Now in the Detroit Institute of Arts.Īgain of ancient Mesopotamian origin was Irdu lili, the male equivalent of the female Ardat lili. These supernatural entities perched upon the chests of the female victims, see Figure 3. Circa 2400 BC, in ancient Mesopotamia their list of kings referred to a certain Lilu who was the father of Gilgamesh, and was known to physically seduce women during their slumbers. The incubus who was considered to enter the beds of sleeping women for the purpose of having sexual relations. In 1486 the Malleus Malificarum or ‘Witches Hammer’ (Kramer, 1486) opined that a succubus seduced men and then collected their semen, which male demons of incubi then used to impregnate women of humankind.Īn incubus is a male sexual entity that is also considered a nightmare and derives from the Latin word incubus which means nightmare. Sexual intercourse of a regular and repeated nature was considered to be deleterious to health and even a cause of death. Lilith Tempting Adam and Eve by Michelangelo Moreover, the supernatural female entity called Lilitu came upon men in their erotic dreams and indulged them with sexual intercourse (Patai, 1997).įigure 2. A corresponding female demon was Ardat lili of Mesopotamian provenance who seduced sleeping men during the night in order to become pregnant with their ghostly offspring. Refusing to return to the Garden of Eden Lilith abandoned Adam and consorted and later mated with the archangel Samael. Originally Lilith originally was one of four demon queens who became the mother of the jinn, and whose children in later myth and lore were called Liliu. Nonetheless, it cannot be assumed that all succubi were malevolent and in the folklore of later times they were considered as sirens. Lilith, who biblically was the first wife of Adam later became a succubus, see her serpentine and Victorian visualisation in Figure 1. In terms of etymology the term succubus comes from medieval Latin and thence late Latin succuba, or paramour from succub (are) meaning to ‘lie under’, thus suc is ‘unde’ and cubare is ‘to lie’.
Thus the succubus assumes the shape of a beautiful maiden but hides certain deformities that may include bird-like claws and snake-like tail (Davidson, 2012 Guiley, 2008). In order to carry out the seduction the female demon or entity adopts the shape and form of a beautiful human female.
A succubus is a supernatural female demon who invades human nightmares and dreams, and who is believed to have sexual relations or intercourse with sleeping men.
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