Vampires in Myth

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.

note: clicking on the images below will take you to Amazon, which may result in minimal financial compensation for me.