succubus

1. A female demon supposed to descend upon and have sexual intercourse with a man while he sleeps.
2. An evil spirit; a demon.

[Middle English, from Medieval Latin, alteration (influenced by Late Latin incubus, incubus) of Latin succuba, paramour, from succubāre, to lie under : sub-, sub- + cubāre, to lie down.]

A demon who takes the shape of a woman, stealing the vitality of men during sleep. Old rabbinical writings relate the legend of how Adam was visited over a period of 130 years by female demons and had intercourse with demons, spirits, specters, lemurs, and phantoms.

Another legend relates how under the reign of Roger, king of Sicily, a young man was bathing by moonlight and thought he saw someone drowning and hastened to the rescue. Having drawn from the water a beautiful woman, he became enamored of her, married her, and they had a child. Afterward she disappeared mysteriously with her child, which made everyone believe she was a succubus.

In the fifteenth century, the succubus and the male demon, the counterpart incubus (which takes the form of a man, to seduce women), were associated with witchcraft, and witches were assumed to have intercourse with demons. The historian Hector Boece (1465-1536), in his history of Scotland, related that a very handsome young man was pursued by a female demon, who would pass through his closed door and offer to marry him. He complained to his bishop, who enjoined him to fast, pray, and confess, and as a result the infernal visitor ceased to trouble him.

The witchcraft judge Pierre de Lancre (1553-1631) stated that in Egypt an honest blacksmith was occupied in forging during the night when a demon in the shape of a beautiful woman appeared to him. He threw a hot iron in the face of the demon, which at once took flight.

The succubus was generally believed to appear most frequently during sleep, especially in nightmares. Roman Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas argued for the objective existence of the incubus/succubus and believed that such intercourse could lead to the pregnancy of a woman. Twentieth-century psychology tends to see such creatures as dream symbols of repressed sexual feelings.

Sources:

Jones, Ernest. On the Nightmare. New York: Liveright, 1951.

Melton, J. Gordon. The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead. 2nd edition. Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 1999.

Robbins, Rossell Hope. The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology. New York: Crown Publishers, 1959.

For other uses, see Succubus (disambiguation).

A bracket carved as a winged succubus on the outside of an English inn, suggesting that a brothel could have been found inside.

In folklore, a succubus (plural succubi) is a demon who takes the form of a highly attractive woman to seduce men (although the attractive part is a modern invention, historically succubi are ugly),^[1] in dreams to have sexual intercourse, according to the medieval European legend. Its male counterpart is the incubus. They draw energy from the men to sustain themselves, often until the point of exhaustion or death of the victim.^{[citation needed]} One such story^[2] relates to a man in the town of Koblenz, who has been bewitched by a succubus, with whom he is forced to repeatedly fornicate, whilst in the presence of his wife. The story goes on to say that "after an incredible number of such bouts, the poor man at last sinks to the floor utterly exhausted and disgusted beyond belief." From mythology and fantasy, Lilith and the Lilin (Jewish) and Lilitu (Sumerian) are in redactive Christian fables (folktales not part of official Christian theology), considered forms of succubi.

According to the Malleus Maleficarum, or "Witches' Hammer", written by Heinrich Kramer (Insitoris) in 1486, a succubus would collect semen from the men she slept with, which incubi would then use to impregnate women,^[3] thus explaining how demons could apparently sire children in spite of the traditional belief that demons were incapable of reproduction through generative or gestative means. Children so begotten were supposed to be those that were born deformed, or more susceptible to supernatural influences.^[4]

Etymology

First attested 1387, derived from Late Latin succuba "strumpet", used to describe the supernatural being as well. From succubare "to lie under", from sub- "under" and cubare "to lie".^[5]

See also

Al Basti Cecaelia Empusa Energy vampire Hisa-me

Hone-onna Incubus Lamia Lidérc Lilith

Mara Melusine Morrigan Aensland Nevan Naamah The Succubus (South Park episode)

References

1. ^ Curran, Bob (2006), Encyclopedia of the Undead: A Field Guide to Creatures That Cannot Rest in Peace, p. 21, Career Press, ISBN 1564148416
2. ^ Kramer, Heinrich and Sprenger, James (1486), Summers, Montague (translator - 1928), The Malleus Maleficarum, Part2, Chapter 2, Question 1
3. ^ Kramer, Heinrich and Sprenger, James (1486), Summers, Montague (translator - 1928), The Malleus Maleficarum, Part2, Chapter VIII, "Certain Remedies prescribed against those Dark and Horrid Harms with which Devils may Afflict Men," at sacred-texts.com
4. ^ Lewis, James R., Oliver, Evelyn Dorothy, Sisung Kelle S. (Editor) (1996), Angels A to Z, Entry: Incubi and Succubi, pp. 218, 219, Visible Ink Press, ISBN 0-7876-0652-9
5. ^ Otherwise known as the Amber Sessoms syndrom. succubus at "Online Etymology Dictionary". Daniel Harper, copyright 2001

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