According to Wikipedia, 
In Jewish folklore, Lilith was Adam‘s first wife, who was created at the same time (Rosh Hashanah) and from the same earth as Adam. This contrasts with Eve, who was created from one of Adam’s ribs. The legend was greatly developed during the Middle Ages. According to the 13th century writings of Rabbi Isaac ben Jacob ha-Cohen, Lilith left Adam after she refused to become subservient to him and then would not return to the Garden of Eden after she coupled with the archangel Samael.[4]
Apparently Lilith was the first feminist, and was cast out of the garden because of her feminism. So, when Eve was created later, and then sinned, do you think this is why Adam decided to sin with her and partake of the fruit? After all, he had already lost his first wife. What do you make of this story? Does this make Adam a polygamist too? Is this another story to embolden patriarchy?
Wheat & Tares 
I only know what I read on wikipedia about Lilith, but there are so many diverse myths and traditions about her, that you can basically believe anything you want to.
I think it is true that there is more male than female in many of the traditions of Lilith. Lilith is a femme fatale that visits men during nocturnal emissions in several of the myths. So Lilith exists to anthropomorphize male sexual desire and its dangers.
But I think Lilith also exists as a real archetype of female identity. In one myth, Lilith herself is the serpent who tempts Eve. So she can be associated with the rebellious, knowledge and pleasure seeking side of Eve.
In studying folklore, Lilith was also a figure who was associated with witches- souring milk, stealing babies and the like.
What Nate said above fits in nicely with how that desire for her would be the reversal of the perceived Natural Order Of Things- here is woman ruling over man, not man ruling over woman.
I like the contemporary view of Lilith: a woman who knew she was equal with Adam and would not have any of his shenanigans. Perhaps she left Eden and found herself a forward-thinking Cro-Magnon.
All I know is she gets a brief mention in C S Lewis’s “That Hideous Strength”, chapter 3.
Or it could be a totally made up story based on a misinterpretation of the first chapters of Genesis.
I’m just waiting for Giorgio_A._Tsoukalos of “Ancient Aliens” to spin the Lilith tale as “proof” of the extraterrestrial origins of the “Hew-Mon” race. Evidently, though both Adam and Lilith are formed “from the dust of the earth” (he’d infer genetic engineering and/or cloning), what works for the male specimen didn’t achieve satisfactory results with the female, so she gets cast aside or ‘euthanized’, and a DIFFERENT method of cloning (taking a sample from Adam via his rib and developing what WOULD be analogous to his ‘sister’, never mind that he’s supposed to mate with her).
As I’ve said with other issues (like HOW, pray tell, does the present human diversity result from ONE couple, or more properly, from the genetic bottleneck that is Adam’s descendant, Noah, some 1650 years later, his wife, and his three sons and their wives), I take the Genesis account on faith, considering that it very much skims over thousands of years of human history, and by no means is meant to be a comprehensive history book. It could be part of what Joseph Smith was referring to when he mentioned many ‘plain and precious’ things being removed over the years from canonized Scripture.
Ah apocrypha.
Lilith, She’s not married to Adam. She’s married to the struggle.
I think it’s a fascinating thought experiment to wonder if that’s why Adam followed Eve out of the Garden. Could he have been learning from the experience with Lilith?
Then again, if there is anything to this Lilith story, it casts doubt on the Mormon idea that if Eve had been deceived, and Adam didn’t follow her, then God would have just created another woman. Hmmmmm.
MH – good point about “what if” (Alternative History is a fave diversion of mine, though RIGHT NOW I’d rather mull on what if the Seahawks had Marshawn Lynch punch it in INSTEAD of Wilson throwing that gift to Butler), though I’ve never heard that Heavenly Father would have gotten out the chloroform and yanked out another rib – from what I recall of the endowment story, Eve realizes that by virtue of chowing down on the fruit she’s forced Adam to choose to likewise ‘partake’ and be with her OR be ‘ALONE in the Garden’.
I doubt that there IS anything to a ‘Lilith’ having ever existed – methinks it’s nothing more than the fertile imagination of some “Old Jew” (Joseph Smith’s terminology) who got tired of endlessly checking ‘jots and tittles’. Not unlike at Potsdam in July 1945, Stalin, after using a lavatory that American GIs had previously used, asked one of his aides, “Who is this Kilroy?”. Fiction has a way of taking on a life of its own.
Then again, I’ve been hearing of ‘Pre-Adamites’, and not just LDS when they got tired of explaining the Nazca desert “airfields”. That too might be where some of this ‘Lilith’ stuff comes from.
We LDS alone generate enough Gospel-related ‘hobby horses’ to keep all the Disney Park carousels in business.
There is a prevailing thought that there might have been more than one Adam, since Adam is a title and not a name. And Eve wasn’t even her name, it was Chaya (meaning: life). Some think that it took a while to find an Adam that would be both obedient and disobedient at the same time. In fact, if it wasn’t FOR Chaya, we might not even be here! Or if the woman wasn’t going with the actual program (to become fallen creatures in order to multiply and replenish the earth), perhaps they swapped our Lilith for Chaya.
#9 (Jeff) wrote: “perhaps they swapped our Lilith for Chaya.”
Aha – possibly the earliest example of the “Evil Twin” trope!
Lilith needs Adam like a fish needs a bicycle.
It seems that most in this discussion take the idea of a Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve literally. Humans had spread all over the world including the Americas thousands of years before the Jews were taken captive into Babylon where there compiled the Torah.
The story of Eve vs Lillith is misogynistic, explaining why women are subservient to men. Lillith’s refusal to accept her place causes her to become a demon.
Symbolically Adam represents a longed for time of innocence (hunting gathering) similar to the European infatuation with Tahiti when it was newly discovered. Cain seems to represent the modern (in that time) agricultural society with its contention, complexity, and oppression while Abel was of the pastoral nomadic herdsman destroyed by the rise of fixed agricultural society.
It’s a metaphorical story and Lillith is a warning to and about “uppity” women.
It seems that most in this discussion take the idea of a Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve literally. Humans had spread all over the world including the Americas thousands of years before the Jews were taken captive into Babylon where they compiled the Torah.
The story of Eve vs Lillith is misogynistic, explaining why women are subservient to men. Lillith’s refusal to accept her place causes her to become a demon.
Symbolically Adam represents a longed for time of innocence (hunting gathering) similar to the European infatuation with Tahiti when it was newly discovered. Cain seems to represent the modern (in that time) agricultural society with its contention, complexity, and oppression while Abel was of the pastoral nomadic herdsman destroyed by the rise of fixed agricultural society.
It’s a metaphorical story and Lillith is a warning to and about “uppity” women.
sorry I guess there is no edit function