reply to
The entire vampire legend was written by a man in the same organization as Aleister Crowley... I think that says enough.
Whilst this may be true for the modern day "Hollywood" Vampire, it's not true for the legend itself.
Vampires have been included in myth, legend and folklore for millenia.
The greek, norse, mesapotamian and egyptian cultures of ancient times held beliefs in god and demons of a vampiric nature.
It is widely believed that the Persians were the one of the first cultures to believe in blood-drinking demons. Evidence of this has been found in the
form of creatures drinking blood from humans being depicted on shards of pottery found at various archeological digs.
The Babylonions had the myth of Lilitu. She was apparently a demon who survived by drinking the blood of babies. Her Jewish counterpart, Lilith was
meant to also feed on the blood of men and women as well as babies.
The Mesopotamians also held beliefs in the Babylonian goddess Lamashtu and Gallu who were believed to have vampiric tendencies.
The Greeks showed signs of believing in vampires similar to the ones of more recent folklore, although not as the undead. Empusa, daughter of the
goddess Hecate, a demonic creature, was said to transfigure herself into a beautiful woman and seduce men, then drink their blood as they slept.
Lamia was said to be the daughter of a greek king and one of the mistresses of Zeus, but when his wife, the goddess Hera found out she killed Lamia's
children and, as revenge, Lamia began to feed from young children as they slept by drinking their blood.
The striges (or strix as they were known in Roman belief) preyed upon children and young men.
The Romanian Strigoi, the Albanian Shtriga and the Slavic Strzyga are all said to have originated from the Roman belief in the Strix.
There was mass hysteria concerning vampires and vampire attacks in medieval Europe that spilt over even so far as the 18th century where an
"epidemic" of grave diggings and corpse stakings occured as a response to numerous recorded sightings.
The Ashanti tribe of West Africa believe in the asanbosam which lives in trees with teeth of iron and preys on innocents. The Ewe tribe believe in the
adze which preys specifically on children and takes on the form of the firefly to do so.
Most of this information can be found online from various sources, but also extensive reading into ancient cultures will lead yout o eventually come
across some mention of either an actual vampire or a god or demon which possess vampiric tendencies.
*(infromation gained from
en.wikipedia.org... other, slightly more reliable sources may also be found with relative
ease by using the following link...
www.google.co.uk...)
If at all you disagree with anything said here, please contradict me. Opinions are no good without voice.
