Some of these demons had stories thousands of years ago, and stories of other demons in the Middle Ages or just a century ago were read, as they are now in the novels of Stephen King.
Lilith
Lilith is one of the most famous and ancient female supernatural beings in the world. Its mention can be found even in the epic of Gilgamesh. She is described in the Babylonian Talmud as a dark spirit with uncontrollable and dangerous sexual energy.
There are stories that tell of how she impregnated herself and thus created hundreds of lower-order demons.
In the Jewish tradition, Lilith is also a demon, but in the Christian apocrypha she unexpectedly appears in a completely different hypostasis, namely as the first woman on Earth. God created Lilith in the same way as Adam, but instead of pure dust, he used dirt and sediment. But even in Christianity, Lilith, after parting with Adam, turns into an evil demon eating babies.
Lilith was known in the culture of the Hittites, Egyptians, Greeks, Israelites and Romans, and in later times, legends about her began to be made up in northern Europe. There, Lilith represented chaos and unbridled sexuality, and was also associated with the origin of the first vampires.
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Japanese snow demon
The legend of Yuki-onna ("Snow Woman") comes from very old Japanese legends about youkai - supernatural monsters, spirits and demons.
Yuki-onna lives in snow-capped mountains and valleys, and looks almost transparent and snow-white, although he has long black hair. She is incredibly beautiful and graceful and in general she is something like the Snow Queen. And she is also quite brutal, feeding on human energy and hunting down lost travelers.
When Yuki-onna attacks a person, he kisses him and sucks energy through his mouth, and after that the person falls dead, hard and cold as a piece of ice.
Yuki-onna can disguise herself and live among people, but she can be identified by her snow-white skin, which never grows old. She can even marry a man and live with him like an ordinary woman.
Jack the Jumper
This is the “newest” demon on our list, as it revealed itself to the world during the Victorian era (19th century). It is difficult to say who this creature was in reality, but some of its features indicated precisely the supernatural demonic nature.
His appearance was such that it was even difficult to tell whether it was an animal or a human. He had two legs and walked like a man, but he had sharp claws on his hands, and his eyes glowed red when he was about to attack.
It first appeared in London in 1837, and then appeared in other British cities throughout the 19th century. It was impossible to catch up with him, since he moved with incredible speed, and also made such high and long jumps that at first people were sure that he had some kind of mechanism on springs on his feet.
His ears were pointed, and his face was described as disgusting and devilish. Descriptions of clothing vary. Sometimes he was dressed in a regular suit, a raincoat and even with a hat on his head. Sometimes in something form-fitting. Sometimes they saw clouds of smoke coming out of his mouth.
Jack not only jumped on roofs and ran through the streets, he often frightened passers-by, especially unexpectedly appeared in front of them, and sometimes attacked people and scratched them with his sharp claws. He did not kill anyone, but several people were seriously injured.
He struck such terror on the British that after him they were more afraid only of Jack the Ripper.
Jersey devil
The story of the Jersey Devil is one of the most intricate zoological mysteries. For hundreds of years, the population of New Jersey has told stories of a flying two-legged creature with a terrible human face, huge bat-like wings, a forked tail, and long, skinny legs that end in hooves.
Its head is horse, its body is covered with scales, and it can also emit loud and disgusting screams. In different parts of the state, this creature was given different nicknames - "kungur-horse", "flying death", "flying horse" and so on.
The most massive panic due to the Jersey devil occurred from January 16 to 23, 1909, when thousands of people personally saw this creature and all schools and even factories were closed due to fear of him.
A strange monster in these places was seen by the Indians and the local peat bogs were called by the word "Popuessing", which meant "dragon land". And the first Dutch settlers called them "dragon stream".
According to a later legend, a witch once lived in these places, who had 12 children and when the 13th child was born, she said in her hearts "let the devil take him." And the baby immediately turned into a winged ugly monster that ate its 12 brothers and sisters, and then flew away.
Krampus
Krampus is known only in countries such as Austria, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia and the Czech Republic. His name comes from the old German word "krampen" which means claw. Krampus has a vicious and scary face with bulging eyes and a black body covered in fur. It has large horns on its head, and its body is half that of a goat.
Krampus is the son of the Scandinavian goddess Hel, ruler of Helheim (the Kingdom of the Dead), but after the spread of the tradition of celebrating Christmas in Europe, he became associated with this holiday. He followed Saint Nicholas, giving gifts to good children and punishing children who misbehaved with rods. And especially the bad children he put in a big bag and took them to his lair, where he ate them.
After the 12th century, the church began to oppose the Krampus tradition and was forgotten for several centuries. However, this tradition has been revived since the 19th century.
Incubi and succubi
Incubi and succubi under different names are known in many cultures and, above all, they are demons who feed not on ordinary human energy, but on sexual energy. They always come at night and can engage in violence, or they can seduce the victim into voluntary sex with them.
Incubi are demons in the guise of men, whose victims are women, and succubi are demons who seduce men. Both of them can have a very attractive appearance, but they can also be ugly, but at the same time they are no less attractive as partners.
Succubi, attacking men, can suck out of them not only vital energy, but blood, sperm and breathing energy. Because of this, their victims often die.
Baphomet
The earliest mention of this demon can be attributed to 1098, when he was mentioned in a letter to a French participant in the Crusades. The letter described that Muslims in the Holy Land had called on Baphomet to defeat the crusaders.
In the Middle Ages, Baphomet was definitely female and was considered a cursed demoness who became the wife of Satan. Later he became androgynous (bisexual), and nowadays he is almost always portrayed as a man.
Baphomet also acquired its main appearance in the form of a half-man-half-goat quite late, in the middle of the 19th century. Before that, he could appear both in the form of a three-headed cat and as the severed head of John the Baptist. And he became associated with Satanism only after the revelations of the famous occultist Aleister Crowley.
The sign of Baphomet is a five-pointed star with three tops pointing downwards (an inverted pentagram) with a goat's head inscribed in it. The sign of Baphomet is the official symbol of the Church of Satan.
In 2014, members of the Temple of Satan erected a statue of Baphomet in Detroit.