The Encyclopedia Of Demons And Demonology

Incubus is from the Latin word incubare, which means
“to lie upon.” Victims usually feel a heavy weight on top
of them that paralyzes them. Sometimes there is a sense
of choking or suffocation. The Greeks referred to the phenomenon
as ephialtes, or “the pouncer.” Another Greek
term is pnigalion, or “suffocation.” Pliny called it “suppressions”
or “nocturnal illusions.”
The Incubus in Jewish Demonology
The existence and activities of incubi are acknowledged
in Jewish demonology in relation to a Midrashic legend of
Adam’s siring demonic offspring. According to the kabbalistic
text the Zohar, these unions are continued by
men who unknowingly cohabit with spirits in their sleep.
The hybrid human-demonic children have a demonic nature
and rank high in the echelons of demons, occupying
positions of authority and rulership. Thus, demons value
intercourse with humans.
The Incubus in the Early Christian Church
According to some of the fathers of the church, among them
St. Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian, as
well as the Jewish historian Josephus and some Platonist
philosophers, the incubi were the SONS OF GOD, angels
who fell from heaven because they copulated with women.
Their offspring were giants, the Nephilim, who could not
have been the progeny of human men and women.
St. Augustine included among incubi the pagan demigods
sylvans and fauns, who were exceptionally lascivious
and often injured women in their lust, he said.
The Incubus during the European Inquisition
During the witch hunts, demonologists wrote handbooks
on witches, the Devil, and demons. They described the
appearances, behavior, and characteristics of incubi and
remedies against them.
Incubi are especially attracted to women with beautiful
hair, young virgins, chaste widows, and all “devout” females.
Nuns are among the most vulnerable and could be
molested in the confessional as well as in bed. While the
majority of women are forced into sex by the incubi, some
of them submit willingly and even enjoy the act. It once
was a common belief that women were more likely than
men to be the sexual victims of demons, because women
were inferior to men and less able to resist temptation.
Incubi have enormous phalluses that are so stiff they
cause women great pain. According to the French demonologist
NICHOLAS REMY, a woman accused as a witch in
Haraucourt in 1586 described her demon’s penis as as
long as a kitchen tool and without testicles or scrotum.
Another accused witch, a woman named Didatia of Miremont,
said at her trial in 1588 that she was “always so
stretched by the huge, swollen member of her Demon that
the sheets were drenched with blood.” Some incubus penises
were described as scaly, like the skin of a reptile.
Incubi are not interested in procreation, only in degrading
sex. However, they have the ability to impregnate
women. They do not possess their own semen; they colincubus
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daughter of Imma, and Atyona the son of Qarqoi, and
Qarquoi the daughter of Shilta, and Shilta the daughter
of Immi—they are their houses and their children
and their property are sealed with the seal-ring of El
Shaddai, blessed be He, and with the seal ring of King
Solomon, the son of David, who worked spells on male
demons and female liliths. Sealed, countersealed and
fortified against the male demon and female lilith and
spell and curse and incantation and knocking and evil
eye and evil black-arts, against the black-arts of mother
and daughter, and against those of daughter-in-law and
mother-in-law, and against those of the presumptuous
woman, who darkens the eyes and blows away the
soul, and against the evil black-arts, that are wrought
by men, and against everything bad. In the name of
the Lord. Lord, Hosts is His name, Amen, amen, selah.
This charm is to thwart the demon Titinos. Sealed are
the bodies (?) of S QL, the bodies (?) of S QL MYLY
MYLY TYGL.
Many bowls were inscribed against LILITH, one of the
most feared demons of all. She is often the demon depicted
bound in chains in the center of the inscriptions.
Inscriptions either cast her out or issue decrees of divorce
from her. The first inscription that follows cites the use of
IRON, a common means of weakening or binding spirits,
especially evil ones:
Bound is the bewitching Lilith with a peg of iron in her
nose; bound is the bewitching Lilith with pinchers of
iron in her mouth; bound is the bewitching Lilith . . .
with a chain or iron on her neck; bound is the bewitching
Lilith with fetters of iron on her hands; bound is the
bewitching Lilith with stocks of stone on her feet.
Thou Lilith of the desert, thou hag, thou ghoul . . . naked
art thou sent forth, unclad, with hair disheveled, and
streaming down your back.
See RABISU.
FURTHER READING:
Barker, Margaret. The Great Angel: A Study of Israel’s Second
God. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1992.
Koltuv, Barbara Black. The Book of Lilith. Berwick, Me.: Nicolas-Hays,
1986.
The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. Vols. 1 & 2. Edited by
James H. Charlesworth. 1983. Reprint, New York: Doubleday,
1985.
incubus A lewd male DEMON who pursues women for
sex. In Hebrew mythology, the incubus and his female
counterpart, the SUCCUBUS, visit women and men in their
sleep, lie and press heavily upon them, and seduce them.
They can be conjured by witches, sorcerers, and shamans.
During the witch hysteria in Europe, incubi were
believed to instruments of the DEVIL, tormenting people
for the sole purpose of degrading their souls and perverting
them to more vices. Incubus attacks are reported in
modern POSSESSION cases.