Are they vampires or demons, neither or both?
That depends on who is talking about them. So what are they?
They are the incorporeal sexual energy feeders know as Incubi and Succubi.
The term succubus is believed to have its origins from the later Latin word succuba meaning prostitute, which in turn comes from Medieval Latin sub cubaire meaning ‘that which lies beneath’. The incubus from Latin – ‘that which lies above’. Some sources claim the succubus and incubus are on in the same and can change for at will to prey on their victims.
In medieval lore, a succubus was a female demon that would lay with men to steal their seed. This was the explanation given for night arousal and wet dreams. Then the incubus, the male demon would pass along the stolen seed to unknowing women. A viable excuse used by unwed women or women cheating on their husbands, who turned up pregnant.
As the legend states, they come to you in your dream-state and drain you of energy using sexual dreams. However, they have been known to enter the wake realm tempting mortals through lust. In either case if the encounter last for too long, the victim usually dies.
In later stories, especially in contemporary horror writing, both are given hypnotic powers that would give them the ability to command and compel members of the opposite sex.
So on those mornings you wake up wondering why you are so tired even though you got plenty of sleep, maybe you had an unwanted visitor.
Could your neighbor be an energy vampire?
Stop by Friday when Danica Avert tells us about Piper.
2 comments:
The vampire is one of the more fascinating fantasy characters, and also one of the most abused, in my opinion.
Victorian-era stories such as Dracula made the vampire into the personification of the evils of sex. If you look at Dracula himself, he's an exotic Eastern European, forcing himself upon Mina Harker and trying to transform her into something less than the paragon of Victorian virtue.
The concept of the vampire as the "other" doesn't change at all as modern times approach. Case in point, Nosferatu the Vampyre, which made the titular bloodsucker into a hideous, monstrous excuse for a man. The vampire became the boogeyman in this regard.
There's one interesting take on a creature that could be considered a vampire that comes from the Ojibwa legend, the wendigo. It could be considered vampire-ish, although the key to the wendigo's existence is not necessarily sex as much as hunger (it's thought the wendigo stories were an acceptable means for Ojibwa storytellers to deal with the issue of cannibalism).
This may be true in some cases. Although we have many authors today that bring them into a totally different light. Go back to my first few guest bloggers and you will see.
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