Vampires

 

Supernatural Undead

Culture: Romanian, Baltic, Slavic, Eastern European, Greek

The undead on Slavic Folklore

 

The Central theme of Vampirism include, the transference of life essence. Aversion to sun light, aversion to silver, sexuality.

A vampire is a creature from folklore that subsists by feeding on the vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mischief or deaths in the neighborhoods they inhabited while they were alive.

 

Vampire

Succubus

Chupacabra

 

Vampires have been featured in folklore and fiction of various cultures for hundreds of years, predominantly in Europe.

 

Central to vampire myth, however, is the consumption of human blood or other essence (such as bodily fluids or psychic energy), followed closely by the possession of sharp teeth or fangs with which to facilitate this task. In most depictions, vampires are “undead”—that is to say, having been somehow revived after death—and many are said to rise nightly from their graves or coffins, often necessarily containing their native soil.

 

Vampires are typically said to be of pale skin and range in appearance from grotesque to preternaturally beautiful, depending on the tale. Another frequently cited physical characteristic is the inability to cast a reflection or shadow, which often translates into an inability to be photographed or recorded on film.

 

A person may become a vampire in a variety of ways, the most common of which is to be bitten by a vampire. Other methods include sorcery, committing suicide, contagion, or having a cat jump over a person’s corpse.  

 

The are many tools in the vampire hunters cache of weapons. The most popular of those include a wooden stake through the heart, fire, decapitation, and exposure to sunlight. Vampires are often depicted as being repelled by garlic, running water, or Christian implements such as crucifixes and holy water. In some stories vampires may enter a home only if they have been invited, and in others they may be distracted by the scattering of objects such as seeds or grains that they are compelled to count, thereby enabling potential victims to escape.

 

 

Dracula is arguably the most important work of vampire fiction. The tale of the Transylvanian count who uses supernatural abilities, including mind control and shape-shifting, to prey upon innocent victims inspired countless works thereafter.

 

The pillars of vampirism

 

Transference of blood.

Blood a symbol of life force believed in many cultures to contain a share of divine energy or more commonly the spirit of an individual creature.

 

the oldest ancient deity who consumed blood was probably Lilith. She is also described as the first demon, or a female spirit which exemplified all of the darkest attributes of the world.

Persian folklore also speaks of some spirits who consumed blood. The most famous of these was Estries. She was a demon - specifically a shapeshifter.

 

 

 Usually she was believed to have appeared as a beautiful woman who looked for men to drink their blood. , She was also well-known in Jewish legends.

 

Silver is a precious metal with  well documented history with mankind

 

 

 

Silver

 

Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal.

 

It is associated with purity, chastity and eloquence

 

Eastern Europeans believed that silver protected against demonic entities such as vampires and werewolves.

 

Aversion to sunlight

one of the more important theme. It places the vampire as anti nature.

 

The ultimate creature of the night. Depended on the absent of the primarly life giver and thus anti life.

Photophobia, or light sensitivity, is an intolerance of light.

 

Photophobia often accompanies albinism (lack of eye pigment), total color deficiency (seeing only in shades of gray), botulism, rabies, mercury poisoning, conjunctivitis, inflammation of the cornea and iritis.

People who have an extreme sensitivity to sunlight are born with a rare disease known as xeroderma pigmentosum (XP).

 

Sexualization

The act of vampire feeding is sexual in its nature. Involving the exposed neck and the lips and tongue. So the  concept of seduction has always been an important element of Vampires.

 

Modern mythology of the vampire has progressed to necrophilia and necromancy where the undead is not a mystical seducer but a comforting lover. They are the love interest.

 

Necrophilia, is sexual attraction towards or a sexual act involving corpses. It is classified as a paraphilia by the World Health Organization (WHO) in its International Classification of Diseases (ICD) diagnostic manual, as well as by the American Psychiatric Association.

 

Necrophilia is a very disturbing component of human behavior. Herodotus suggested that the Greek tyrant Periander defiled his wife. Using the phrase “Periander baked his bread in cold ovens.”

 

Acts of necrophilia are depicted on ceramics from the Moche culture, which reigned in northern Peru from the first to eighth century CE.

 

Hittite law from the 16th century BC through to the 13th century BC explicitly permitted sex with the dead.

 

In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders  necrophilia) is  marked by  distress or impairment in important areas of functioning.

 

Sergeant François Bertrand), known as the Vampire of Montparnasse, was a sergeant in the French Army. He was arrested in 1841 for necrophilia and jailed.

 

He stated that his necrophilic impulses began in 1846, and were accompanied by headaches and heart palpitations. He progressed to exhuming the corpses of both women and men from graveyards, whereupon he would eviscerate and dismember them before masturbating. Bertrand would later describe his experience with the corpse of a 16-year-old girl.