How about a little throwback today? Here's an essay on vampires that I wrote for a comparative mythology course in college.
Vampires in Myth
Since the dawn of time, when prehistoric man crawled forth from
the caves and stood upright, blood has been seen as life. When the hunt ensued,
the primitive man could not help but notice that when enough blood flowed from
animal, it ceased to struggle. Its magical qualities were used in early tribal
rituals, such as sacrifices to gods and goddesses. Blood would be spread across
fields in order to ensure good crops; Norsemen consecrated their ships with it.
So, naturally, if one were dead and wished to return to this mortal plane, the
taking of blood would be one path to take. Thus was born the vampire.
Jacob Grimm defines
vampires as "...dead men come back, who suck blood, as the Erinnyes [sic] suck
the blood of corpses." (1586). The word itself has two roots, vam meaning blood and pyr meaning monster. In ancient Slavic
and Eastern European texts, the word is spelled variably, as vampir, vampyr, vapir, vepir, veryr, vopyr, or upier. The Croatians called the vampire
"red-faced with drink," or pijuaica
(Mascetti 198), and the Greeks called their restless dead the vrykolakas, or "drumlike,"
which pertained to the sound made if one struck the swollen corpse (Constable
80).
"Classic"
vampires, those similar to the picture of Bram Stoker's Dracula or Anne Rice's
Lestat, seemed to congregate in the countries of medieval Europe, and
especially in central and eastern European countries, such as Bulgaria and
Romania. There, the wandering vampire appeared typically as a young,
aristocratic gentleman, in his twenties or thirties, dressed in fine garments,
and always knowledgeable about the world. The other kind, the vampire who
settled in one place, was also aristocratic, but often appeared older. Like the
infamous Count Dracula, he often likened himself to a nobleman (Baron, Count,
Prince, etc.), and lived alone in a large mansion or castle, where he ruled the
land. Both types, while appearing human at first glance, however, suffered from
an extremely pale complexion, shadowed eyes, and had protruding canine teeth.
Many had a foul smell emanating from their being, a "smell of death,"
but this could be overlooked due to the general absence of deodorants in the
time period.
The poorer cousin to
the vampire was the revenant of eastern Europe, sometimes also called a
vampire. These foul creatures were also born of blood, but unlike their
powerful counterparts, did not appear fresh and undecayed. The revenant
decomposed at a normal rate, becoming more and more horrifying as it aged.
Vampires of other
cultures often appeared quite different. Early stories of the Greek vrykolakas told of a spirit, sometimes
solid, which mischievously rummaged through houses, rearranging furniture and
dumping containers. However, as Romanians and Bulgarians, who came from a more vicious
culture, entered Greece, the vrykolakas
turned to more evil and dangerous acts, though sometimes it rose for less
malevolent reasons. Typically, it came back due to some unfinished task, and
whether the task involved plowing fields, keeping a promise or murder depended
on who the person was before he died.
The penanggalan of Malaysia was a horror to
behold. Human at one time, it flew through the air as a head with the entrails
still hanging from it. Like the European version, it had fangs and lived off
the blood of its victims. The loogaroo of Granada appeared human, usually female, and was thought to be one who had made
a pact with the Devil. At night, the loogaroo
shed its skin and terrorized the surrounding area as a ball of fire, similar to
a will-o-wisp (Mascetti 204-207).
The European vampire
was usually similar to the loogaroo
in that it was thought that while in life, the vampire-to-be made a pact with
evil, was an evil-doer (ie. criminal), or did some other unspeakable act,
namely suicide. When a mysterious death occurred in a village, if it followed
too closely a death of a suicide, criminal, or other "strange"
person, the recently interred "strange" corpse was usually the first
to be blamed for the death. What followed was a ceremony of exhumation, then
some sort of ritual to prevent the corpse from rising again. This could be as
simple as turning the corpse onto its face, so if it tried to leave the coffin,
it would be facing the wrong way. Intense prayer over the body by a priest or bishop
was sometimes used to drive out the evil spirit, or it was cremated, leaving
nothing for the spirit to inhabit. The corpse could also be trapped if it was
dismembered (usually the head was put between the legs), tied up, or staked to
the ground, either through the heart or the head. The idea of the stake is
thought to have arisen from the victims of Vlad the Impaler, Dracula, who
thought that his particular form of torture was the only effective way of
dealing with him in turn (Mascetti 150).
Of course, some
people weren't necessarily evil-doers, but were "destined" to become
vampires nonetheless. These included children born on holy days (Christmas,
especially), illegitimate children, seventh sons or daughters, children born
with teeth or cauls, and especially people who had been associated with
vampires during life, either gazed upon or attacked by. In eastern Europe,
where the norm was dark hair and brown eyes, a red head with blue eyes was
considered a prime candidate for vampirism (Constable 76). Bulgarian families
inherited the affliction, and, as mentioned before, the Greek vrykolakas could arise if the person
died with an unfinished task, and also if the person was cursed to not rest in
peace after death (Constable 77).
To prevent the dead
from coming back, as they seemed prone to do, the living engaged in many
rituals to keep the dead happy in death, or, if that failed, to keep them
confused enough to not find their way back to former loved ones. Universally,
cats and vampires seemed to go hand-in-hand, with Japanese vampires assuming
the form of a double-tailed cat (Constable 84), and the Countess Carmilla
stalking her female lovers in the form of a large black cat (Mascetti 169),
thus it was imperative that felines be kept away from a newly dead body. If a
cat jumped over the corpse, it was sure to rise again. Similarly, bats, rodents
and certain birds, notably ravens, were to be kept away from the deceased, and
so the wake was born. The body was watched constantly until it was buried, in
order to protect it from spirits, and from this arose the custom of wakes and
viewings (Constable 78).
After the wake, the
body would carefully be taken to its place of burial. Russian mourners would
wear funeral masks, so that the spirit could not recognize them. And, while
funeral processions proceeded slowly and carefully to the burial grounds, they
would leave by alternative routes, often more quickly, so the spirit could not
follow (Constable 78). In Greece, murders could be particularly grisly, as
murderers would not want the victim to come back for them. The victims would be
found with hands and feet cut off. Greek
funerals, however, were supposed to help the transition from life to death. The
graves would be filled with food, wine and clothing, so, hopefully, the corpse
would not return looking for sustenance. In addition, a coin would be placed in
the mouth as a charm against spirits entering that route (Constable 78-79).
Headstones are a
remnant of yet another means to prevent the return of the dead. Heavy stone
blocks were originally used to make it impossible for the dead to "sit
up" in the grave. Supposedly, if the corpse tried to escape, it would hit
the stone and have to give up. Eventually, the stones became to be decorated
with images designed to thwart off evil spirits, such as statues of angels,
images of crosses, and the inscription of holy verse. Interestingly enough,
though, many of those thought to be most at risk for returning from the grave,
the suicides, criminals, and witches, were not given headstones, and, many
times, not even given graves. However, if they were buried, it was often at a
crossroads. It was thought that a newly revived corpse would be paralyzed with
indecision at the meeting of roads and, therefore, not be able to go anywhere,
much less go to a village to do harm. For this same reason, many criminals were
hanged at crossroads.
The idea of the dead
coming back into the world of the living seems to be a universal fear. Perhaps the person died traumatically, or
very quickly, and does not realize that he or she is dead, or maybe the person
died without finishing a task deemed important, and he needs to return to
finish it. Maybe she needs to revenge her murder. Why then, if the reason to
come back is not evil, does the revived corpse need blood? As blood is the
"river of life," the dead will try to take it in order to capture
life for their own if they decide life is preferable to death, no matter their
ethnic origins. Europe's Countess Carmilla, Julia Stone, and Lord Ruthven,
Romania's Dracula and Azzo von Klatka, the Greek vyrkolakes, Malaysian penanggalan
- they all lived off of human blood. In the story of Odysseus, he visited the
underworld in order to speak with the seer Tiresias, but the seer could not
speak until Odysseus fed him the blood of a sheep (Constable 87). Blood gave
him the strength he needed to communicate with the living.
The stories of
vampires, unfortunately, probably are nothing but twistings of truthful events.
Fear of disease, especially rampant disease like the plague, drove people to
give names and forms to their fears. It was easier in medieval times to
conceive of an evil spirit controlling a corpse and killing the villagers than
to understand a virus spread by rats. When the "vampire" was exhumed,
no matter the condition of the corpse, it was always suspect. According to the Romani people, medieval masters of all matter occult, "If, after a period of
time, the body remains uncorrupt, exactly as it was buried, or if it appears to
be swollen and black in color, having undergone some dreadful change in
appearance, suspicions of vampirism are confirmed" (Mascetti 76). The
"vampire" would usually be staked through the chest at this point,
and often would sigh, scream or make some other noise, and fresh blood would
come out of the wound and sometimes the mouth. Biologically, the noise would be
the gases, which build up upon decomposition, being forced through the trachea
and mouth by the force of the chest blow. The blood would be that which had
settled and reliquefied during putrefication being forced out of cavities. The
buildup of gases in the body also gave the name to the vrykolakas. Documents stating the appearance of "new
skin," were probably seeing the shedding of the epidermis, leaving the
dermis, a red, raw, perhaps "new," looking skin, behind. The
occasional "uncorrupt" corpse found in the grave can be explained by
the presence of lime in the ground used for the burial. Lime retards the
decomposition process (usually by killing the bacteria) (Mascetti 73-75).
Vampires have become
less vicious in modern times, turning into more of a romantic figure through
books such as Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, Barbara Hambly's Those Who Hunt The Night, and Mercedes
Lackey's Children of the Night. However,
customs devised to keep these once-ghastly fiends from the doorstep have
persisted well into twentieth century, even though the meaning of the rituals,
like so many other symbols of antiquity, have been lost from the culture's
memory.
Works Cited
Constable, George, ed. The Enchanted World : Night Creatures. Time-Life
Books, Alexandria, Virgina: 1985, pp.73-97.
Grimm, Jacob. Teutonic Mythology. Volume 4. Peter Smith, Gloucester,
Massachusetts: 1976, p.1586.
Mascetti, Manuela Dunn. Vampire : The Complete Guide to the World of the
Undead. Viking Studio Books, New York: 1992.
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