Naamah
Jewish mythology (rabbinic–kabbalistic) · numen · Jewish mythology (rabbinic–kabbalistic) traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Naamah begins in Genesis as a fleeting name, the sister of Tubal-cain, but rabbinic and Kabbalistic tradition transform her into a demoness of surpassing beauty. The Zohar names her among the succubi who seduced the angels and who couple with sleeping men to breed demons, and reckons her one of the four queens of the demonic hierarchy alongside Lilith, Agrat bat Mahlat and Mahalath. She is called mother of demons and, in the aggadic tradition, mother of Ashmedai the demon-king. Sources differ over whether the human Naamah of Genesis and the demonic Naamah are one figure or two who share a name.
Children
Domains
- demons
- temptation
Powers
- conceives demons from the seed of dreamers
Epithets
- אֵם הַשֵּׁדִים — mother of demonsZohar 1:55a (primary)
Relations
- lover: SamaelOne of the four demon-queens counted as mates of Samael.Bahya ben Asher, commentary on Genesis 4:22 (secondary)
- child: AshmedaiNaamah is named as the mother of Ashmedai, king of the demons.Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, vol. 4 (1913), p. 166 (secondary)
Sources
- Naamah, biblical sister of Tubal-cain, is expanded in the Zohar into a seductive demoness, mother of demons and one of the four queens of the demonic realm, and is named as the mother of Ashmedai.: Genesis 4:22 (primary); Zohar 1:55a; 3:76b (primary); Gershom Scholem, Kabbalah (1974), pp. 358-359 (secondary); Howard Schwartz, Tree of Souls (Oxford University Press, 2004), pp. 227-229 (secondary)