# Cambion
A cambion is, in European folklore and demonology, the half-demon offspring of a human and a demon, classically an incubus (a male demon) with a female human, or a succubus (a female demon) with a male human.[1](https://wiki.rus.family/content/wiktionary_en_all_nopic_2025-07/cambion) The term appears in medieval and early modern demonological literature, and it is occasionally used as a cognate for changeling, the supernatural child left in place of a stolen human infant.[2](https://arcana.wikidot.com/cambion) • [3](https://www.aetherealstories.online/Archive/Lore/Demons/Cambion_lore.php)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Definition | The half-demon offspring of an incubus with a female human or a succubus with a male human[1](https://wiki.rus.family/content/wiktionary_en_all_nopic_2025-07/cambion) |
| Etymology | From Late Latin *cambio* ("I exchange"), a doublet of the English word *change*[1](https://wiki.rus.family/content/wiktionary_en_all_nopic_2025-07/cambion) |
| Principal sources | Jean Bodin's *De la Démonomanie des Sorciers* (1580) and Pierre de Lancre's witchcraft writings[4](https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cambions) • [3](https://www.aetherealstories.online/Archive/Lore/Demons/Cambion_lore.php) |
| Attributed traits | Abnormally heavy children who devour without gaining weight and exhaust three nurses without thriving[5](https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionnaire_infernal/6e_%C3%A9d.%2C_1863/Cambions) |
| Dormancy lore | Martin Luther's *Colloquies* state that cambions lived only seven years[4](https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cambions) |
| Contrast term | The nephilim of Judeo-Christian tradition, a hybrid of human and angel rather than human and demon[6](https://fs.unm.edu/NSS/NeutrosophyTranscendsBinary4.pdf) |
## Etymology
The English word derives from [Late Latin](https://www.edgepedia.org/late-latin) *cambio*, "I exchange", and is a doublet (a parallel borrowing) of the common word *change*.[1](https://wiki.rus.family/content/wiktionary_en_all_nopic_2025-07/cambion) The exchange root matches one strand of the lore: in early modern demonological literature the word served for the supernatural child a demon left in place of a stolen human infant, making the cambion close to the changeling of fairy belief.[3](https://www.aetherealstories.online/Archive/Lore/Demons/Cambion_lore.php) • [2](https://arcana.wikidot.com/cambion) A separate, less widely accepted derivation traces the word to Late Latin *cambuca*, a vessel used by Roman soldiers.[6](https://fs.unm.edu/NSS/NeutrosophyTranscendsBinary4.pdf)
The word has an unrelated ancient namesake. In Gaulish, *cambion* is an adjective meaning "bent, crooked" or a neuter noun meaning "deformation" or "change", derived from Proto-Celtic *kambos; its main attestation is in the phrase *reguccambion* on the Chamalières tablet, and it passed into Latin as *cambium*.[1](https://wiki.rus.family/content/wiktionary_en_all_nopic_2025-07/cambion)
## Conception lore
Demonologists disagreed about the mechanics. The most straightforward account has a succubus or incubus union with a mortal produce an apparently normal pregnancy.[2](https://arcana.wikidot.com/cambion) Many authorities, however, denied that demons could generate life in their own right, since demons were understood as bodiless spirits. Their solution was a two-stage scheme: the succubus gathers semen from a sleeping man, then transforms into an incubus and uses that semen to father a child with a woman, presumably introducing some metaphysical corruption along the way.[2](https://arcana.wikidot.com/cambion) The framework rests on the broader demonology of the period, which from St Augustine (354–430) onward held that interactions between demons and humans rested on a contract, explicit or implicit, and shaped the witchcraft treatises of the sixteenth century.[7](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-history-of-christianity/demonology-15001660/1C9CAEA1E975FA528959F3A88D500438)
## Attributed characteristics
The demonologists [Jean Bodin](https://www.edgepedia.org/jean-bodin) and Pierre de Lancre treated cambions as the offspring of incubi and succubi, and described them as markedly heavier than ordinary children: they swallowed everything without growing fat and would drain three wet nurses without thriving.[5](https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionnaire_infernal/6e_%C3%A9d.%2C_1863/Cambions) • [4](https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cambions) Luther, described in the *Dictionnaire infernal* as very superstitious, reported in his *Colloquies* that such children lived only seven years, and said he had seen one that cried whenever it was touched and laughed only when something sinister happened in the house.[5](https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionnaire_infernal/6e_%C3%A9d.%2C_1863/Cambions)
A frequently repeated anecdote comes from Henri Boguet's *Discours des Sorciers* (1608). A Galician beggar made a living arousing public pity by carrying about a cambion; when a horseman took the "child" onto his horse to help him cross a river, the animal sank under its weight. The beggar, once arrested, admitted the child was a little demon he had trained so carefully that no one refused him alms while he carried it.[4](https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cambions) • [5](https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionnaire_infernal/6e_%C3%A9d.%2C_1863/Cambions)
## Related figures and later use
The cambion sits between two neighboring hybrid categories. In European folklore it is the offspring of a demon and a human, often credited with some of the demonic parent's powers, such as shapeshifting, telepathy, or dark magic, while looking human.[6](https://fs.unm.edu/NSS/NeutrosophyTranscendsBinary4.pdf) The nephilim of [Judeo-Christian](https://www.edgepedia.org/judeo-christian) mythology are instead the offspring of angels and humans, described in texts such as Genesis as giants or mighty warriors.[6](https://fs.unm.edu/NSS/NeutrosophyTranscendsBinary4.pdf) The changeling overlaps the cambion from the other direction, since both concern an exchanged or substituted infant, and the two traditions have been read as connected.[2](https://arcana.wikidot.com/cambion)
The parent demons themselves carry sexual and sleep-related etymologies: *incubus* acquired its sexual sense through proximity to Latin *concumbere*, "to sleep (with)", while *succubus* means "to lie under". Both figures were interpreted in sleep-paralysis folklore as demons that abuse sleepers, and Christianity was the tradition that first negatively associated nightmares with erotic dreams.[8](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5013036/)
In literature, the label has been applied retrospectively to famous hybrid figures. Shakespeare's Caliban, whose monstrous and unnatural origins are described in *The Tempest* without explicit parentage, is another figure compared with the type in modern discussions.[6](https://fs.unm.edu/NSS/NeutrosophyTranscendsBinary4.pdf) The word also lives on in fantasy gaming, where a cambion is defined as the offspring of a fiend, usually a succubus or incubus, and a humanoid.[9](https://d1vzi28wh99zvq.cloudfront.net/pdf_previews/427563-sample.pdf)
## References
1. [cambion, Wiktionary entry](https://wiki.rus.family/content/wiktionary_en_all_nopic_2025-07/cambion)
2. [Cambion, The Arcana Wiki](https://arcana.wikidot.com/cambion)
3. [Cambion | Lore, The Archive, Aethereal Stories](https://www.aetherealstories.online/Archive/Lore/Demons/Cambion_lore.php)
4. [Cambions, Encyclopedia.com (Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology)](https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cambions)
5. [Cambions, Dictionnaire infernal, 6th ed. (1863), Jacques Collin de Plancy, Wikisource](https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionnaire_infernal/6e_%C3%A9d.%2C_1863/Cambions)
6. [Neutrosophic Sets and Systems, Vol. 65, 2024, pp. 63ff](https://fs.unm.edu/NSS/NeutrosophyTranscendsBinary4.pdf)
7. [Wolfgang Behringer, "Demonology, 1500–1660," The Cambridge History of Christianity, pp. 406–424](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-history-of-christianity/demonology-15001660/1C9CAEA1E975FA528959F3A88D500438)
8. [Sleep Paralysis in Brazilian Folklore and Other Cultures: A Brief Review, PMC](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5013036/)
9. [Monster manual sample pages defining the cambion as offspring of a fiend and a humanoid](https://d1vzi28wh99zvq.cloudfront.net/pdf_previews/427563-sample.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Philosophy, religion, and mythology › Mythology and folklore › Legendary creatures and beings › Demons and grimoires*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 19, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 19, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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