The Succubi are beautiful and desirable women, unlike their male counterparts, the Incubi. Though Succubi do sometimes have bat-like wings or demonic features, such as horns, a tail, hooves and fangs.
In medieval European lore, Succubi appeared to men in the night and seduced them into sexual encounters. Celibate monks seemed to be especially prone to such attacks, often blaming Succubi for their lustful thoughts or sexual dreams. Succubi could suck the life force of men, leaving them exhausted or even killing them.
Various Succubi[]
Lilith[]
Lilith has many origins. In both Islamic and Jewish myths however, she is a succubus. A demon-woman who hunts men, seduces them and drains their life with a kiss. Jewish mothers believed Lilith would come to take their children away and eat them.
The Lilin[]
According to Jewish folklore, the 'lilin' are the daughters of Lilith and Adam, engendered while she was his wife. They are demons, with their function being that of a succubus. Men and also mothers feared the attack of the lilin, because they were also said to kidnap children, like Lilith.
Mara[]
'Mara' is the name of a fabulous ogress who hags people when sleeping. People feel pressure on their chest, and some people report that they observed Mara laying on their chest, sometimes choking their necks, and mostly inducing sleep paralysis.
Rusalka[]
In Slavic mythology 'Rusalka' was a female ghost, water nymph or succubus-like demon who lived in a lake. Her eyes shone like a green fire. Men who were seduced by her died in her arms, and in some version her laugh can also cause death. She corresponds to the Scandinavian and German Nixie. The ghostly version of the succubus is the soul of a young woman who died in or near a lake (many of these rusalki were murdered by their lovers), and came to haunt that lake; this undead rusalka is not particularly malevolent, and will be allowed to die in peace if her death is avenged.
Allu[]
Allu are the offspring of Succubi. In Akkadian mythology they were a race of monstrous and faceless demons that destroyed all that they could capture. They were engendered during a men sleep with Lilitu or one of her demon servants. Went the man who engendered them was about to die, they surrounded his bed waiting for the moment during which they could take their father's soul, impeding his travel to the Underworld, and making of him an errant spirit, feared by all living people.
Belili[]
'Belili' was first a Sumerian minor goddess called Gesht-inanna, sister of Dumuzi, and wife of Nin-gishzida (the door keeper of An). She was later included in the Babylonian pantheon with the name of Belili or Belit-ili (also spelled Belet-ili), acquiring in some time a much higher status as the wife of Bel (the Assyrian and Babylonian equivalent to Baal). The Canaanites called her Baalat or Baalit, the wife and female counterpart of Baal. As the wife of Bel she can be associated with Ishtar for Assyrians and Babylonians, with Astarte for Semites, and with Asherah for Philistines; in this sense Belili can also be associated with sacred prostitution and human sacrifice (of children, by fire). Some authors, however, relate her with Lilith, who is commonly associated with the demon Asmodai and considered a female demon with the function of acting as a succubus. Other authors say that she could have been a fertility goddess (this connects her again with Ishtar, Astarte and Asherah), and some Neopagans consider Belili a mother goddess.
Lamia[]
A related concept [to the succubus] is the Lamia from old English legends. The lamia was said to appear in graveyards as a beautiful woman who draws young men to their deaths. She would lie in wait for a naïve victim, looking as if she needs his assistance in some way. legend has it that, if you see such a woman in a graveyard who appears to need help, you are supposed to call out to her, for the Lamia cannot answer back, since she has a snakes tongue and can only hiss.
Other interpretations of Lamia revolve around her being the mother of two of Zeus's children, to which upon Hera finding out cursed the woman into a snake-like being similar to Medusa. To add insult to injury, Hera then killed her two children, and cursed to woman to walk the Earth searching for her deceased children and/or eating the children of others'. In other tellings, Zeus hid her within a cave where, again similarly to Medusa, was given permission to kill anyone that dared enter into the area.
Some interpretations also say that Lamia is not one single entity, but a group of creatures all of their own, known as, "Lamiae," plural of, "Lamia."
Qarinah[]
In Arabian folklore and Islam, the qarinah is a female demonic being and type of Succubus which may be or may not be a genie.