“Lilith was a serpent; she was Adam’s first wife and, according to Dante Gabriel Rossetti, gave him: ‘Shapes that coiled in the woods and waters, Glittering sons and radiant daughters.’
Throughout the Middle Ages the influence of the word ‘layil’ (Hebrew for night) gave a new turn to the myth. She becomes an apparition of the night and at times a demon who assaults those who sleep alone or those who travel lonely roads – a tall, silent woman with long black hair.”
© Simon Holt