Vampires
Vampires – The History Behind The Myth
Vampires are preternatural beings, commonly believed to be a reanimated corpse, that is said to suck the blood of sleeping persons at night. The reasons that the vampire needs blood to survive varies from culture to culture. Some feel that the vampire needs blood to flow through their veins to keep their bodies animated and limit the damage of decay. Others feel that they feed on blood to wreak havoc and fear. Sunlight causes irritation to the vampire, like in Dracula, and thus vampires only come out at night.
New research suggests that the vampire folklore originated from human beings that suffered a genetic disease, late in the Middle Ages. In a paper by Dr Dolphin, he advances the theory that vampires are actually normal people who suffered from one class of incurable hereditary diseases, known commonly as porphyrias. Porphyrias is a slight malfunction in the bodies chemicals and sufferers become affiliated with the same symptoms as the vampire. They have extreme sensitivity to forms of natural/unnatural light,
The Oxford Dictionary dates the first appearance of the word vampire in English from 1734. It comes from the German word Vampir which came up around 1725.
The notions of vampirism has exited for centuries now. It has existed in cultures such as Mesopotamians, Hebrews, Ancient Greeks and Romans. They all had tales of demons and spirits which are considered precursors to the vampire.
The history of vampire can be traced to Persia as well. In ancient Persia, where a vase was discovered depicting a man who was struggling with a huge creature which was trying to suck his blood. A total resemblance of what we call vampire. From Hebrew, in Bablyonian myth a deity was known for drinking blood of babies.
There are many more legends and myths behind the vampire and the exact date of the origin is not known. Modern day vampires originated from the early 18th century.
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