vampires

Vampires

I was thinking about the idea of a vampire.

It has been with us a long time, but i do wonder how much

the idea of the vampire has been adulterated by the 

image of the bat cloaked vampire of Bram Stoker

and the mixing in the story of Vlad the Impaler.

There were what we call "vampires" roaming the streets of Ancirent Greece,

and the "vampire" was a dangerous spirit believed in,

even further back, by the Mesopotamians,the Sumerians and Chaldeans.

But the question is what they meant by the word, 

which we translate as "vampire" today.

The idea seems to have been that some ghoul had blood drinking

characteristics, and that we today call them "vampires".

They were probably then known as just another form of demon.

They would not have been bat-people

(no offence to Batman fans)

I recall seeing an episode of the Monkey TV series,

 where a very Western version of the bat image of a vampire clan 

attacked the travellers. In the original stories of the Journey to the West, 

by Wu Cheng'en, the enemies were mainly spirits and demons.

Then of course, there is the story of Lilith, 

Who fed on the blood of babies.

Among other interpretations or manifestations 

she was said to be the spirit of a dead harlot, who latched onto 

a man, drained him dry, and would never let him go.

More like a  succubus, in fact, which i imagine wasn't after blood,

although it's possible that the succubus wanted to drain 

its victim of other sorts of bodily fluids!

(Remember, a succubus is a female creature,

 the male of the species is called an  incubus.)

..... to be continued.