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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: gao seng who wrote (26015)	9/5/2001 11:03:13 AM
From: Neocon	Respond to of 82486

Yes, so far, it is more productive to be on the Religious Right.

To: gao seng who wrote (26015)	9/5/2001 2:24:37 PM
From: gao seng	Respond to of 82486

OT - word of the day - lullaby Does lullaby comes from a Hebrew inscription to ward off the evil Lilith? That's one theory, but there's no evidence for it. Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary says lullaby comes from lulla, lullay(y), an "interjection used in cradlesongs" plus -by as in bye-bye. The OED concurs, citing the onomatopoetic "la, la" with which one can lull a child to sleep. However, just for fun, let's take a look at the Lilith theory. In Hebrew legend, Lilith is the first wife of Adam. She was widely feared as both a succubus and a child-slayer. (She appears in a more positive light in Goethe's Faust, Part I, and in Keats's "Lamia," and she is the subject of a painting by Rossetti.) In modern times, she has been regarded as a feminist icon and is the subject of several Web sites. She has even lent her name to a magazine. Singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan created a concert series known as the Lilith Fair that has drawn the ire of the Christian Right because of its name. Although her story has threads of very ancient legends from Assyrian, Sumerian, and Babylonian culture, the notion of Lilith as the first mate of Adam didn't appear until post-biblical times in a work called "The Alphabet of Ben Sirah." According to legend, God created both Adam and Lilith from the earth. When Adam asserted his right to be the dominant partner, Lilith refused to submit, claiming to be his equal since she had been created from the same dust as he. Adam continued to maintain that he was her master, and Lilith left him, fleeing from the Garden of Eden, whereupon God sent three angels to force her to return to Adam. On her refusal (according to some stories), God placed a curse on her, killing one hundred of her children every day. Lilith vowed that from that day on, she would weaken and kill the children of others in revenge. Mothers were said to sing "Lilith–abi" (‘Lilith–be gone') to protect their babies. This became "Lilla-be" from which derived the word lullaby. In some versions of the legend, Lilith was overpowered by the angels and, in order to escape, agreed to spare any child over whom hung an amulet bearing the inscription "Lilith–abi!" The legend says that Lilith became a winged demon who flies about the world howling vengeance for her shabby treatment by Adam. The only mention of the name in the Bible is in Isaiah 34:14 which is translated in the King James version as "The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest." The Hebrew word translated as ‘screech owl' is "lilith." Following Lilith's departure, God created Eve from Adam's rib, which prevented her from claiming to be his equal. There is lots more to the story, but I don't have room here to go into it. You can find it yourself at any of the many Lilith sites on the Internet. Amy Scerba has written a fascinating in-depth study of the Lilith myth in literature. randomhouse.com Amy Scerba link geocities.com