Just came across this:

Lilith in a Season of Creatures:

Lilith was the most important succubus from Hebrew folklore. A succubus is a female demon who arrives, usually at night-time, in order to tempt the sleep state of men with erotic dreams, and suck the life force from their bodies. Alternatively, an Incubus is a male demon who hunts the energies of woman while they sleep. While the Jewish Talmud texts mentions Lilith on multiple accounts, the Christian Bible speaks of her only once, in Isaiah 34:13, when yielding a barren, desert wasteland, stating: “And Lilith shall repose there”.

While she may not be mentioned prevalently in the Christian Bible, her origins are undeniably tied to the figure of Adam and the Garden of Eden in Genesis. According to Hebrew lore, Lilith was the first wife of Adam, who unlike Eve, was created at the same time as Adam and not merely from his rib bone. The myths state that Lilith was cast out of the Garden of Eden for a variety of reasons, among them the fact that she would not yield authority to her husband, Adam, nor to Adam’s sexual urges in taking the míssionary position, instead insisting that she be on top during sexual intercourse. Another belief is that Lilith was banned from Eden for having eaten her first child and a variety of other sinister implications. Because of this and her refusal to be submissive, she was banished from the Garden whereby she took refuge in a forbidden cave at the edge of the Red Sea.

While Lilith has origins within the Kabbalah, the Talmud, and loose associations with the Bible, she undoubtedly makes her initial appearance as the Sumerian goddess of dárk winds, Lil, and the Babylonian demoness Lilitu. The Lilitu was a handmaiden to the savior goddess Inana, known to stand at the gateway of Inana’s temple and invite worshipers to enter the inner sanctum for blessings and sexual delights. (Temple prostitution was common-place in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, as well as to the Hindus.)

Eventually, in her role as handmaiden, Lilitu becómes obsessed with abducting infant children and drinking their blood in order to steal away their precious life force. It was believed that by the Jewish practice of circumcision, Lilith would not harm infants in their crib. In this role she is mentioned as a negative entity in the Sumerian ‘Epic of Gilgámesh’. In the ancient tale of Gilgámesh and the Huluppu Tree, Lilith takes up residence in the sacred tree of Inana on the banks of the Euphrates. The hero Gilgámesh sees this deception and makes her retreat into the desert wastelands.

Lilah is also the Hebrew word for ‘night’, her name related to lilim, literally meaning ‘demon’. Lilit is the Hebrew word designated for a nocturnal screech owl. In the Canaanite rituals she was also known as Baalat, or the ‘divine lady,’ who was a female version to the Egyptian/Babylonian Baal, Bel, Apis, and Osiris. Another role is that of the god Ashtoreth, who could take on the duel position of being both male and female entities depending on the time period and regíon of worship.

Read more at: http://www.book-of-thoth.com/article1527.html