Is the Sumerian Relief Lilith?Extracted from a posting in alt.fan.kali.astarte.inanna |
> On a Sumerian relief she is depicted as a naked woman having wings and claws. |
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  The connection between this relief and Lilith has been seriously questioned in some recent scholarship. The following comes from the entry on Lilith in the Anchor Bible Dictionary (Lowell K. Handy):
  Two sources of information previously used to define Lilith are both suspect. Kramer translated ki-sikil-lil-la-ke4 as "Lilith" in a Sumerian Gilgamesh fragment. The text relates an incident where this female takes up lodging in a tree trunk which has a Zu-bird perched in the branches and a snake living in the roots. This text was used to interpret a sculpture of a woman with bird talons for feet as being a depiction of Lilith. From the beginning this interpretation was questioned so that after some debate neither the female in the story, nor the figure are assumed to be Lilith. (Vol. 4, p. 324)  --Alan Humm
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