Poison and Blood

Moonlight — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 13:00:32 +0000

What do you get when you mix massive birds, large talons, bloodlust and breasts full of poison? The ancient Roman creature known as the strix!

The strix (plural: striga) is a legendary creature from Roman mythology. Often depicted as a screech owl, this vampire-like creature is a nocturnal bird of ill omen that feds on the flesh and blood of humans. But unlike most vampires the striga aren’t undead beings. As I mentioned above a strix’s appearance is that of a giant bird with menacing talons, a misshapen head and breasts full of poisonous milk. Sexy.

A strix was fond of children’s blood and the blood of men. To get themselves some yummy man blood they’d first transform into the guise of a beautiful woman, and then they would seduce him and have sex with him. This is when the strix would strike, draining the man of all his fluids. When it came to children, the strix would simply feed the baby some of her poisoned breast milk, and then she would feast on its blood. The striga are also very fond of livers and other internal organs.

A strix can fly wherever it wants to, no barriers can keep them out, but there are ways to ward them off. One way is to sprinkle the door way with drugged water and place a branch of hawthorn in the window. These two things should keep the nasty striga away.

Some more fun facts about the striga are that in the year 743, the Synod of Rome outlawed offerings to the striga. In 744 a list of superstitions written by the Council of Leptinnes renounced “all the works of the Demon and all the evil beings that are like them.” But it didn’t stop there, many other pagan creatures were outlawed as well and to believe in them meant execution. Also, it wasn’t only the Romans that believed in the striga, in the Middle Ages they were said to be the servants of Satan and his demons.

- Moonlight

Origins of Vampires

veritas — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:11:37 +0000

Vampires are beings of folklore and mythology that basically exist by feeding off the lifeforce of humans and/or animals.Usually, they are “undead” or ressurrected corpses, who live off the blood of other beings. Most popular legends refer to the blood-drinking Undead in Eastern Europe, but many other various cultures and regions have similar creatures. Some are non-human, or animal, bats, dogs, spiders, et cetera. Vampires are an extremely popular inspiration for various fictional works discussed later.

Vampirism itself is the act of drinking a human or animal’s blood. It is a form of cannibalism, however less often occurring, and is popularly regarded throughout modern fiction and legend, as a way to gain supernatural powers. Historically speaking, it was also a way to intimidate an enemy, for the opposing force to claim that they ate flesh or drank blood, and can reflect a culture’s spiritual beliefs.

The word vampire is widely distributed throughout various cultures and languages. The English word vampire, could have been derived from many possible languages, the most forestanding, the German “Vampir” and French “Vampyre”. The German word, vampir, is derived of its many similar variations in most Slavic languages.

The first recorded use of the word is believed to have been used in Old Russian, Upir, in a Book of Psalms, transcribed by a priest, in 1047 AD, who stated that his name was “Upir Iikhyi”, which means “Foul Vampire”. This was debated later, as it was the translated version of the name of a famous Swedish rune carver.

In Babylonian demonology, there were vampiric beings called Lilu, and further back, in Sumerian legend, were Akhkharu, who would prowl the night killing newborns and pregnant women. The Jewish adapted Lilith from one of the demons, called Lilitu. There are vampiric beings in India, found in Sanskrit folklore, called vetalas; ghouls who inhabit corpses. The Indian religion Hinduism has various mythological legends of blood-drinking gods and goddesses, and also humans, considering reincarnation is a part of Hinduism, and one leading a sinful, or unclean life may be reincarnated as reanimated corpse attacking the living at night. The Egyptian goddess Sekhmet became enslaved to her bloodlust after killing humans, and was only sated by drinking alcohol tinted to look like blood. The strix, appearing in Roman stories, was a nocturnal bird who fed on human flesh and blood.

Vampires » strix

Poison and Blood

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