The Succubus, Part 1: Lilith, Night Demons, and the Monster in the Dark | Ep 33
The succubus has been turned into a Halloween costume, a video game boss, and a punchline — but the original version? She's older than vampires, older than werewolves, older than the word demon itself. Tonight, the Night Crew launches a brand-new series on the world's oldest night-predator, and we start where every good monster story starts: at the very beginning.
In Episode 1 of the Succubi series, Brad Ricks traces the figure of Lilith from her ancient Mesopotamian roots — the Lilitu, those wind-spirit demons carved into clay tablets four thousand years ago — through her transformation into the most famous demoness in Western folklore. We dig into the Alphabet of Ben Sira, the medieval text that gave us Lilith as Adam's defiant first wife. We meet her demon-daughters, the Lilim, and unpack the unsettling logic behind why ancient cultures believed they visited men in their sleep. And we ask the bigger question: why did Lilith survive? Why is she still recognizable today, when so many other ancient demons are forgotten?
This is a deep dive into the origins, the lore, the protective amulets that are still in use today, and the reasons folklore scholars consider Lilith the proto-succubus from which an entire global mythology eventually grew. Part 1 of 4.
Topics covered: the Mesopotamian Lilitu • the Burney Relief and the Queen of the Night • Lilith as Adam's first wife • the Alphabet of Ben Sira • the three angels Senoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof • protective amulets for newborns • the Lilim (Lilith's demon-daughters) • the four queens of demons in Kabbalistic tradition • why some traditions say Lilith hunts men who sleep face-up • the universal human fear of vulnerability during sleep.
Get signed copies of Brad's novels and merch at https://www.bradricks.com. Night Crew 3: Hunting Ground is coming. Follow Brad on Facebook or join his Facebook Group: Brad Ricks’s Book Crypt
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