Demonology and devil-lore . LILITHS BEAUTY. • 97 is traceable in the eighth century. In this picture wehave an early example of those which have since becomefamiliar in old Bibles. Pietro dOrvieto painted this ser-pent-woman in his finest fresco, at Pisa. Perhaps in noother picture has the genius of Michael Angelo been morefelicitous than in that on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel,in which Lilith is portrayed. In this picture (Fig. 2)the marvellous beauty of his first wife appears to haveawakened the enthusiasm of Adam; and, indeed, it is quite. Fig. 2.—Temptation and Expulsion (Michsel Aiig
Demonology and devil-lore . LILITHS BEAUTY. • 97 is traceable in the eighth century. In this picture wehave an early example of those which have since becomefamiliar in old Bibles. Pietro dOrvieto painted this ser-pent-woman in his finest fresco, at Pisa. Perhaps in noother picture has the genius of Michael Angelo been morefelicitous than in that on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel,in which Lilith is portrayed. In this picture (Fig. 2)the marvellous beauty of his first wife appears to haveawakened the enthusiasm of Adam; and, indeed, it is quite. Fig. 2.—Temptation and Expulsion (Michsel Aiigelo, Sistine Chapel). in harmony with the earlier myth that Lilith should be ofgreater beauty than Eve. An artist and poet of our own time (Rossetti) has byboth of his arts celebrated the fatal beauty of Lilith, bringing soft sleep, antedates, as I think, thefair devil of the Rabbins, but is also the mediaeval witchagainst whose beautiful locks Mephistopheles warns Faustwhen she appears at the Walpurgis-night orgie. The rose and poppy are her flowers ; for whereIs he not found, O LiUth, whom shed scentAnd soft-shed kisses and soft sleep shall snare ?Lo ! as that youths eyes burned at thine, so wentThy spell through him, and left his straight neck bent,And round his heart one strangling golden II. G 98 LILITHS LOCKS. The potency of Liliths tresses has probably its origin inthe hairy nature ascribed by the Rabbins to all demons{shedim), and found fully represented in Esau, Perhapsthe serpent-locks of Medusa had a simil
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubje, booksubjectdemonology
