Creatures of the Night

Succubus

According to certain mystical traditions, the demonic sexual molesters known as the incubi and the succubi were the children of Father Adam's consorting with a beautiful fallen angel named Lilith, who in the view of certain Jewish mystics, was Adam's wife before the creation of Eve. Succubi appear to men as beautiful, sensual women, tempting and promising, but they also may be vampires thirsting for human blood. While those males who consort with a succubus often meet an untimely end, on occasion their interaction with the entity brings about a horde of demonic children, who will one day gather at his deathbed and hail him as their father.

Jersey Devil, 1901 illustration. (

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Lilith, according to the Midrash, preys not only on males as they lie sleeping, but also upon mothers who have just given birth, as well as their newborn babes. Amulets of protection against the approach of Lilith may be found in many traditional Jewish bookstores.

The plural form of "Lilith" in Hebrew is "lilim," which is found in Talmudic and Kabbalistic literature as a term for spirits of the night. Sometimes the word lilith is translated as "night-owl," which would seem to refer to Lilith, the succubus, having wings and being capable of flight. Sometimes, according to Hebrew scholars, the term lilith represents "wind-spirit," and in Hebrew the word for "spirit" (ruach) also means wind. Lilith is often depicted as a beautiful woman with long, unkempt hair and large batlike wings.

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