Succubus

A female demon in medieval European folklore believed to visit sleeping men and engage in sexual activity with them. Stories often connect succubi with nocturnal assault, dreams, and the theft of vitality.

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Lilith: A figure in Jewish folklore and later demonology, often portrayed as a dangerous night spirit or demon. Lilith became associated with nocturnal sexual danger and influenced later European demon traditions.
Sleep paralysis: A temporary inability to move or speak while falling asleep or waking, sometimes accompanied by vivid perceptions. Its sensed presence and pressure can resemble a nocturnal demon attack.
Sexuality in medieval Christianity: Christian teachings and practices concerning sexual conduct in medieval Europe. Succubus accounts cast sexual desire outside sanctioned relationships as a possible demonic danger.
Gustave Doré: A nineteenth-century French artist and illustrator known for elaborate engravings and book illustrations. His art helped give later audiences a vivid visual vocabulary for supernatural figures and medieval legend.
Incubus: A male demon in European folklore believed to have sexual relations with sleeping women. Medieval accounts paired the succubus with this male counterpart, sometimes treating them as one demon in changing form.
Wet dream: A sexual dream that causes ejaculation during sleep. Demon stories offered a supernatural explanation for sexual experiences occurring during sleep.
Demonization of sexuality: The portrayal of sexual desire or conduct as morally corrupting or influenced by evil forces. The succubus makes illicit sexual contact literal as an encounter with a demon.
Heinrich Kramer: A fifteenth-century German cleric and author associated with the Malleus Maleficarum. His treatise records demonological claims relevant to the succubus tradition.
Malleus Maleficarum: A fifteenth-century treatise on witchcraft by Heinrich Kramer, influential in European witch persecution. Its demonology discusses sexual spirits and helped circulate claims about demonic intercourse.
Demon: A supernatural being, often malevolent, in religious and folkloric traditions. The succubus is a gendered, sexually defined figure within this broader class of beings.