Succubus & Incubus
Artwork by Benedetta Fiore. ArtStation | Instagram
Origin: Mesopotamia
Other names: Lilu / Lilith
These demons are said to seduce men and women both for various reasons: to conceive a child, collect semen as a source of power, or wreak vengeance on the children of Adam and Eve. Their victims develop an addiction for the demons’ lovemaking, and crave it even when their constant coupling leads to poor health or insanity, and ultimately ends with their death.
Lilith is the most well-known among the succubi, and Lilu—an incubus—was the only one who could match her sexual appetite. Lilith was Adam’s first wife, and one of four original demonic queens. Her early portrayals run the gambit from a darkly beautiful woman, to a young girl with physical deformities, to a siren.
King James would later theorize in his dissertation, Dæmonologie, that incubi and succubi were simply the same creature, but viewed differently depending on the victim’s gender. He suggested that an evil spirit could extract semen from a dead man and carry it into a woman’s womb—and that if women were found to be impregnated in this way, they should be burned. (That was their answer to everything back in the day, wasn’t it?) He also surmised that this kind of spirit could also inhabit a dead body and use it to have sex. Thus, a “succubus” was merely the demon collecting sperm, and the “incubus” was the demon delivering it.
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