The notion of vampirism has existed for millennia. Cultures such as the
Mesopotamians,
Hebrews,
Ancient Greeks,
Manipuri and
Romans had tales of
demons and spirits which are considered precursors to modern vampires. Despite the occurrence of vampiric creatures in these ancient civilizations, the folklore for the entity known today as the vampire originates almost exclusively from early 18th-century
southeastern Europe, when
verbal traditions of many ethnic groups of the region were recorded and published. In most cases, vampires are
revenants of evil beings,
suicide victims, or
witches, but they can also be created by a
malevolent spirit possessing a corpse or by being bitten by a vampire. Belief in such legends became so pervasive that in some areas it caused mass hysteria and even
public executions of people believed to be vampires.
Description and common attributes '' (1895) by
Edvard Munch|alt=A painting of a woman with red hair. It is difficult to make a single, definitive description of the folkloric vampire, though there are several elements common to many European legends. Vampires were usually reported as bloated in appearance, and ruddy, purplish, or dark in colour; these characteristics were often attributed to the recent drinking of blood, which was often seen seeping from the mouth and nose when one was seen in its shroud or coffin, and its left eye was often open. It would be clad in the linen shroud it was buried in, and its teeth, hair, and nails may have grown somewhat, though in general fangs were not a feature. Chewing sounds were reported emanating from graves.
Creating vampires 's
Une Semaine de Bonté (1934)|alt=An image of a woman kissing a man with wings. The causes of vampiric generation were many and varied in original folklore. In
Slavic and
Chinese traditions, any corpse that was jumped over by an animal, particularly a dog or a cat, was feared to become one of the undead. A body with a wound that had not been treated with boiling water was also at risk. In
Russian folklore, vampires were said to have once been witches or people who had rebelled against the
Russian Orthodox Church while they were alive. In
Albanian folklore, the is the hybrid child of the (a
lycanthropic creature with an iron
mail shirt) or the (a water-dwelling
ghost or monster). The sprung of a has the unique ability to discern the ; from this derives the expression "the knows the ". The cannot be seen, he can only be killed by the , who themself is usually the son of a . In different regions, animals can be revenants in the form of a ; also, living people during their sleep.
Prevention Cultural practices often arose that were intended to prevent a recently deceased loved one from turning into an undead revenant. Burying a corpse upside-down was widespread, as was placing earthly objects, such as
scythes or
sickles, near the grave to satisfy any demons entering the body or to appease the dead so that it would not wish to arise from its coffin. This method resembles the
ancient Greek practice of placing an
obolus in the corpse's mouth to pay the toll to cross the
River Styx in the underworld. The coin may have also been intended to ward off any evil spirits from entering the body, and this may have influenced later vampire folklore. This tradition persisted in modern Greek folklore about the
vrykolakas, in which a wax cross and piece of pottery with the inscription "
Jesus Christ conquers" were placed on the corpse to prevent the body from becoming a vampire. Other methods commonly practised in Europe included severing the
tendons at the knees or placing
poppy seeds,
millet, or sand on the ground at the grave site of a presumed vampire; this was intended to keep the vampire occupied all night by counting the fallen grains, indicating an association of vampires with
arithmomania. Similar Chinese narratives state that if a vampiric being came across a sack of rice, it would have to count every grain; this is a theme encountered in
myths from the Indian subcontinent, as well as in South American tales of witches and other sorts of evil or mischievous spirits or beings.
Identifying vampires Many rituals were used to identify a vampire. One method of finding a vampire's grave involved leading a virgin boy through a graveyard or church grounds on a virgin stallion—the horse would supposedly balk at the grave in question. Other apotropaics include sacred items, such as
crucifix,
rosary, or
holy water. Some folklore also states that vampires are unable to walk on
consecrated ground, such as that of churches or temples, or cross running water. Although not traditionally regarded as an apotropaic,
mirrors have been used to ward off vampires when placed, facing outwards, on a door (in some cultures, vampires do not have a reflection and sometimes do not cast a shadow, perhaps as a manifestation of the vampire's lack of a
soul or their weakness to silver). This attribute is not universal (the Greek was capable of both reflection and shadow), but was used by Bram Stoker in
Dracula and has remained popular with subsequent authors and filmmakers. Some traditions also hold that a vampire cannot enter a house unless invited by the owner; after the first invitation they can come and go as they please. or simply drinking it, granted the possibility of protection. Other stories (primarily the
Arnold Paole case) claimed the eating of dirt from the vampire's grave would have the same effect.
Methods of destruction Methods of destroying suspected vampires varied, with
staking the most commonly cited method, particularly in South Slavic cultures.
Ash was the preferred wood in Russia and the Baltic states, or
hawthorn in Serbia, with a record of
oak in
Silesia.
Aspen was also used for stakes, as it was believed that
Christ's cross was made from aspen (aspen branches on the graves of purported vampires were also believed to prevent their risings at night). Potential vampires were most often staked through the heart, though the mouth was targeted in Russia and northern Germany and the stomach in north-eastern Serbia. Piercing the skin of the chest was a way of "deflating" the bloated vampire. This is similar to a practice of "
anti-vampire burial": burying sharp objects, such as sickles, with the corpse, so that they may penetrate the skin if the body bloats sufficiently while transforming into a revenant.
Decapitation was the preferred method in German and western Slavic areas, with the head buried between the feet, behind the
buttocks or away from the body. This act was seen as a way of hastening the departure of the soul, which in some cultures was said to linger in the corpse. The vampire's head, body, or clothes could also be spiked and pinned to the earth to prevent rising. , over 100 skeletons with metal objects, such as
plough bits, embedded in the torso have been discovered. Further measures included pouring boiling water over the grave or complete incineration of the body. In Southeastern Europe, a vampire could also be killed by being shot or drowned, by repeating the funeral service, by sprinkling
holy water on the body, or by
exorcism. In Romania and
Armenia, garlic could be placed in the mouth, and as recently as the 19th century, the precaution of shooting a bullet through the
coffin was taken. For resistant cases, the body was
dismembered and the pieces burned, mixed with water, and administered to family members as a cure. In
Saxon regions of Germany, a
lemon was placed in the mouth of suspected vampires.
Ancient beliefs '', 1887 by
John Collier. Stories of Lilith depict her as a demon drinking blood.|alt=A painting of a naked woman with a snake wrapped around her. Tales of supernatural beings consuming the blood or flesh of the living have been found in nearly every culture around the world for many centuries. The term
vampire did not exist in ancient times.
Blood drinking and similar activities were attributed to
demons or spirits who would eat flesh and drink blood; even the
devil was considered synonymous with the vampire. Almost every culture associates blood drinking with some kind of revenant or demon, or in some cases a deity. In India tales of
vetālas, ghoulish beings that inhabit corpses, have been compiled in the
Baitāl Pacīsī; a prominent story in the
Kathāsaritsāgara tells of King
Vikramāditya and his nightly quests to capture an elusive one.
Piśāca, the returned spirits of evil-doers or those who died insane, also bear vampiric attributes. The
Persians were one of the first civilizations to have tales of blood-drinking demons: creatures attempting to drink blood from men were depicted on excavated
pottery shards. Ancient
Babylonia and
Assyria had tales of the mythical
Lilitu, and
estries, female shapeshifting, blood-drinking demons, were said to roam the night among the population, seeking infant victims. According to
Sefer Hasidim, estries were creatures created in the twilight hours before
God rested. An injured estrie could be healed by eating bread and salt given to her by her attacker.
Greco-Roman mythology described the
Empusae, the
Lamia, the
Mormo and the . Over time the first two terms became general words to describe witches and demons respectively. Empusa was the daughter of the goddess
Hecate and was described as a demonic,
bronze-footed creature. She feasted on blood by transforming into a young woman and seduced men as they slept before drinking their blood. The Lamia preyed on young children in their beds at night, sucking their blood, as did the or . Like the Lamia, the Roman feasted on children, but also preyed on adults. They were described as having the bodies of crows or birds in general, and fed on human flesh and blood. In Turkic folklore, an is a vampiric creature characterized by various regional depictions. According to legends, individuals heavily steeped in sin and practitioners of
black magic transform into an upon their death, taking on a bestial form within their graves. An possesses the ability to shape-shift, assuming the forms of both humans and various animals. Furthermore, they can seize the soul of a living being and exert control over its body. Someone inhabited by a vampire constantly experiences hunger, becoming increasingly aggressive when unable to find sustenance, ultimately resorting to drinking human blood.
Medieval and later European folklore Many myths surrounding vampires originated during the
medieval period. With the arrival of
Christianity in
Greece, and other parts of
Europe, the vampire "began to take on decidedly Christian characteristics." As various regions of the continent
converted to Christianity, the vampire was viewed as "a dead person who retained a semblance of life and could leave its grave-much in the same way that Jesus had risen after His death and burial and appeared before His followers." The interpretation of vampires under the Christian Churches established connotations that are still associated in the vampire genre today. For example, the "ability of the cross to hurt and ward off vampires is distinctly due to its Christian association." The 12th-century British historians and chroniclers
Walter Map and
William of Newburgh recorded accounts of revenants, though records in English legends of vampiric beings after this date are scant. The
Old Norse draugr is another medieval example of an undead creature with similarities to vampires. Vampiric beings were rarely written about in Jewish literature; the 16th-century rabbi
David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra (Radbaz) wrote of an uncharitable old woman whose body was unguarded and unburied for three days after she died and rose as a vampiric entity, killing hundreds of people. He linked this event to the lack of a
shmirah (guarding) after death as the corpse could be a vessel for evil spirits. In 1645, the Greek librarian of the Vatican,
Leo Allatius, produced the first methodological description of the Balkan beliefs in vampires (Greek: vrykolakas) in his work
De Graecorum hodie quorundam opinationibus ("On certain modern opinions among the Greeks"). Vampires properly originating in folklore were widely reported from Eastern Europe in the late 17th and 18th centuries. These tales formed the basis of the vampire legend that later entered Germany and England, where they were subsequently embellished and popularized. An early recording of the time came from the region of
Istria in modern
Croatia, in 1672; Local reports described a panic among the villagers inspired by the belief that
Jure Grando had become a vampire after dying in 1656, drinking blood from victims and sexually harassing his widow. The village leader ordered a stake to be driven through his heart. Later, his corpse was also beheaded. From 1679, Philippe Rohr devotes an essay to the dead who chew their shrouds in their graves, a subject resumed by Otto in 1732, and then by
Michael Ranft in 1734. The subject was based on the observation that when digging up graves, it was discovered that some corpses had at some point either devoured the interior fabric of their coffin or their own limbs. Ranft described in his treatise of a tradition in some parts of Germany, that to prevent the dead from masticating they placed a mound of dirt under their chin in the coffin, placed a piece of money and a stone in the mouth, or tied a handkerchief tightly around the throat. In 1732 an anonymous writer writing as "the doctor Weimar" discusses the non-putrefaction of these creatures, from a theological point of view. In 1733, Johann Christoph Harenberg wrote a general treatise on vampirism and the
Marquis d'Argens cites local cases. Theologians and clergymen also address the topic. The unholy dimension of vampirism may also be reflected in how, in parts of Russia, the very word
heretic,
eretik, was synonymous with a vampire. Whoever denied God or his commandments became an
eretik after his death, the improperly immortal figure that wandered the night in search of people to feed on. A paragraph on vampires was included in the second edition (1749) of
De servorum Dei beatificatione et sanctorum canonizatione, On the
beatification of the servants of God and on
canonization of the blessed, written by Prospero Lambertini (
Pope Benedict XIV). In his opinion, while the
incorruption of the bodies of saints was the effect of a divine intervention, all the phenomena attributed to vampires were purely natural or the fruit of "imagination, terror and fear". In other words, vampires did not exist.
18th-century vampire controversy (1750) In the early 18th century, despite the decline of many popular folkloric beliefs during the
Age of Enlightenment, there was a dramatic increase in the popular belief in vampires, resulting in a mass hysteria throughout much of Europe. The panic began with an outbreak of alleged vampire attacks in
East Prussia in 1721 and in the
Habsburg monarchy from 1725 to 1734, which spread to other localities. The first infamous vampire case involved the corpses of
Petar Blagojević from Serbia. Blagojević was reported to have died at the age of 62, but allegedly returned after his death asking his son for food. When the son refused, he was found dead the following day. Blagojević supposedly returned and attacked some neighbours who died from loss of blood. In the second case,
Miloš Čečar, an ex-soldier-turned-farmer who allegedly was attacked by a vampire years before, died while
haying. After his death, people began to die in the surrounding area; it was widely believed that Miloš had returned to prey on the neighbours. The Blagojević and Čečar incidents were well-documented. Government officials examined the bodies, wrote case reports, and published books throughout Europe. The problem was exacerbated by rural epidemics of so-called vampire attacks, undoubtedly caused by the higher amount of superstition that was present in village communities, with locals digging up bodies and in some cases, staking them. Even government officials engaged in the hunting and staking of vampires. The hysteria, commonly referred to as the "vampire controversy," continued for a generation. At least sixteen contemporary treatises discussed the theological and philosophical implications of the vampire epidemic.
Dom Augustine Calmet, a French theologian and scholar, published a comprehensive treatise in 1751 titled
Treatise on the Apparitions of Spirits and on Vampires or Revenants which investigated and analysed the evidence for vampirism. Numerous readers, including both
Voltaire (critical) and numerous
demonologists (supportive), interpreted the treatise as claiming that vampires existed. The controversy in Austria ceased when Empress
Maria Theresa sent her personal physician,
Gerard van Swieten, to investigate the claims of vampiric entities. Van Swieten concluded that vampires did not exist and the Empress passed laws prohibiting the opening of graves and the desecration of bodies, thus ending the vampire epidemic. Other European countries followed suit. Despite this condemnation, the vampire lived on in artistic works and in local folklore.
Non-European beliefs Beings having many of the attributes of European vampires appear in the folklore of Africa, Asia, North and South America, and India. Classified as vampires, all share the thirst for blood.
Africa Various regions of Africa have folktales featuring beings with vampiric abilities: in
West Africa the
Ashanti people tell of the iron-toothed and tree-dwelling , and the
Ewe people of the , which can take the form of a
firefly and hunts children. The eastern
Cape region has the , which can take the form of a large taloned bird and can summon thunder and lightning, and the
Betsileo people of
Madagascar tell of the , an outlaw or living vampire who drinks the blood and eats the nail clippings of nobles. In colonial East Africa, rumors circulated to the effect that employees of the state such as firemen and nurses were vampires, known in Swahili as .
Americas The is an example of how a vampire belief can result from a combination of beliefs, here a mixture of French and African Vodu or
voodoo. The term possibly comes from the French (meaning "werewolf") and is common in the
culture of Mauritius. The stories of the are widespread through the
Caribbean Islands and
Louisiana in the United States. Similar female monsters are the of
Trinidad, and the and of
Colombian folklore, while the
Mapuche of southern
Chile have the bloodsucking snake known as the .
Aloe vera hung backwards behind or near a door was thought to ward off vampiric beings in South American folklore. The most famous, and most recently recorded, case of suspected vampirism is that of nineteen-year-old
Mercy Brown, who died in
Exeter, Rhode Island, in 1892. Her father, assisted by the family physician, removed her from her tomb two months after her death, cut out her heart and burned it to ashes.
Sarah Roberts (1872–1913) was an Englishwoman who died and was buried in
Pisco, Peru. After her death, a legend evolved that she was a vampire and bride of Dracula. On June 9, 1993, the 80th anniversary of her death, locals in Pisco feared she would come back to life and take her revenge.
Asia Vampires have appeared in
Japanese cinema since the late 1950s; the folklore behind it is western in origin. The
Nukekubi is a being whose head and neck detach from its body to fly about seeking human prey at night. Legends of female vampiric beings who can detach parts of their upper body also occur in the
Philippines,
Malaysia, and
Indonesia. There are two main vampiric creatures in the Philippines: the
Tagalog ("blood-sucker") and the
Visayan ("self-segmenter"). The is a variety of the that takes the form of an attractive girl by day, and develops wings and a long, hollow, threadlike tongue by night. The tongue is used to suck up blood from a sleeping victim. The Malaysian is a woman who obtained her beauty through the active use of
black magic or other unnatural means, and is most commonly described in local folklore to be dark or demonic in nature. She is able to detach her fanged head which flies around in the night looking for blood, typically from pregnant women. Malaysians hung (thistles) around the doors and windows of houses, hoping the would not enter for fear of catching its intestines on the thorns. The
Leyak is a similar being from
Balinese folklore of Indonesia. A or in Indonesia, or or in Malaysia, is a woman who
died during childbirth and became undead, seeking revenge and terrorising villages. She appeared as an attractive woman with long black hair that covered a hole in the back of her neck, with which she sucked the blood of children. Filling the hole with her hair would drive her off. Corpses had their mouths filled with glass beads, eggs under each armpit, and needles in their palms to prevent them from becoming . This description would also fit the
Sundel Bolongs. ethnic minority of Vietnam, whose communities were said to be terrorized by the blood-sucking
ma cà rồng|alt=See caption In
Vietnam, the word used to translate Western vampires, , originally referred to a type of demon that haunts modern-day
Phú Thọ Province, within the communities of the
Tai Dam ethnic minority. The word was first mentioned in the chronicles of 18th-century
Confucian scholar
Lê Quý Đôn, who spoke of a creature that lives among humans, but stuffs its toes into its
nostrils at night and flies by its ears into houses with pregnant women to suck their blood. Having fed on these women, the then returns to its house and cleans itself by dipping its toes into barrels of
sappanwood water. This allows the to live undetected among humans during the day, before heading out to attack again by night. , sometimes called "Chinese vampires" by Westerners, are reanimated corpses that hop around, killing living creatures to absorb life essence () from their victims. They are said to be created when a person's soul ( ) fails to leave the deceased's body. are usually represented as mindless creatures with no independent thought. This monster has greenish-white furry skin, perhaps derived from fungus or
mould growing on corpses. legends have inspired a
genre of jiangshi films and literature in Hong Kong and East Asia. Films like
Encounters of the Spooky Kind and
Mr. Vampire were released during the cinematic boom of the 1980s and 1990s.
Modern beliefs In modern fiction, the vampire tends to be depicted as a suave, charismatic
villain. Vampire hunting societies still exist, but they are largely formed for social reasons. Allegations of vampire attacks swept through
Malawi during late 2002 and early 2003, with mobs stoning one person to death and attacking at least four others, including Governor
Eric Chiwaya, based on the belief that the government was colluding with vampires. Fears and violence recurred in late 2017, with 6 people accused of being vampires killed. In early 1970, local press spread rumours that a vampire haunted
Highgate Cemetery in London. Amateur
vampire hunters flocked in large numbers to the cemetery. Several books have been written about the case, notably by Sean Manchester, a local man who was among the first to suggest the existence of the "
Highgate Vampire" and who later claimed to have
exorcised and destroyed a whole nest of vampires in the area. In January 2005, rumours circulated that an attacker had bitten a number of people in
Birmingham, England, fuelling concerns about a vampire roaming the streets. Local police stated that no such crime had been reported and that the case appears to be an
urban legend. The
chupacabra ("goat-sucker") of
Puerto Rico and
Mexico is said to be a creature that feeds upon the flesh or drinks the blood of
domesticated animals, leading some to consider it a kind of vampire. The "chupacabra hysteria" was frequently associated with deep economic and political crises, particularly during the mid-1990s. In Europe, where much of the vampire folklore originates, the vampire is usually considered a fictitious being; many communities may have embraced the revenant for economic purposes. In some cases, especially in small localities, beliefs are still rampant and sightings or claims of vampire attacks occur frequently. In Romania during February 2004, several relatives of Toma Petre feared that he had become a vampire. They dug up his corpse, tore out his heart, burned it, and mixed the ashes with water in order to drink it. == Origins of vampire beliefs ==