the Sumerian tale known as Inanna and the Huluppu Tree, the unusual tree was home to both the evil, birdlike Anzu and to "the dark maid" Lilith. When the tree was cut down to make furnishings for Inanna and Shamash, Anzu flew away and Lilith "fled to wild, uninhabited places." With the passage of time, and as the gods themselves be- came more distant and less visible, the "demons" were held DIVINE ENCOUNTERS