Author Topic: Early Vampires  (Read 114 times)

JTSimon

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Early Vampires
« on: December 12, 2003, 10:39:16 PM »
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Early Vampires
Nobody knows when people came up with the first vampiric figures, but the legends date back at least 4,000 years, to the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians of Mesopotamia. Mesopotamians feared Lamastu (also spelled Lamashtu), a vicious demon goddess who preyed on humans. In Assyrian legend, Lamastu, the daughter of sky god Anu, would creep into a house at night and steal or kill babies, either in their cribs or in the womb. Believers attributed sudden infant death syndrome and miscarriage to this figure. Lamastu, which translates to "she who erases," would also prey on adults, sucking blood from young mean, and bringing disease, sterility and nightmares. She is often depicted with wings and birdlike talons, and sometimes with the head of a lion. To protect themselves from Lamastu, pregnant women would wear amulets depicting Pazuzu, another evil god who once defeated the demoness.


Lamastu and Lilith are often depicted with wings and sharp talons.

Lamastu is closely associated with Lilith, a prominent figure in some Jewish texts. Accounts of Lilith vary considerably, but in the most notable versions of the story, she was the original woman. God created both Adam and Lilith from the Earth, but there was soon trouble between them. Lilith refused to take a subservient position to Adam, since she came from the same place he did. Interesting

In one ancient version of the legend, Lilith left Eden and began birthing her own children. God sent three angels to bring her back, and when she refused, they promised they would kill 100 of her children everyday until she returned. Lilith in turn vowed to destroy human children.
Accounts of Lilith as a child-killer seem to be taken directly from the Lamastu legend. She is often described as a winged demoness with sharp talons, who came in the night, primarily to steal away infants and fetuses. Most likely, the Jews assimilated the figure of Lamastu into their tradition, but it's also possible that both myths were inspired by a third figure.
While she is often depicted as a terrifying creature, Lilith also had seductive qualities. The ancient Jews believed she would come to men at night as a succubus.
The ancient Greeks feared similar creatures, notably Lamia, a demoness with the head and torso of a woman and the lower body of a snake. In one version of the legend, Lamia was one of Zeus' mortal lovers. Filled with anger and jealousy, Zeus' wife, the goddess Hera, made Lamia insane so she would eat all her children. Once Lamia realized what she had done, she became so angry that she turned into an immortal monster, sucking the blood from young children out of jealousy for their mothers.


Like Lilith and Lamastu, Lamia is depicted as half-woman, half-animal. She has the torso of a woman and the lower body of a snake.

The Greeks also feared the empusai, the malicious daughters of Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft. The empusai, who could change form, came up from Hades (the underworld) at night as beautiful women. They would seduce shepherds in the field, and then devour them. A similar creature, the baobhan sith, shows up in Celtic folklore.
Vampire-like figures also have a long history in the mythology of Asia. Indian folklore describes a number of nightmarish characters, including rakshasa, gargoyle-like shape-shifters who preyed on children and vetala, demons who would take possession of recently-dead bodies to wreak havoc on the living. In Chinese folklore, corpses could sometimes rise from the grave and walk again. These k'uei were created when a person's p'o (lower spirit) did not pass onto the afterlife at death, usually because of bad deeds during life. The p'o, angered by its horrible fate, would reanimate the body and attack the living at night. One particularly vicious sort of k'uei, known as the Kuang-shi (or Chiang-shi), could fly and take different forms. The Kuang-shi was covered in white fur, had glowing red eyes and bit into its prey with sharp fangs.
Nomadic tribes and travelling traders spread different vampire legends throughout Asia, Europe and the Middle East. As these stories travelled, their various elements combined to form new vampire myths. In the past 1,000 years, vampire legends have been especially pervasive of eastern-European contributions. In the next section, we'll look at these creatures, the direct predecessors of the modern vampire.

The Dracula legend, and the modern vampire legend that came out of it, was directly inspired by the folklore of eastern Europe. History records dozens of mythical vampire figures in this region, going back hundreds of years. These vampires all have their particular habits and characteristics, but most fall into one of two general categories: Demons (or agents of the devil) that reanimated corpses so they could walk among the living
Spirits of dead people that would not leave their own body

The most notable demon vampires were the Russian upir and the Greek vrykolakas. In these traditions, sinners, un-baptized babies and other people outside the Christian faith were more likely to be reanimated after death. Those who practiced witchcraft were particularly susceptible because they had already given their soul to the devil in life. Once the undead corpses rose from the grave, they would terrorize the community, feeding on the living. By many accounts, these undead corpses were required to return to their grave regularly to rest. When townspeople believed that someone had become a vampire, they would exhume the corpse and try to get rid of the evil spirit. They might try an exorcism ritual, but more often they would destroy the body. This might entail cremation, decapitation or driving a wooden stake through the heart. Bodies might also be buried face-down, so the undead corpses would dig deeper into the earth, rather than up into shallower ground. Some families secured stakes above the corpse so it would impale itself if it tried to escape.
The vampires in Moldavia, Wallachia and Transylvania (now Romania) were commonly called strigoi (the singular form is strigo). Strigoi were almost exclusively human spirits who had returned from the dead. Unlike the upir or vrykolakas, the strigoi would pass through different stages after rising from the grave. Initially, a strigo might be an invisible poltergeist, tormenting its living family members by moving furniture and stealing food. After some time, it would become visible, looking just as the person did in life. Again, the strigo would return to its family, stealing cattle, begging for food and bringing disease. Strigoi would feed on humans, first their family members and then anyone else they happened to come across. In some accounts, the strigoi would suck their victims' blood directly from the heart.

The Count Counts!
In eastern-European folklore, you could ward off a vampire by scattering seeds on the ground, either on top of the vampire's grave or outside your house. Vampires were said to be obsessive creatures, and they were compelled to count all the seeds. If you hid a nail in the seeds, it would prick the vampire midway through the count. The vampire would then drop the seeds and have to start all over again.



The strigo of eastern Europe: Strigoi, reanimated corpses that prey on the living, inspired much of the modern vampire legend.

Initially, a strigo needed to return to the grave regularly, just like an Upir. If townspeople suspected someone had become a strigo, they would exhume the body and burn it, or run spikes through it. But after seven years, if a strigo was still around, it could live wherever it pleased. It was said that strigoi would travel to distant towns to begin new lives as ordinary people, and that these secret vampires would meet with each other in weekly gatherings.
In addition to undead strigoi, referred to as strigoi mort, people also feared living vampires, or strigoi viu. Strigoi viu were cursed living people who were doomed to become strigoi mort when they died. Babies born with abnormalities, such as a tail-like protrusion or a bit of fetal membrane tissue attached to the head (called a caul), were usually considered strigoi viu. If a strigoi mort living among humans had any children, the offspring were cursed to become undead strigoi in the afterlife. When a known strigoi viu died, the family would destroy its body to ensure that it would not rise from the grave.
In other parts of eastern Europe, strigoi-type creatures were known as vampir, or vampyr, most likely a variation on the Russian upir. Western European countries eventually picked up on this name, and "vampyr" (later "vampire") entered the English language.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, vampire hysteria spread through eastern Europe. People reported seeing their dead relatives walking around, attacking the living. Authorities dug up scores of graves, burning and staking the corpses. Word of the vampire scare spread to western Europe, leading to a slew of academic speculations on the creatures, as well as vampire poems and paintings. These works in turn inspired an Irishman named Bram Stoker to write his vampire novel, "Dracula." In the next section, we'll see how this work fits into the evolution of vampire lore.

« Last Edit: December 12, 2003, 10:58:26 PM by Max Powers »
 

Z the laidback Virus

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Re:Early Vampires
« Reply #1 on: December 13, 2003, 02:31:12 AM »
Interesting,I love myths,legends and tales so I can surely appreciate all this. I do think you might get some religious people angry by saying Lilith was the first woman as that may not be what they believe is true.
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OmNIsCiUs

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Re:Early Vampires
« Reply #2 on: December 17, 2003, 08:00:04 PM »
Interesting,I love myths,legends and tales so I can surely appreciate all this. I do think you might get some religious people angry by saying Lilith was the first woman as that may not be what they believe is true.

amen...

very interesting read
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Trauma-san

Re:Early Vampires
« Reply #3 on: December 17, 2003, 08:11:32 PM »
Interesting,I love myths,legends and tales so I can surely appreciate all this. I do think you might get some religious people angry by saying Lilith was the first woman as that may not be what they believe is true.

LOL How would he get religious people angry?  Religious people would take all this for a myth, there's nothing to get angry about.  I've read origin stories from 4 or 5 religions other than mine, they all believe different things, there's nothing offensive about that!
 

Z the laidback Virus

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Re:Early Vampires
« Reply #4 on: December 18, 2003, 06:29:27 AM »
Interesting,I love myths,legends and tales so I can surely appreciate all this. I do think you might get some religious people angry by saying Lilith was the first woman as that may not be what they believe is true.

LOL How would he get religious people angry?  Religious people would take all this for a myth, there's nothing to get angry about.  I've read origin stories from 4 or 5 religions other than mine, they all believe different things, there's nothing offensive about that!

MAY is the important word in my sentence. You might not get offended by it because you don't take the story about Eve as serious as some but such people might.
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