| Incubi |
| In Western medieval legend, an incubus (plural incubi) is a demon in male form supposed to lie upon sleepers, especially women, in order to have sexual intercourse with them. They are also believed to do this in order to spawn other incubi. The incubus drains energy from the woman it performs sexual intercourse upon in order to sustain itself. In most cases it either kills the victim or leaves the victim in very weak or fragile condition. A female version was called a succubus.
There are a number of variations on the theme around the world. In Zanzibar, Popo Bawa primarily attacks men and only in their own beds. El Trauco, according to the traditional mythology of the Chilo� Province of Chile, is a hideous deformed dwarf who lulls nubile young women and seduces them. El Trauco is sometimes invoked to explain sudden or unwanted pregnancies, especially in unmarried women. In Hungary, a Liderc can be a Satanic lover that flies at night and appears as a fiery light, a will o' the wisp, or as a bird of fire. Incubi were sometimes said to conceive children. The half-human offspring of such a union is a Cambion. The most famous legend of such a case includes that of Merlin, the famous wizard from Arthurian legend. Incubi and succubi were said by some not to be different genders but the same demons able to change their sex. A succubus would be able to sleep with a man and collect his sperm, and then transform into an incubus and use that seed on women. Their offspring were thought to be supernatural in many cases, even if the actual genetic material originally came from humans. legend, however, professes that the incubus and succubus are demons of completely different gender. Though many tales claim that the incubus is bisexual, many others say that it is heterosexual and to mate with a man causes the demon to melt to death; this is the only way to kill the otherwise immortal beings in many tales. Though counter to the melt theory, there are also numerous stories involving the attempted exorcism of incubi or sucubi who have taken refuge in, respectively, the bodies of men or women. Exorcism, though usually effective, typically does not succeed in dispelling an incubus or succubus. This may be because of the measure of lawlessness this type of demon portrays, or lack of care, or simply pure ignorance. |
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