Vampires - from myth to science

Since the vampire (vampire) was created in 1734, the vampire legend goes on spreading, entering folklore and then Bram Stoker's Dracula (year 1897).

Vampire legend

Vampire image

In books, movies and television, vampires are represented as extremely complex creatures. According to legend, every vampire was once a human being; After being attacked by another ghost, he dies and rises from the grave to transform into a terrible blood-sucking demon .

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Since the body was resurrected - the living remains of a dead person - vampires are often seen as "immortal" . They can also turn into a healthy and hard-to-find ordinary person among those who live. In addition, this terrible creature can also take the form of an animal, usually a bat or a wolf , to quietly approach the victim.

However, vampires still have some disadvantages. They can be destroyed by a pier through the heart or by fire ; they will die if beheaded and exposed to sunlight. They are very afraid of the cross, holy water and garlic. Vampires have no shadows and supernatural powers. Vampire images are created in many ways depending on human imagination.

The first vampire

No one knows when vampires appeared, but the legend of it was at least 4,000 years ago in the Assyrie and the ancient Babylone, Mesopotamia. At that time they were afraid of Lamastu (also known as Lamashtu), a fierce goddess who always attacked people. According to the legend of Assyrie, Lamastu (daughter of Anu god) specialized in sneaking into people's houses late at night to kidnap or kill children or fetuses in the womb of a woman.

Lamastu also attacks adults, drains young people and causes disease, infertility and nightmares. Lamastu is described as having wings, bird claws and sometimes a lion's head. For self-defense, pregnant women have to wear Pazuzu picture charms - another goddess, engraved with Lamastu.

The same creature that the ancient Greeks were afraid of was Lamia, a half-snake, half-human demon. In an ancient version of the legend, Lamia is one of the beloved love of Zeus. Enraged by jealousy, Zeus's eldest wife, Hera, harmed Lamia to insane, causing Lamia to eat her children. By the time he realized his sinful behavior, Lamia was so angry that she turned herself into a demon that sucked on child blood because of jealousy towards their mothers.

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Vampires are also present in Asian mythology. Indian folklore has a Rakshasa demon or animal head who kills children. In ancient Chinese folklore, the dead sometimes live up to their graves and wander. Those are the people who died when not yet reached the number. Nomads spread many different legends about vampires across Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Then the oral mouths make these legends transform and combine with new vampire legends.

Modern vampires

Dracula legend and modern vampire legend are directly inspired by Eastern European folklore. History records dozens of images of vampires vying in this area, hundreds of years ago. The most famous are Upir of Russia and Vrykolakas of Greece.

And vampires in Moldavia, Wallachia and Transylvania (now Romania) are collectively known as Strigoi. Without reviving after death like Upir and Vrykolakas, this Strigoi underwent many different transformations after rising from the grave. First it could be a poltergeist who unintentionally harasses the family by moving furniture and stealing food. Then Strigoi clearly appeared as a normal person, then returned to his family to disrupt, beg for food and spread the disease. At this point Strigoi began to attack people, first of all his family and then whoever he met on the way.

In addition, people are also afraid of living vampires (not dead dead people) called Strigoi Viu . These are babies born deformed, such as having a tail or having a metallic font of fontanel. When Strigoi Viu dies, one must burn its body to eliminate the afterlife. In other parts of Eastern Europe, the Strigoi demons are called vampires, or Vampyr, a variant of Upir of Russia. Western European countries then borrowed the word and so Vampyr (later Vampire) officially entered English.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, vampire panic fever spread throughout Western Europe. People told them to see dead people go everywhere to attack living people. The authorities have excavated the graves to incinerate the body. Since then the world of vampires thrilled throughout Western Europe and entered poetry and painting. Later, these works inspired Irish writer Bram Stoker to write the famous novel Dracula.

Dracula of Bram Stoker

Writer Bram Stoker

Dracula of Stoker was a true man in history - it was Vladislav Basarab , the ruler of Wallachia (Valachie) in the middle of the 15th century, often called Vlad Dracula or Vlad Tepes (meaning 'Vlad who piles' ) due to his brutality against the opponent (closing poles piercing the human body). However, there is no evidence that people believe that he is a vampire. Stoker's demon is not a copy of Dracula, but mostly Stoker borrowed this evil prince to build the image. Unlike the homeless Strigoi, Stoker vampire is a noble living in a magnificent castle.

Why is there a vampire phenomenon?

There is no scientific evidence that vampires exist, but medical progress has proved this evil behavior. One of the ' vampire diseases ' is porphyria (porphyria). This extremely rare disease is caused by an imbalance in the production of heme, an iron-rich pigment in the blood. People with this disease are very afraid of sunlight , have more abdominal pain and may be delirious.

In the old days, the disease was treated by giving patients fresh blood to overcome an imbalance in the body (although there is no clear evidence of this). Some patients of this type often have red mouth and teeth due to unstable heme pigmentation activity. Porphyria are hereditary, so people often focus these patients on certain areas.

The second cause of 'vampire disease' is catalepsy, a combination of epilepsy, schizophrenia and other diseases affecting the central nervous system. When the patient has a seizure, the whole body becomes stiff, heart rate and breathing weaken. Sometimes outsiders mistook catalepsy patients who were violently bouncing off . a dead body!

Today, medicine has the knowledge and the means to check whether someone is alive or dead. However, in the old days, people relied on external phenomena to judge a person's life, so that catalepsy patients were often buried and could be 'revived' . The stage of catalepsy outbreaks can last for hours or days - enough time to conduct a funeral! After waking up in the grave, if the patient is suffering from a mental disorder , he is easily considered . vampire!

While these phenomena cause fear for humans, the origins of all the legends and knowledge of vampires lie in psychology rather than physical. Death is one of the most mysterious aspects of life and all ancient cultures are particularly interested in phenomena. One way to explain death is to personalize it - giving it a tangible form, so the demons Lamastu, Lilith and similar vampires of ancient times are explanations for a terrible mystery , the sudden death of a young child and the womb in the womb. The Strigoi demon and other active corpses are the final symbol of death - they are the true remains of the dead.

Vampires are also "embodied " by the dark side of humans. By delineating evil through supernatural images, people can better interpret their own evil trends. The manifestation of so many vampire-like demons throughout history, as well as our endless obsession with these bloodbaths, proves that it is an overall reaction to human condition. . It is simply human nature to eliminate fear.