Origins of Vampires

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.

By Veritas

Veritas is a faerie child, switched at birth and left with wonderful parents in a small shack deep in the hills of West Virginia. He believes in magick and hopes to inspire readers lured into the enchanted path. Occasionally, he'll post contributions from other authors so drop us an email if you're interested.

27 comments

  1. i have heard of the origins dating to the great grandmother of christ i havent realy looked into it but the story goes that jesus himself was acctualy vampire, and this is what gave him his ability’s, as you can imagine this would explain a lot of things that occur in the christian bible and the refrences to the blood of christ if this were true he would have been the first male making him soley responsible for carrying the blood line. wich by all tecnicality would have been passed to mary magdalin and to the son of christ. but like i said this is just somthing i heard.

  2. hey yvain schaffnit i think that is kinda of a neat story. i was kinda thinking something like that but just that he was a supernatural human. but the vampire thing makes more seance. though thinking that i can’t stop laughing about what if that was true. thinking about how much alot of christens are against “magic” and here it is that the person they follow could be a vampire. though it is sad that they are against that stuff but really their religion was started with alot of people had abilities. all the disciples had abilities.

  3. yvain,

    first off the DaVinci code is not real. Jesus never married, never had any children and never laid with mary magdalin.

    Second, Jesus was not a vampire and got his powers from God which was also himself. Just because Jesus exhibited powers simular to those which vampires have doesn’t mean he was one. There are humans that can exhibit simular powers to vampires too so there is no reason to think Jesus was a vampire.

    lastly, do your research before you post something you are not sure of.

  4. ok darkone chill.

    first off if your a christen then you should know better then to jump at someone. so hold your tongue and behave like you have been taught to do and not be a hypocrite

    second it’s called a theory. it can be proven and disproven. and no one can say for sure unless however YOU are able to sit down to jesus and have a good oh chat with him about what he is or is not. and if so i would love to meet this jesus of yours b/c i have a bone to pick with him and a few questions of my own.

    third have a little respect for other people’s opinions as everyone is entitled to their own. and you have no right to try and push your opinions on another person. more so if you are a christen as you should know how to behave as you are to follow the golden rule “treat others as you would like to be treated” or as your jesus says “treat your nabor as yourself” and i do belief that you would want respect from others on your beliefs

    forth, humans can not have powers as strong as jesus as their bodys could not handle it. we can only have a very small part of what he had. also anyone that has anything worthy enough to compare to him is not 100% human as we think of it or is a witch.

    so could you pleas not jump at ppl when they have a right to their own theories and opinions.

    thank you
    -Enya

    1. Well, I’m catholic but theres not really a big difference. Anyway, another reason why jesus could not be a vampire is that he died so…..but your right, it is a theory, not a fact.

  5. how can people demean Jesus. I am not Christian bur every faith and religion followers must respect each other’s deity. Whoever you are.. If you brag things about Christianity i can only imagine what kind of religion your’s must be to teach and preach bad stuff like this

  6. I apologize for being so harsh in my previous comment. I was having a bad day and needed to vent somehow. However I do stand behind what I said and I never said humans had simular powers to Jesus just that it is possible for humans to have psycotelekinetic abilities that most vampires have. Since Jesus had many other abilities/powers and vampires have some powers that humans can not achieve does not mean that Jesus was a vampire.

  7. it’s alright then. everyone needs to vent. but it would be nice if you found a different way to vent in the future.

    and i said that humans could have similar abilities. it’s been my experience. though i question what alot of humans that can do these things are really fully human. but it is possible.

    and no one said that jesus was a vampire just that he could be. there is nothing saying he couldn’t of been. and a vampire is still a human. so it wouldn’t change. anything.
    it’s just a theory something that can’t be proven or disproven.

  8. Yeah, I usually just excercize or play guitar to blow off steam and I don’t know why I did here.

    Yeah, I understand that Jesus could have been a vampire but there is prettymuch no chance of it since to have powers that he had would mean hundreds of thousands of years of practice and dedication. Since Jesus’s life can and is historically documented from his birth to his death/resurrection there is just no way he could have achieved that in such a short time. Even if he was reincarnated multiple times the powers of your previous lifetime need to be relearned. That is why the only way he could have had such powers was if he was God in the flesh which he was. It just isn’t possible for Jesus to have been a vampire in my mind.

  9. ppl often are unable to act with complete though out actions when they are frustrated. so it’s alright your we’re all only human after all. prone to make mistakes.

    well i will respect that you believe that. thou i also believe that vampires are human. though i’m sure most of them would disagree greatly with me. and in most ways they are far from human.

    in my experience though. abilities come to alot of ppl. sometimes you don’t need to learn how to use them. more so all u need is an open mind an a willingness to listen. and so jesus could just be alot more open minded and listen better then most of us.

  10. Yeah, I have to agree that its human nature to make mistakes.

    Well you are not too far off with thinking vampires are human. They are not human but not that different either. Since humans can be turned into vampires the two have to be very simular and actually one of the few differences but a major one is the type of food that they get their energy from. Another difference is an increased sensory system. There are other differences too but I think you get the just of it.

    You do have a good point but still that doesn’t mean he was a vampire and what better way to know how to use these powers than if he were all-knowing God?

  11. vampires for the most part are human(but not)… they are just more then human. and of coarse they have a craving for the lovely food they love. but i can’t say much on it as i’m pretty sure that i’m biest when it gets into the details about vampires.

    and i’m not saying he was a vampire. just their is a chance. even if it’s only 1% chance of a posibility that he could of been

    1. Enya you seem to have knowledge about vampires maybe you can help Me. For the last 3 year I have had dreams of vampires and seeing myself in these dreams as one I don’t know but it just bothers Me to no end and on top of that I’m catholic I want to believe but I don’t know maybe I’m just fooling myself on something that doesn’t seem real I don’t know but these dreams are so vivid that they are real

  12. hey Mini,

    1st it’s kinda hard to understand what you put down

    2nd could you identify who you where talking to. there are names on each comment left

  13. Do vampires even exist? I mean there are ppl who call themselves vampires bc they drink blood and stuff… But that doesn’t mean that they have special powers or such, and less likely to be more than humas. What would that made them? I mean what could be more than a human? That’s what I think. And i dont believe in vampires with supernatural power i just believe in people/human who call themselves vapires just because they decide in feeding on human blood.

    Btw pretty interesting the arguments about Jesus possibility of being a vamp.

  14. If we can have ghost, deamons, and magick in this world then why cant we have Vampires? There is so much that NO ONE can explaine why not Vampires. How do you know that are just myths? How do you know? I know that I dont. If Lilith is a myth, then why is she in the Bible? Isnt the Bible non fiction? It just makes me really wonder why cant Vampires exisit. DOnt tell me that it is impossible. Like I said, we have ghost, deamons and poeple that have the sixth sence and there is magick out there some poeple are just not able to see it. It is because that they cant open themselves to belive.

    1. Why be all against the excistence of vampires if there are ghosts, demons, and people with the sixth sense and physcics (like you said)? I, myself, belive in vampires.

      Btw, nice debate on the Jesus/vampire thing.

  15. Vampires, I dont know if real or not, even though I know beings very close to that word. There’s a lot of stories, movies, books and now even TV series, that is for sure. I wonder why these creatures have always been so popular. I wanted to know more about what people say about vampires so Im just fooling around the page. The Jesus Christ comment is very funny! Makes a lot of sense to me, one baptised catholic. I better stay away from a vampire and become one… after all, there is a vampire inside all of us, we just need to feed it in order for it to emerge.

  16. i’ve always been into the idea of vampires and love all the books and movies. but to put the idea that jesus was a vampires is ridiculous i heard that judus was a vampire. not jesus it just stupid.

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