Incubus

The Incubus is a demonic figure from medieval demonology, referenced in Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose as a symbol of the carnal temptation that haunts the monks of the abbey. It appears in the novel's descriptions of the monstrous sculptures on the abbey church's portal, in the context of Berengar of Arundel's illicit passions, and in the temptations faced by the monks, embodying the dangerous intersection of spiritual longing and physical desire that pervades the abbey's atmosphere of sin and secrecy. The incubus serves as a recurring motif for the noonday devil, the demon of lust and spiritual sloth that the Rule of Saint Benedict warns against, and its presence in the narrative underscores the tension between ascetic ideals and human frailty that drives much of the plot's psychological and moral conflict.

The Incubus in the Abbey's Iconography

The incubus first appears in the novel as part of the terrifying bestiary carved into the portal of the abbey church. When Adso of Melk first arrives at the abbey, he is overwhelmed by the sculptures that depict a world of monsters and damned souls. Among the "incubi" and other creatures of Satan's bestiary, the incubus is listed as one of the many "animals of Satan's bestiary, assembled in a consistory and set as guard and crown of the throne that faced them, singing its glory in their defeat" . This placement of the incubus among the defeated monsters of Armageddon establishes it as a symbol of the evil that the church has supposedly conquered, yet its presence on the church's very threshold suggests that temptation is never fully banished. The portal itself is described as a "dark forest, desperate wasteland of exclusion" that serves as a vestibule to the vision of the Seated One in the tympanum, and the incubus is part of this "population of the nether world" that threatens the faithful .

The Incubus as the Noonday Devil

The incubus is also closely associated with the "noonday devil," a demon of acedia and lust that medieval monks believed attacked them during the heat of the day. Adso reflects on this temptation when he considers the illicit passions that plague the monastery. He notes that "the monkish vows keep us far from that sink of vice that is the female body, but often they bring us close to other errors" and admits that "even today my old age is still stirred by the noonday demon when my eyes, in choir, happen to linger on the beardless face of a novice, pure and fresh as a maiden's" . This confession directly links the incubus—the demon of lust—to the repressed desires that fester within the cloister. The noonday demon is not merely a figure of folklore but a real psychological threat for the monks, who must constantly guard against the "snares of those enslaved by" such passions .

The Incubus and Berengar's Transgressions

The incubus motif is most explicitly tied to Berengar of Arundel, the assistant librarian whose "insane passion" for Adelmo of Otranto is described as a form of demonic possession. Benno of Uppsala tells William and Adso that "Berengar was consumed, as many of the monks now knew, by an insane passion for Adelmo, the same passion whose evils divine wrath had castigated in Sodom and Gomorrah" . This passion is framed as a violation of nature, and Berengar's pursuit of Adelmo is described as a form of extortion, using the promise of forbidden knowledge to obtain sexual favors. The narrative suggests that Berengar's lust is a manifestation of the incubus's influence, a demonic force that drives him to corrupt others and ultimately leads to his own destruction. Ubertino of Casale, in his conversation with William, explicitly links the "feminine, and therefore diabolical" qualities of the dead Adelmo to the presence of an incubus, saying that Adelmo "had the eyes of a maiden seeking commerce with an incubus" . This direct association between the incubus and the illicit desires that plague the abbey reinforces the novel's theme of the dangerous proximity of the sacred and the profane.

The Incubus and the Temptation of the Simple

The incubus also appears in the context of the temptations faced by the "simple" people of the abbey, particularly the lay brothers and servants. Salvatore, the grotesque and multilingual monk, is described as a creature who "speaks all languages, and no language" and whose speech is "like his face, put together with pieces from other people's faces" . His very appearance, with his "round eyes, with tiny mobile pupils" and his "wide and ill-made" mouth, suggests a being that is not fully human, a hybrid creature that could be mistaken for an incubus . Salvatore's superstitious beliefs, such as his plan to use a black cat and eggs to perform a love spell, reflect a folkloric understanding of the incubus as a demon that can be summoned and controlled. His attempt to procure a woman for the cellarer, Remigio of Varagine, and his subsequent capture by Bernard Gui, demonstrate how the incubus's influence extends beyond the learned monks to the uneducated servants, who are equally vulnerable to the temptations of the flesh.

The Incubus and the Theme of Forbidden Knowledge

Finally, the incubus is linked to the novel's central theme of forbidden knowledge. The library, with its labyrinthine structure and its hidden treasures, is a place of both spiritual enlightenment and demonic temptation. The monks who seek to uncover its secrets are often driven by a lust for knowledge that mirrors the lust of the flesh. Berengar's willingness to trade sexual favors for access to the library's secrets, and Adelmo's subsequent suicide after being corrupted by that knowledge, suggest that the pursuit of forbidden wisdom is itself a form of demonic possession. The incubus, as a demon of both lust and intellectual pride, embodies this dangerous fusion of desire and knowledge. The novel's climax, in which Jorge of Burgos destroys the second book of Aristotle's Poetics—a book that would have justified laughter and questioned the absolute authority of the church—can be seen as a final victory of the incubus's spirit of grim, joyless orthodoxy over the liberating power of doubt and humor. The incubus, in this reading, is not just a demon of the flesh but a demon of the mind, a force that seeks to imprison humanity in a prison of fear and dogma.