The Encyclopedia Of Demons And Demonology

Nephilim 183
come possessed himself if the case were real. Pithoy was
silenced by his superiors.
De Ranfaing was finally exorcized of the demon and
founded an order of nuns. The exorcists signed statements
attesting to the validity of her possession, and the
case was documented in 1622 by a respected physician
named Prichard.
FURTHER READING:
Calmet, Dom Augustin. The Phantom World: Concerning
Apparitions and Vampires. Ware, England: Wordsworth
Editions in association with The Folklore Society, 2001.
Nantes incubus (12th century) DEMON who had sex
with a woman for at least six years, before being exorcized
by St. Bernard.
When St. Bernard traveled to Nantes, Brittany, France,
in 1135 to visit monks, he learned of a woman who was
said to have enjoyed sexual intercourse with an INCUBUS.
The supernatural affair had lasted six years before she apparently
felt guilty and confessed her sin to priests. They
prescribed for her almsgiving, pilgrimages, and intercessory
prayer to saints. None of the remedies expelled the
incubus. The woman’s husband learned of the matter and
left her. The incubus became more sexually aggressive.
The woman went to St. Bernard and appealed for his
help. She said the demon had told her that her appeal
would be useless. Bernard comforted her and told her to
return the next day. She did and relayed the demon’s terrible
threats to her. St. Bernard gave her his staff and told
her to take it to bed with her. As long as the staff was in
the bed, the incubus could not approach her. Enraged, the
demon made threats of what he would do once the saint
left town with his staff.
On the next Sunday, St. Bernard told all the townspeople
to go to church with lighted candles. He took
the pulpit, told about the case, and then anathematized
the demon, forbidding him in the name of Christ to assault
the victim or any other woman. When the candles
were extinguished, the demon’s powers were ended. The
woman was troubled no more.
FURTHER READING:
Lea, Henry Charles. Materials toward a History of Witchcraft.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1939.
Nemesis Greek goddess of vengeance, divine justice,
and retribution against evil deeds. Nemesis, whose name
means “dispenser of dues,” was called upon by ancient
Greeks and Romans to exorcise and avert DEMONs and
POSSESSION.
In mythology, Nemesis is the daughter of either Oceanus
or Zeus. She is usually portrayed as a somber winged
maiden with a whip, rein, sword, or scales in her left
hand. Sometimes she is portrayed as holding a cubit ruler
in her left hand and a staff in her right, with one foot on a
wheel. She personifies resentment against men who commit
callous crimes, those who are wicked and insolent,
and those who have too much good fortune. Her job is to
be the “leveler,” to effect equilibrium by making sure that
wrongdoers get their due.
The Romans called Nemesis Invidia (Jealousy) and
Rivalitas (Jealous Rivalry). In modern terms, a “nemesis”
is one’s worst enemy.
Nemesis-stone rings were AMULETs against evil. A Nemesis
stone was a stone taken from an altar to Nemesis and
engraved with her image. Placed under the stone were the
tip of a duck wing and a piece of a mullein, called “death
plant.” When this ring amulet was given to a person who
was possessed, it caused the demon to confess himself
and flee. When worn around the neck, the ring warded
off nightmares caused by demons and protected children
against LAMIAE. The ring also cured “moonstruck” conditions
(insanity). In order for the ring to work properly, the
wearer had to avoid everything abominable and wicked.
Lore also held that the ring would reveal the length of
someone’s life and the manner of his or her death.
FURTHER READING:
Ogden, Daniel. Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and
Roman Worlds: A Sourcebook. New York: Oxford University
Press, 2002.
Nephilim A race of giants spawned by the cohabitation
of ANGELs (see WATCHERS) and human women.
Nephilim means “fallen,” “those who have fallen,” or
“those who were cast down.” The Nephilim sometimes
are called the SONS OF GOD, as are their angel parents.
Helel is their chief. The Nephilim displeased God.
Genesis 6:4 implies that the Nephilim were already
present upon the earth when the Sons of God began their
relations with mortal women: “The Nephilim were upon
the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons
of god came into the daughters of men, and they bore
children to them. These were the mighty men that were
of old, the men of renown.” The corruption brought by
the mingling of angels and humans caused God to regret
that he had created human beings on Earth. He decided
to blot out not only the human race but every living thing
on Earth. He selected Noah and his family to survive this
disaster, the great flood, and repopulate the world.
Evidently not all the Nephilim perished, however, for
a later reference in Numbers refers to the Anakim, the
sons of the Nephilim: “And there we saw the Nephilim
(the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim); and we
seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers and so we seemed
to them” (13:33). The Anakim were later destroyed.
1 Enoch presents a more descriptive picture of the
Nephilim as monstrous beings:
And the women became pregnant and gave birth to great
giants whose heights were 300 cubits. These (giants)
consumed the produce of all the people until the people
detested feeding them. So the giants turned against the