European Vampires

Well here is the first of my blog posts that go along with Around the World and Across time. This blog post is pretty much a blog version of the script for the actual episode itself.

Mesopotamia

In Mesopotamia a demon named Lilith became known for drinking the blood of babies. In Hebrew myths she was known for drinking the blood of infants, women, and rarely men. Families used to hang amulets from their children’s cradles in order to protect the child from Lilith. Some of you might recognize Lilith as the name of Adam’s first wife in some beliefs. Lilith was described as having the form of a beautiful woman. Another similar creature was known as Lamashtu, a Babylonian goddess who menaced women during childbirth and would feed off the bones and blood of breastfeeding infants. Lamashtu was described as having a lioness head with donkey’s ears and teeth, long fingernails, and the feet of a bird.

Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece had its fair share of vampiric creatures in its myths as well. Empusa first appeared in Greek myth as the daughter of the goddess Hecate. She would seduce men in their sleep and then drain them of blood. In later myths, Empusa (plural empuses) became the guardians of roads. Empusa was distinguished by her brazen slippers and flaming hair.

Lamia was a another creature from Greek Mythology that became known for eating and drinking the blood of children due to the goddess Hera killing Lamia’s children. It is said that Lamia was driven insane by what Hera did to her children and that is what led to Lamia attacking children. Lamia was easily recognizable by a snakeskin wrapped around her waist or arm. Several people compare the legend of Lamia to the legend of La Llrona from Mexico.

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome only had one vampiric creature known as Strix that resembled an owl. The only way that someone could become a Strix was if they angered the Roman Gods. A Strix was viewed as a bad omen because it would feed off human flesh and blood.

Middle Ages

It wasn’t until the 18th century that the word vampire was actually used to describe a creature that lived off of blood. The word vampire first appeared in the English Oxford Dictionary in 1734.

Slavic Beliefs

You could become a Slavic vampire was caused by being an immoral person, being a magician, dying an unnatural death, committing suicide, excommunication, being buried improperly, an animal or bird going over an empty grave, being born with the amniotic sac attached to the head, or being conceived on a certain day. Don’t you love how easy it would be to become a vampire in Slavic lore? However, it was relatively easy to kill them as well. All it usually took was a stake through the heart, burning the vampire while it was awake, or performing the rites of exorcism during the day at the grave. A common name for vampires in Slavic lore was pijavica which translates into drinker, and the word Mora or Morana was used to refer to female vampires.

Interesting fact, the word vampire is derived from the Slavic word vampir.

Hungary

In Hungary vampires were known as izcacus which literally translates to blood drinker. It was said that the izcacus was a demon summoned to defeat the enemies of pagans.

Romania

There were two types of vampires in Romania, the moroi and the strigoi. The moroi were the phantoms of a dead person that rose from the grave in order to draw energy from the living. Strigoi had the ability to turn into different animals, turn invisible, and to drain their victims of blood. Oddly enough the most common way to become a strigoi was to die before getting married. The easiest way to kill a strigoi was to drive a stake made from rosebush or aspen wood through its heart, cutting out the heart and burning it and the body of the vampire, or decapitating the vampire and burning the head and body.

Roma and Gypsy Beliefs

In Roma, the mullo (which translates into one who is dead) was a dead person that would attack the relative that caused the mullo’s death, who didn’t properly oversee the burial rituals, or who kept the deceased’s possessions instead of burning the possessions as tradition mandated.

Greece in the Middle Ages

Once again we look at Greece for yet another vampire, the vrykolakas. The vrykolakas was created when the deceased was excommunicated; the deceased desecrating a holy day; the deceased committed a serious crime; the deceased died alone, a cat jumped across the grave of the deceased (those dastardly cats), or the deceased ate meat from a sheep that was killed by a wolf, or the deceased had been cursed. There were several ways to kill a vrykolakas including but not limited to exorcising, impaling, beheading, cutting the corpse to pieces, or cremating the corpse.


Western Europe

Four types of vampires can be found in Western Europe. The baobhan sith from Scottish mythology has the form of a beautiful woman wearing a green dress. It is said that once a year she rises from her grave to seduce young men to dance with her, and once they were in her grasp she would use her sharp fingernails to drain her victim of his blood. In Celtic folklore the leanan sídhe was a fairy muse that had some vampiric traits, she is often connected to the Dearg-due an Irish vampire that is thought to have been the inspiration for Bram Stocker’s Dracula. The final European vampire I found was the Bruxsa of Portugal, which was another female vampire that would take the form of a bird during the night and attack travelers for their blood. Don’t you just love how many of these vampires are female?


Sources:

The Vampire Book by J. Gordon Melton
And several other sources which I found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_vampires_in_folklore_and_mythology



Feel free to post a comment here or to message me at meghanjh@hotmail.com with your questions.