WARNING, SPOILERS FOR THE FOLLOWING ANIME AHEAD: HIGH SCHOOL DXD, ROSARIO+VAMPIRE.1
Okay. So. Yeah. Quick question. How exactly did this… 2

Become this??? 1

Ah, demons. When people think of the term demon, they may think of a generic demon. Perhaps what comes to mind is a creature with red, bat-like wings, pointy claws, horns, and long teeth. Yet, if you try to think of a type of demon, one that often comes to mind is the succubus, as well as its male counterpart, the incubus. In medieval times, as shown by the first image, succubi were portrayed as being rather ugly and monstrous, and obviously very evil and wicked. Nowadays, succubi are portrayed in many media as being beautiful women that can take a demonic form but appear as human much of the rest of the time. These succubi are often presented as being caring and friendly and are not by default evil. So, how did succubi get here?3

There are multiple origins of various supernatural beings associated with sex. For instance, the Native Americans, Chinese, Indians, Greeks, and Arabians all had different forms of mythical beings that had sex with people.4 There are also ideas that would later on be incorporated into the legends of succubi. For instance, Lilith was written about around 3000 BCE and was described as a Sumerian goddess of fertility and witchcraft.5 Later, different groups, including the ancient Pagans, Jews, and Christians came up with their own spins on Lilith. Some of these legends said Lilith was Adam’s first wife before Eve. In this storyline, Lilith was banished from the Garden of Eden. After being banished, she mated with demons, producing demonic offspring. At his point, Lilith is often described as a succubus herself, and some of her demonic offspring were succubi.4 6 7

The earliest known mentions of the word succubus in particular come from the 1300s. Here, succubi were portrayed as demons who would have sex with men while they were sleeping. Their counterpart, the incubus, was said to have sex with women while they were sleeping. They had sex for their own goals: for personal pleasure, to have children, to corrupt others, and to gain life force. In some descriptions, succubi and incubi were actually the same; the demon would take the form of a succubus to collect semen from men and then take the form of an incubus to impregnate women with it.4 6 The cause of such beliefs came from several sources. First of all, the Bible teaches about demons, which provides some inspiration. Secondly, people may have dreams about having sex, perhaps with someone other than one’s spouse. Given the Bible’s teachings against adultery and lust, people would consider such actions to be sinful and evil in nature, which in turn makes them suspect some evil being like a demon could be involved.8

In addition to dreams about sex, another phenomenon people assigned to succubi was sleep paralysis. In such days, we knew much less about science than we do now days and did not have an explanation as to why you feel paralyzed. Sleep paralysis often occurs when you are in a state of being just barely awake, just barely consciousness. Such times can occur when you feel barely conscious also include rather vivid dreams, including dreams that are difficult to determine if they are dreams or reality once you are fully awake. I have experienced such dreams in my own personal experience. To understand exactly what is going on, sleep paralysis occurs when you are entering or leaving REM (Rapid Eye Momement) sleep. REM sleep is when your longer and more elaborate dreams occur, which could include dreams about sex and/or demons. To compound matters here, REM sleep also often involves erections or nocturnal emissions of sexual fluid. Sleep paralysis can also occur when you are fully conscious, but do not yet have control of your body physically.9

In addition to dreams, sleep paralysis often involves hallucinations and a sense of terror. In my own experience with sleep paralysis, feelings are often exaggerated. For instance, I sometimes throw a t-shirt over my face to block out light while sleeping. When I have sleep paralysis, the t-shirt feels like it is choking and suffocating me and I can’t get it off because of my reduced ability to move. Frightening imagery and sounds combined with a feeling of horror and being unable to move could all seem like the work of a demon.4 10 11 In addition, there may be a temptation to blame someone else for one’s sinful behavior, kind of along the lines of “the devil made me do it,” and succubi may provide a nice scapegoat. It also is likely that if a woman got pregnant with someone she wasn’t supposed to, she could blame it on an incubus instead of admitting she had an affair or was having sex before getting married.12

Many years ago, it was commonplace to assign supernatural explanations to events that had not yet been explained through natural phenomena. These could include assigning lightning bolts to an angry deity like Zeus or God, blaming the black death to God’s actions, blaming a man acting violently to being bitten by a werewolf when the real cause was rabies (which itself may have been transmitted from a wolf acting strangely), the list goes on. Thus, a similar approach was used for sleep paralysis, demonic dreams, hallucinations, nighttime erections, and nighttime discharge, as these was assigned to the evil succubi and incubi. Generally, succubi were viewed extremely negatively. Thus, artwork assigned to them was rather ugly, not beautiful as we imagine succubi nowadays.13

So, how did succubi become beautiful? The key is how succubi are portrayed in more recent media. As times have changed, what is acceptable in media has changed also and we no longer have medieval standards for what is allowable. It is quite common in recent media to form modern spins of mythology, theology, myths, legends, and folklore. This includes media portrayals of Hercules, angels, werewolves, zombies, vampires, elves, dragons, and many other creatures including demons. Many recent media have kept succubi as being evil, but are now beautiful. In modern portrayals, like in Dungeons and Dragons, succubi do not just have sex with guys while sleeping. They must seduce them while awake instead. How do they do this? By using magic to charm men, being strikingly beautiful, acting sweet toward the guys being seduced, being flirty, and being sexually aggressive.14

In very recent media, some portrayals of succubi have changed even further from how they once were portrayed. Now, in addition to being beautiful, some succubi are not portrayed as evil. Instead succubi are portrayed as actually being girls who are friendly, beautiful, genuinely care about others, are quite flirtatious, often have very high sex drives, and are quite open about their sexuality. Often such media are heavily sexualized in nature. Take for instance, the series High School DXD. Although the women are generally not explicitly called succubi, they are called demons and devils, have bat like wings as well as a human-like form, are portrayed as being quite beautiful, friendly, caring, and brave, are willing to risk their lives to save others, and are obsessed with sex. They throw themselves sexually at the main protagonist to a ridiculous degree. This definitely fits the bill for modern portrayals of succubi. The main protagonist of the show is Issei Hyodo. He is someone who is also a devil, also has bat-like wings in his devil form, has a human-like form, is brave, genuinely cares about others, is obsessed with sex, and gets girls who are infatuated with him like crazy. His goal in life is to have a harem…and he succeeds in getting one, as the girls are all too eager to be a part of it. This sounds a lot like modern incubi. Unsurprisingly, High School DXD is a hyper-sexualized show with lots of fan service.1

Another example of a modern succubus is Kurumu from Rosario Vampire. When the show first introduces Kurumu, she is a high school student who is villainous and wicked. She tries to use magical charms to mind control the main protagonist and ruin his relationship with his girlfriend so Kurumu can have him for herself. She also plans to use magics to turn the men at their school into her personal love slaves. Later on though, she has a change of heart and redeems herself. From that point forward, she is one of the show’s main protagonists and is very brave and caring. She is, however, still obsessed with sex, still super flirtatious, and still throws herself sexually at her crush to an extreme degree. Once again, the show Rosario Vampire is very heavily sexualized. This is not just when Kurumu shows up; the other parts are heavily sexualized as well.1

Given how popular succubi are in media nowadays, they probably aren’t going away any time soon. In fact, I am actually writing a fantasy novel series where I include a succubus as an important character. I am looking forward to see how succubi will be incorporated in media going forward and am curious to see what additional changes we see to their characters in the future.

References:

  1. Funimation Productions, LLC. Funimation. Funimation. 2019. Web. 31 Dec. 2019.
  2. Elliot, Josh. “Why the paralyzing ‘sleep demon’ still haunts humans in the age of science.” Global News. Corus Entertainment Inc., 20 Apr. 2019. Web. 31 Dec. 2019.
  3. Bardock771. “Maria Naruse.” Amino. Amino, n.d. Web. 31 Dec. 2019.
  4. Prof. Geller. “Succubus.” Mythology.net. Mythology.net, 18 June 2017. Web. 31 Dec. 2019.
  5. Rabbi Jill Hammer. “Lilith: Lady Flying in Darkness.” My Jewish Learning. My Jewish Learning, n.d. Web. 1 Jan. 2020.
  6. “Incubus and succubus myths.” RationalWiki. Rational Wiki, 21 Nov. 2019. Web. 1 Jan. 2020.
  7. John Collier. “Lilith.” Wikimedia Commons. Wikimedia Commons, 1 Dec. 2019. Web. 1 Jan. 2020.
  8. Adamah, Benjamin. “The incubus or succubus – nightmare or astral sex date?” Vamzzz Occult Blog. Vamzzz, 29 Aug. 2019. Web. 1 Jan. 2020.
  9. Higher Perspective. “Sleep Paralysis: 9 Facts About Waking Up And Being Unable To Move.” Higher Perspectives. Higher Perspectives, 20 June 2015. Web. 1 Jan. 2020.
  10. Mcdermott, Alicia. “Incubi and Succubi: Protection from Dark Magics and Cures for Night Terrors – Part II.” Ancient Origins. Ancient Origins, 27 June 2016. Web. 1 Jan. 2020.
  11. Quora. “What are the origins of a succubus?” Quora. Quora, 23 May 2019. Web. 1 Jan. 2020.
  12. “WHAT IS SLEEP PARALYSIS?” Amino. Amino, n.d. Web. 1 Jan. 2020. .
  13. Wikimedia Commons. “Succubus Bracket 02.” Wikimedia Commons. Wikimedia Commons, 30 Nov. 2018. Web. 1 Jan. 2020.
  14. “How do you kill a succubus?” Mystic Banana. Mystic Banana, n.d. Web. 1 Jan. 2020.

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