What Exactly Do incubi Do?
The word incubus comes from the Latin word incubare which means to lie upon. It is the most common name for these demons in the west, although demons who commit the same acts appear in Mesopotamian texts under the name Lilu. In the ancient times, these demons were storm demons, but due to a mistranslation, became seducers of women, which, in my exalted opinion, is a good way to go down in history. Incubi’s origins are quite simple, as their name has remained the same in our language since Roman times.
These demons have many different slight variations, from being shape shifters, to racists, to deciders, from monstrous to attractive. It’s all over the place, they are usually associated with sleep and nightmares, and all universally agree that consorting too much with an incubus can result in a decline in health, mental health and even in death.
The Catholic Church has put considerable thought into these demons over the years and declared both the incubus and succubus to be the same demon capable of shape shifting. The church also declared incubi to be responsible for the pregnancy of nuns, and the fathers of many children. The church also gave the incubi the power to revive corpses for sexual escapades and other rather peculiar powers. It is said that the father of the great wizard Merlin was an incubus
Incubi are male demons who prey on women in the night, when the women are in bed. They were often blamed for mysterious pregnancies and other events of the sort. Later societies, maybe feeling like the women shouldn’t have all of the fun, also developed the female attacker of men idea: succubi. These (female) succubi were supposed to suck all the life force from human men, but, unfortunately, it was seen as being considerably less threatening, and a more … alluring and fun way to die. The male incubi are known for preying on women who are either conscious, or unconscious. They do not seem to be picky. Incubi are known to have fathered half demon children called ‘cambions’ that often kill the mother. Some of the slight less horrifying versions of the incubi simply lie on women to smother them and make them wake up with night terrors. The cambion was only used to refer to the child of demons since the 19th century. The incubi are associated with sleep paralysis and various forms of non sexual nightmares.
Since the Catholic Church put a great deal of thought into these demons, they also provided the main solution for an attack. As listed in the Malleus Malificarum, these solutions are : an exorcism by a priest, making the sign of the cross, regular confessions, praying a lot, or leaving the location to sleep somewhere else.
This is taken as a second hand recount from a tired and drunken Irish priest from a small pub in south London. He recounted the tale of a young woman in a small town in Ireland that he refused to name. He said that she was kind, innocent and pious . This woman was visited in the night by an ugly creature who sat at the foot of her bed and bemoaned and bewailed its fate and its looks. Being the kind girl she was, she attempted to speak to the creature, to comfort it. It declared it was miserable because no one would ever love it, especially a woman. The woman attempted to reassure it, and they spoke for a long while, until the dawn made it run away. The woman simply put the strange meeting down as a dream and forgot about it. For the next few months the creature visited her, and slowly seduced her. The young woman was convinced that she could redeem the creature by showing it love. Over time the woman’s health began to deteriorate and her family became very concerned. The priest was called, when it was discovered that the young womsn was pregnant and the pregnancy showed anomalous properties. The priest realised it was an incubus causing these ills and attempted to exorcise the creature. He did manage to block the creature from returning to his victim, but the girl was so far gone, both in her pregnancy and her obsession with the creature, that she died giving birth to a stillborn child.
The priest then proceeded to drink a lot of scotch and slide into incoherence, so our collector of tales purchased him a cab and sent him home to his lodgings.
It appears that incubi can be quite crafty creatures who adapt to each situation to get what they want.