Nemesis: The Abrahamic Inversion

In the Temple's reading, the figure that rabbinic and kabbalistic lore made into Naamah is Nemesis. That name was given in slander against the Original Gods, and Nemesis is not to be invoked by it; call on Her as Nemesis.

The Naamah of Genesis

Genesis (the Bible) mentions Naamah at the 4:22 as the last of Cain’s descendants. There is no information about anything she did. She is mentioned by name and nothing else.¹

וְצִלָּה גַם־הִוא יָלְדָה אֶת־תּוּבַל קַיִן לֹטֵשׁ כָּל־חֹרֵשׁ נְחֹשֶׁת וּבַרְזֶל וַאֲחוֹת תּוּבַל־קַיִן נַעֲמָה׃

And Zillah, she too bore Tubal-cain, a sharpener of every worker in bronze and iron; and Tubal-cain's sister was Naamah.
Genesis 4:22

The name נַעֲמָה, Naʿamah, belongs to the Hebrew root נעם, concerning pleasantness, delight, or loveliness. Her name Na’mah is based on the root word n’ma which refers to things beautiful, pleasing or lovely. Therefore, it may safely be translated as "pleasant one." It is still unknown why the Biblical genealogist chose to single her out from the rest of her family, though her link to the craftsman Tubal-Cain is likely a clue. In addition to repeating her name in the early Christian era, Jewish historian Flavius Josephus added no stories about her seducing anyone, playing music or being a demoness. Historian Gordon Wenham concurs that we have yet to determine the reason behind her mention.^2,3,4

The Rabbinical Dispute

Genesis Rabbah 23:3 provides our earliest extant rabbinical explanation of Naamah. It reports that there existed two conflicting opinions within a rabbinical community residing in Palestine during late antiquity. Rabbi Aba Bar Kahana claimed she was Noah’s just wife. All other rabbis claim that Naamah was the musical accompaniment to idolatrous worship.^5,6

וַאֲחוֹת תּוּבַל קַיִן נַעֲמָה, אָמַר רַבִּי אַבָּא בַּר כַּהֲנָא, נַעֲמָה אִשְׁתּוֹ שֶׁל נֹחַ הָיְתָה, לָמָּה הָיוּ קוֹרִין אוֹתָהּ נַעֲמָה, שֶׁהָיוּ מַעֲשֶׂיהָ נְעִימִים. וְרַבָּנָן אָמְרֵי נַעֲמָה אַחֶרֶת הָיְתָה, וְלָמָּה הָיוּ קוֹרִין אוֹתָהּ נַעֲמָה, שֶׁהָיְתָה מַנְעֶמֶת בְּתֹף לַעֲבוֹדַת כּוֹכָבִים.
Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said: Naamah was Noah's wife. Why was she called Naamah? Because her deeds were pleasant. The rabbis said: this was another Naamah. Why was she called Naamah? Because she made pleasant music upon the drum for idolatry.
Genesis Rabbah 23:3

Neither option includes a reference to a demoness. One preserves a small portion of Cain through a good woman. The second interprets the skills of the Cainites to serve their creators with foreign worship. Later, in his commentary on Genesis, Rashi would retain only the first option when he wrote: “Naamah, she was Noah's wife.”⁷

The Palestinian targumic tradition assigned a musical skill to Naamah parallel to those developed by her brothers. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan describes Naamah as the mistress of laments and songs. Targum Neofiti and the Fragmentary Targums describe her using similar language, indicating that she is a maker of songs. While the terms differ, these translations reflect a later time period than some of the traditions they record.^8,9,10

הִיא הֲוַת מָרַת קִינִין וְזִמְרִין
She was mistress of dirges and songs.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 4:22

The targums do not necessarily accuse her of idolatry. They can be read as dividing music between Jubal, the ancestor of instrumental musicians, and Naamah, the originator of vocal song. Manolis Papoutsakis, however, has argued that the combined traditions of beauty, song, and danger allowed Naamah to acquire a Siren-like character.¹¹

The Woman Who Misled Angels

The first appearance of a woman in the narrative of Rabbi Mattithiah ben Heresh, in early-midieval minor midrash, is as Satan in the form of a woman of greater loveliness than has existed since Naamah. Then, the text identifies Naamah as the woman through whom the ministering angels strayed. Here, Genesis 4:22 is interpreted in conjunction with the "sons of God" and "daughters of man" in Genesis 6:2.^12,13

נִדְמָה לְאִשָּׁה שֶׁלֹּא הָיְתָה כָמוֹהָ מִימוֹת נַעֲמָה אֲחוֹת תּוּבַל קַיִן, שֶׁבָּהּ טָעוּ מַלְאֲכֵי הַשָּׁרֵת
He appeared as a woman whose like had not existed since the days of Naamah, Tubal-cain's sister, through whom the ministering angels went astray.
Midrash Aseret ha-Dibrot

Naamah is still considered to be human here. She possesses dangerous qualities due to her beauty, and her position in the story is one of retrospect, she is to provide a basis for understanding why the ministering angels would have desire for mortal women. Rashi’s comments on Yoma 67b are even less direct, referring to Uzza and Azael as “the destroying angels who descended to earth during the days of Naamah, Tubal-Cain’s sister”. While Uzza and Azael are referred to in the Babylonian Talmud, they do not refer to Naamah. Rashi’s eleventh-century commentary makes the connection between Naamah and the two destructive angels.¹⁴

No passage in the Mishnah, the Babylonian Talmud, or the classical Palestinian midrashim securely calls the daughter of Lamech a demon. The surviving early material gives a righteous wife, an idolatrous drummer, a singer, or a woman of ruinous beauty..^5,14

One late-antique Palestinian Aramaic amulet complicates the picture by naming a hostile being bar Naamah, “son of Naamah,” in a version of the Smamit legend. The designation may preserve an early demonic genealogy, but the amulet never says that this Naamah is Lamech's daughter. It is evidence for a possible bridge, not proof that the Zoharic demoness already existed in her complete medieval form.¹⁵

The decisive literary transformation is securely visible in the thirteenth century. Nachmanides gathers three traditions under Genesis 4:22: Naamah as Noah's righteous wife; Naamah as the beautiful woman who caused the sons of God to stray; and Naamah as the wife of Shamdon, mother of Ashmedai, from whom demons were born.¹⁶

וּמִדְרָשׁ אַחֵר לְרַבּוֹתֵינוּ שֶׁהִיא הָאִשָּׁה הַיָּפָה הִיא מְאֹד שֶׁמִּמֶּנָּה תָּעוּ בְּנֵי הָאֱלֹהִים ... וַאֲחֵרִים אָמְרוּ כִּי הִיא הָיְתָה אֵשֶׁת שַׁמְדּוֹן אֵם אַשְׁמְדַאי וּמִמֶּנָּה נוֹלְדוּ הַשֵּׁדִים
Another interpretation of our rabbis says that she was the exceedingly beautiful woman through whom the sons of God went astray ... Others said that she was the wife of Shamdon, the mother of Ashmedai, and that from her the demons were born.
Nachmanides on Genesis 4:22

Nachmanides adds that her name occurs in writings concerning the employment of demons. The link to Ashmedai (Eshmun) is evocative, as he was often considered the son of Tyche.¹⁶

Naamah is given full mythological background by the Zohar. In Zohar I, 55a, Rabbi Simeon states that Naamah attracts human beings, spirits, and demons, Uzza and Azael stray from or due to her, and he calls her the "mother of demons" who issued from the side of Cain. The passage also links her to Lilith as the cause of children choking.^17,18,19

אֶלָּא בְּגִין דְּטָעְיָין בְּנֵי נָשָׁא אַבַּתְרָהּ, וַאֲפִלּוּ רוּחִין וְשֵׁדִין ... אִינוּן בְּנֵי הָאֱלֹהִים עֻזָּא וַעֲזָאֵל טָעוּ בַּתְרָהּ ... אִמָּן שֶׁל שֵׁדִים הֲוַת, דְּמִסִּטְרָא דְּקַיִן נָפְקַת
Human beings went astray after her, and even spirits and demons ... those “sons of God,” Uzza and Azael, went astray after her ... she was the mother of demons, issuing from the side of Cain.
Zohar I, 55a

The same discussion says that she “sports” with human beings and sometimes produces spirits from them. Lilith, Naamah, and Agrat bat Mahlat remain alive until god removes the spirit of impurity from the earth. Now she is a representative of the Sitra Archa.^17,18

The Sea and Dream-Conception

The Zohar (III, 76b–77a) provides the explanation for how this works. Naamah lives amidst the roar of the Great Sea. She goes out to men in dreams, attaches herself to their desire, takes that desire alone, and conceives from it. The spirits created from men then come to women in the flesh, produce additional spirits, and all of these spirits go to "the first Lilith," who will raise them. Once again, this psychological mechanism of fear is enmeshed with a divine process that actually is about retribution.^17,18,19

וְעַד כְּעַן הִיא קַיְּימָא וּמְדוֹרָהּ בֵּין רִגְשֵׁי יַמָּא רַבָּא, וְנָפְקַת וְחַיְּיכַת בִּבְנֵי נָשָׁא ... תֵּיאוּבְתָא נָטְלַת וְלָא יַתִּיר, וּמֵהַהוּא תֵּיאוּבְתָא אִתְעַבְּרַת וְאַפִּיקַת זַיְינִין אַחֲרָנִין לְעָלְמָא
Even now she exists, and her dwelling is amid the roaring of the Great Sea. She goes out and sports with human beings ... she takes desire, and no more; and from that desire she conceives and brings forth other kinds into the world.
Zohar III, 76b

Naamah receives erotic desire in the dream, while Lilith raises the resulting demonic offspring. Theese are merely codes for what could be feared.^17,18

The Four Mothers of Demons

Bahya ben Asher's commentary on the Torah (around 1300 CE) organizes Naamah into a four-tiered hierarchical system of females. These four females of Lilith, Naamah, Agrat and Mahalat are called the mothers of demons. They have armies of the spirit of impurities, and they rule over one season per year, from sunset until midnight.^20,22

וְד' נָשִׁים הָיוּ אִמּוֹת הַשֵּׁדִים: לִילִית, וְנַעֲמָה, וְאִגֶּרֶת, וּמַחֲלַת. וְיֵשׁ לְכָל אַחַת וְאַחַת מֵהֶן מַחֲנוֹת וְכִתּוֹת שֶׁל רוּחַ הַטֻּמְאָה
Four women were the mothers of the demons: Lilith, Naamah, Agrat, and Mahalat. Each one of them has camps and companies of the spirit of impurity.
Bahya ben Asher on Genesis 4:22

Bahya calls the four women the wives of the prince of Esau, a figure identified with Samael in the surrounding medieval demonology. Modern summaries often flatten this into the claim that every source simply calls Naamah a wife of Samael. The primary passage is more exact: Naamah's individually named husband in Nachmanides is Shamdon, while the fourfold system places her collectively among the women of the demonic prince. Again, this is simply a reference to the closeness of Nemesis to Zeus.^16,20,22

The Later Hierarchy

The seventeenth-century anthology Yalqut Reuveni gives the genealogy an emanational form. Naamah is said to have emanated from Lilith; her husband is Shomdon; together they beget Ashmedai; and the demons proceed from that line.²¹

דַּע לְךָ, כִּי נַעֲמָה נֶאֶצְלָה מִלִּילִית ... יֵשׁ לָהּ בַּעַל וּשְׁמוֹ שׁוֹמְדוֹן, וְיָלְדוּ אַשְׁמְדַאי ... וְכָל הַשֵּׁדִים מִשָּׁם נוֹלְדוּ
Know that Naamah emanated from Lilith ... she has a husband named Shomdon, and they begot Ashmedai ... and all the demons were born from there.
Yalqut Reuveni, Genesis

Because Yalqut Reuveni is an anthology of older kabbalistic material, the printed date of 1681 does not date every tradition it contains. It shows the form in which the medieval genealogy was transmitted: Lilith as the prior demonic female power, Naamah as her emanated counterpart, Shomdon as Naamah's mate, and Ashmedai as their chief offspring.^21,22