[lit-ideas] Re: Geary on Incubi and Succubi
- From: Ursula Stange <Ursula@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 01 Jun 2004 17:47:20 -0400
surely the source of "The devil made me do it."
...and then there's Lilith.
Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx wrote:
>In "My Memphis Memories -- & Other Animals" -- vol. 3, New Series, Seattle,
>WA -- Geary writes:
>
>
>>I recall I was in the seminary studying to
>>be a priest and would pray -- sometimes in
>>Latin, sometimes not -- all day, every day
>>for a wet dream -- the only 'sex' [sic with scare
>>quotes, sic] we were allowed, now doncha know.
>>
>>
>R. Paul says that the passage on chess in PI (by Wittgenstein) is _not_
>about tropes -- and that 'This is a king' is LITERAL. I wonder what trope it
>is,
>though, that constitutes Geary's phrase, 'wet dream'. Surely a dream itself
>is not wet -- or dry for that matter -- nor the dreaming. Is this paronymy or
>_what_? (cf. Henley, The Wet Dreamers, 'We are the wet dreamers, although').
>Anyway, the mediaevals in the list may _not_ be interested to know that
>Geary is here making reference to the well-developed theory (in Aquinas, after
>
>St. Augustine, etc) of the incubus and the sucubus. More in the ps.
>Cheers,
>JL
>---
>>From the OED
>INCUBUS
>Llate L. incubus (Augustine) = cl. L. incubo. Reresented as a malignant
>demon who lay upon men and women; f. L. <NOBRre to lie upon. Cf. F. incube
>(14th
>c. in Hatz.-Darm.).]
>A feigned evil spirit or demon (originating in personified representations
>of the nightmare) supposed to descend upon persons in their sleep, and
>especially to seek carnal intercourse [with women]. In the Middle Ages, their
>existence was recognized by the ecclesiastical and civil law.
>1205 LAY. 15783
>Heo Heo ihaten ful iwis incubii demones..monine mon on sweuene ofte heo
>ihaten.
>1330 R. BRUNNE Chron. Wace (Rolls) 8088
>ise spyrites do women schame; Incuby demones ys cald er name, ffendes in
>bedde..at many woman han forlayn.
>1386 CHAUCER Wife's T. 24
>Wommen may go saufly vp and doun..Ther is noon oother Incubus but he And he
>ne wol doon hem but dishonour.
>1387 TREVISA Higden (Rolls) I. 419
>That fend at <N a at, Wommen wel ofte to begile, Incubus hatte be , t.
>1535 STEWART Cron. Scot. II. 221
>Marling also wes in tha samin dais Into Britane..Ane incobus with subtill
>sorcerie.
>1584 R. SCOT Discov. Witchcr. II. ix. (1886) 26
>They [witches] use venerie with a divell called Incubus.
>1624 MASSINGER Parl. Love II. ii,
>I'll sooner clasp an incubus, or hug A fork-tongued adder.
>1671 MILTON P.R. II. 152
>Belial, the dissolutest spirit that fell, The sensualest, and, after
>Asmodai, The fleshliest incubus.
>1801 W. TAYLOR in Monthly Mag. XII. 421
>Angels, Incubusses, Saints jostle in his song.
>1865 TYLOR Early Hist. Man. i. 7
>The evil demons who trouble people in their sleep, the Incubi and Succubi.
>
>
>SUCCUBUS
>Med.L., masc. form (with fem. meaning) corresp. to _SUCCUBA_
>(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/cgi/crossref?query_type=word&queryword=succubu
>s&edition=2e&first=1&max_to_show=10&single=1&sort_type=alpha&xrefed=OED&xrefwo
>rd=succuba) , after _INCUBUS_
>(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/cgi/crossref?query_type=word&queryword=succubus&edition=2e&first=1&max_to_sho
>w=10&single=1&sort_type=alpha&xrefed=OED&xrefword=incubus) .]
>A demon in female form supposed to have carnal intercourse with men in their
>sleep. (Cf. _INCUBUS_
>(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/cgi/crossref?query_type=word&queryword=succubus&edition=2e&first=1&max_to_show=10&sin
>gle=1&sort_type=alpha&xrefed=OED&xrefword=incubus) .)
>
>1387 TREVISA Higden (Rolls) I. 419
>That fend at <N a at, Wommen wel ofte to begile, Incubus hatte be , t; And
> And men er while, Succubus is at wight.
>1547 BOORDE Brev. Health cxix. (1870) 78
>Incubus doth infeste and trouble women, and Succubus doth infest men.
>1584 R. SCOT Discov. Witchcr. III. xix. (1886) 56
>The divell plaieth Succubus to the man and carrieth from him the seed of
>generation, which he delivereth as Incubus to the woman.
>1644 Merc. Brit. No. 23. 178,
>I think Incubusses and Sucubusses are Angells of light to these.
>1647 COWLEY Mistr., Not Fair 14
>So men (they say) by Hells delusions led, Have ta'ne a Succu'bus to their
>bed.
>1691 R. KIRK Secret Commw. i. (1815) 13
>For the Inconvenience of their Succubi, who tryst with Men, it is
>abhominable.
>1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XVIII. 52/2
>The truth is, the succubus is only a species of the nightmare.
>1818 C. K. SHARPE Law's Memorialls Pref. p. xx,
>For forty years, he [sc. Benedict of Berne] had kept up an amatory commerce
>with a Succubus, called Hermeline.
>1950 A. CLARKE Coll. Plays (1963) 315
>Branduv is sleeping with a succubus.
>1958 L. DURRELL Balthazar vii. 167
>Thirst can be quenched like this, by inviting a succubus to one's bed.
>1969 J. UPTON tr. R. Diaz Sánchez's Cumboto 261
>The dream reoccurred many times, it was the work of a clever succubus who
>came to my cot regularly to conduct her oneiric concert.
>1977 A. CARTER Passion of New Eve ii. 27,
>I would..remember the myth of the succubus, the devils in female form who
>come by night to seduce the saints.
>
>
>
>
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