Vampire
Down through the ages, the image of the vampire has haunted the dreams of man. Around the
world, many differing legends of the vampire can be found.
In ancient egypt, it was believed that the dead would sometimes return from the afterworld,
walking the night and where they would occasionally steal the lives of unlucky villagers. In this
world that viewed the pharoahs as gods, the "undead" were just a fact of life.
The vampire was viewed very differently in Southeast Asia. The vampire was a demon who
would visit victims as they slept, draining their life essence. It was widely believed that these
monsters favored men as their prey, leading to a bizarre custom in which men would paint their
nails and wear false eyelashes when they slept. By changing their appearance they believed
they could trick the demons, saving their lives in the process.
The more traditional version of the vampire legend originates in the mountain villages of Eastern
Europe. Early recorded reports of vampire activity, sometimes referred to as plagues, date back
to the 17th century Serbia. It seems the dead sometimes didn't stay dead. Individuals recently
deceased were seen wandering the countryside. Like their Asian counterparts, these undead
beings would often visit others while they slept, sometimes killing them. The local lore referred to
them as "nosferatu".
Unlike the cultured, cosmopolitan vampire that we see in the movies, these vampires were
ragged and decomposed, and could turn their victims into vampires themselves. Eventually the
"vampire epidemics" led to a practice in which bodies were dug up and "killed" by a wooden
stake driven through the heart.
The vampire legend really begins to take its modern shape in 1819, when The Vampyre was
published. Attributed to Lord Byron, the story was later credited to Dr. Polidori, a sometime
companion of Byron's. The main character, Lord Ruthven, is an aristocrat whose enchantment
and manipulation of women sets a tone that carries through to today: The vampire as a sexual
creature.
Probably the most famous story of the undead can be found within the pages of Dracula, by
Bram Stoker. It is Stoker's concept of the vampire - debonair, regal, predatory - that we have
seen in the movies. It is this vampire that we have come to know.
Anne Rice wrote of a slightly different vampire. A vampire capable of emotion, longing, even of
pity. Her vampires remembered their mortal lives, lived by a code, and even fell in love.
Even though there are many views of the vampire and its nature, one thing is certain: Mankind
has been obsessed with the undead for centuries. The legend of the vampire lurks in the
shadows of our imaginations, filling our hearts with fear.
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