First Vampire Research Paper

The myth of the vampire existed in a multitude of civilizations and cultures under various names such is strigoi (for the Romanian territory), Apotamkin, etc. But no matter the name, vampires will always refer to gothic creatures that drain the blood of humans, thus being monstrous.

One of the oldest and well known mythological monsters throughout history are blood sucking immortals known as vampires. They transgress the boundaries that humans are always trying to establish. Vampire lore has reflected the values and social structures of the culture it has existed in, but over the past century the values have transformed. From the classic story of Stoker’s Dracula where he is presented as sinister and non-human, the vampire aspect of literature has evolved drastically to a more heroic immortal.

There are four essentials of a Vampire story. The first one is an older person who is corrupt and usually a male. The second aspect is a young person who is usually a virginal female. Third, the young individual has her youth, energy, and innocence taken away from her, while the older individual continuous to have a prosperous life. Lastly, the young individual dies or destructs.

 The most famous vampire is Dracula who derived from the book Dracula written  by Bram Stoker on May 26, 1897 (http://www.livescience.com/24374-vampires-real-history.html) To create this legendary character he combined old european folk tales with his own creative thoughts and turned his character Dracula into a world renowned legend. “It's a novel that used a mythological creature to tap into the fears of a generation and was so successful that the same exact mythological creature has been doing the same exact thing ever since.” The vampires that are popular today are much different from Dracula but they all owe something to Stoker's

The earliest known mention of vampires comes from Ancient Mesopotamia, where people feared and respected Lamashtu, Sky God Anu’s daughter and the most terrible of all female demons1. Dimme, as she was called in Sumerian, was frequently blamed for the dominant struggles experienced by the population, such as bringing nightmares, infesting rivers, killing foliage, miscarriages, diseases and even muscle cramps. Yet perhaps the most dreadful of all her evil deeds was murdering unsuspecting men and children to later devour on their flesh and blood, much like the literary vampires.

Vampires can be traced to Greek mythology in the story of a young Italian man named Ambrogio and love of his life, Selena. The story includes many

The original myth about vampires came from the man known as Vlad the Impaler. Vlad Tepes would impale his enemies to show their leaders that they cannot win and he drank their blood as a victory celebration. He was the model for the most famous Dracula character. Most people saw him as a blood drinking sadists, while Romania thought of him as a hero defending his empire from Ottoman Turks.

In the late nineteenth century vampires started to evolve into to what is the modern day vampire. Although they were still seen as “evil”, the vampires of the late twentieth century were no longer creepy creatures that would crawl out of their coffins to seduce women and feed from their blood. This was the start of a new period of

Vampire legends and myths are thousands of years old and find homes in most cultures around the world. From the chiang-shih of China to the Lamia of Greek legend, a mix of a woman and winged Serpent (Richardson, 2007). These myths, however, have little in common with modern tellings of the vampire, which are based on European myths. The European vampire myths originated in places like China, Tibet and India and was taken back to the coast of Greece and into the Balkans, which include the Carpathian Mountains and Transylvania (Richardson, 2007).

They are to be compared to the Christians at the time, while Dracula is should be comparable to the devil or anti-Christ. His appearance was like the devil’s “his eyes blazed with a sort of demonic fury” (Stoker 26). He had the power to control things that no one other than God should be able to control, such as the weather and animals. Many of his vampire acts also mocked those of the Christian religion. When giving Holy Communion Christians drink wine or grape juice to symbolizing drinking of the blood God, so that they can have a life heaven.

"Let's start with your past shall we? About the time when you're "alive," when you haven't go on a trek to slaughter all the demon hunters." The inquisitor asked. I was silenced, I tried to avoid him, but it didn't turn out well. He glanced at me and said nothing, as if he was use to downworlders like me. He sighed and shake his head, pulling out something that looks like an angel blade, but it has a gun's trigger on the two side. Pulling the trigger on both side, a bright light came out from top and point it towards me. Then I remembered what it is, it's the blade of justice, it is said that it will give a unique effect to downworlders who's against the person who is holding the blade. I was vulnerable, but it didn't intimidate me a bit. Even though the light was bright, I didn't even blink. Maybe it's because I have some crazy demonic vampire powers, but I was stronger than any ordinary vampire.

Aspects of vampires can be traced back to Greek stories such as that of the vampire Lamia, and the story of Ambrogio. In Lamia’s story, Hera discovered her affair with her husband, Zeus, and killed all of Lamia’s children. This made her insane and unable to sleep. She then began attacking women and children and draining them of their blood in vengeance. In another Greek legend, Ambrogio is cited as the first vampire. This man was cursed by the gods due to problems he found himself in while striving to be with Selene, one of Apollo’s maidens. These curses are the inspiration for characteristics of

The generalization for vampires has been displayed in films and literature for hundreds of years. The stereotypical versions of vampires are that they have long fangs, sleep in coffins during the day, and suck the blood out of humans. Both novels contradict those stereotypes in different ways. To understand the diversity of the vampires described in both novels, one must examine the characteristics that the vampires display and the meaning and purpose behind them. David D. Gilmore’s book “Monsters” analyzes monsters and other mythical creatures. Gilmore describes why humanity invented the idea of

Pagan belief about the origin of the vampire is also introduced in this folktale, which stated that vampires were created through the union of a witch and a demon or a witch and a werewolf. Based upon these folktales, the conclusion can be made that the original vampire possessed a full mouth of sharp teeth, had claws, drained victims of their blood (whether it was collected or drank), possessed supernatural abilities, and was not visually appealing. Yet, the origins of the folktale depict the beliefs of the culture from which it came. There is a cultural difference between the Chinese folktale in which the female vampire sucked out the men’s chi and the European folktales in which the vampires drank their victims’ blood. This difference shows that although the folktales shared many common features regarding the vampire they were still subject to cultural variance based on the beliefs of the particular society.

There are many theories of how the legend of the vampire started. There is one website that caught my eye when reading. This origin theory states some great facts and that's what I’m basing this essay on. I am giving the scientific evidence that vampires are a legend. I am not trying to be a kill joy, but this is science. Which is always a kill joy.