The essence and the idea of vampires.
There are two points of view on the nature of vampires:
first essence of vampires - a daemon that is included in the dead body;
second nature vampires - perhaps more common - it is the spirit of the deceased, who had returned to his body. Montague Summers writes: "He's a vampire - a part of the dark side of nature, he has the mysterious qualities ... even though, strictly speaking, is not a demon (« Vampire: Kith and Kin »). Walter Man in «De Nugis Curialium» [«Courtiers' Trifles»] at the end of the tenth century, held the first point of view, it tells the story of demon incarnate into a lady of noble birth, gnaws throat young children.
Rooted in ancient times an idea of vampires was complemented by integrating the various superstitions and small, as always happens in folk genres, the admixture of real facts:
1 - The widespread superstition about ghosts or the dead man who returns to his old lair, took complete form in the legends of Hollouine. All Saints Day and All Souls' Day of Remembrance, which is celebrated on November 1, has incorporated many pagan rituals, including the Celtic festival in honor of Samhain, Lord of the Dead. The next day, November 2 - All Souls festival, the traditional day of the return of spirits. Return of the dead caused fear and, therefore, they had to be propitiated. Most funerals are primarily intended to convince her that the dead do not come back, a lot of stories about people not gained their resting place because the funeral service were incorrect or incomplete, the urge of living necessary to perform these ceremonies. So, Odysseus had to go back, to soothe the soul Elpenora and Achilles - to comply with the soul of Patroclus. The most frequent targets were visiting vampire relatives, most often the wife (whose memory of her husband was particularly bright). In one of the earliest (1196g.) stories about vampires (though not of blood-sucking species), in the «Historia Rerum Anglicarum» William of Newbury, the dead husband molested his wife and when the tomb was opened, to tame animated corpse, the body was found almost rotten, just as it was on the day of burial.
2 - The existence of maniacs who crave blood. Such a state, of course, is extremely rare and abnormal and different from cannibalism, sometimes takes the extreme form, as a woman, Samaritan, as described in the Bible (Samuel 4, 6, 24-30).
3 = Premature burial or interment random person in a state of catalepsy, or insensitivity. Summers said that in the early XXcen. in the United States reported an average of about one a week premature burial («Vampire: Kith and Kin»), in his book «Buried Alive» (1895) by Franz Hartmann refers to 700 cases in his own physician HIHv District at the end - though it is necessary noted that the doctor was an occultist. In ancient times, when medical knowledge was less developed, the error could be more frequent, noted Poop B «De Masticatione Mortuorum» (1679) and Vandals plundering the corpse shortly after the burial could be easily frightened by his "resurrection." The efforts of the liberation of the coffin and could cause damage to the outer body, and bleeding.
4 = Traditional vengeance, the desire to punish the offender, often reinforced by religious norms. Sometimes, people rejected by society during his lifetime, were rejected after death. In this way becomes a vampire who has led a "vicious and dissolute life, and often of excommunication his bishop" (Allatius, «De Craecorum Hodie Quorundam Opinationibus», 1645), died damned perjurers, buried without the proper ritual (for example, without the Eucharist ), apostates, suicides, werewolves and stillborn illegitimate children of illegitimate parents (in Hungary). In Slavic countries felt that the bodies that it jumps a cat or a bird flew, could become vampires, such beliefs reflected in the English folklore in the habit of removing animals from the place where the corpse was expecting burial. There are many legends that tell how the body of excommunication did not decompose, Scottish popular belief is based on the belief that the body of a suicide remains uncorrupted, until after the term of his life. On the other hand, incorruptible bodies of saints is a miracle. Inherent monolithic communities hostile to everything unusual manifested in the belief that the old, the poor and the crippled can be witches or vampires, so, cleft lip, the hair on the palms, blue eyes, red hair were considered at different times, signs of vampires.
5 = Match messages about vampirism with outbreaks of plague and pestilence, in equal part, from a terrible stench. Dr. Moore, a famous Cambridge Platonist, in «An Antidote Against Atheism» («The antidote to atheism", 1653) tells how the tormented vampire priest in Pentshe in Silesia. One night, "when the theologian, as usual, sitting with his wife and children, who gathered around him, practicing music, all over the room suddenly spilled sudden stench. Following this, the priest and his family turned to the Lord in prayer. However the smell grew stronger and became obnoxious beyond measure, so much so that they had to go up to his room. He and his wife were in bed, and a quarter of an hour, when they felt the same smell in the bedroom. And while they complained to each other on it, came out of the wall and sneak a ghost came to the bed theologian, breathed on him piercingly cold and gave up the spirit of this unbearable stench that neither describe nor imagine it's impossible. "
Since ancient times it was believed that the stench, heralds and accompanies the appearance of the plague. William of Newbury brings the story of excommunication lecherous man who terrorized his hometown: "The air was nasty and corrupt when it stinking and rotting flesh hangs around, resulting in a terrible plague broke out and he was not at home, which would not be mourning their loved ones, and soon the city, which until recently was densely populated, was left out completely, because those who were lucky enough to survive the epidemic and dangerous attacks, quickly moved to other areas, too, not to die. " Two young men found the body of the man, cut him with a shovel until the blood gushed out, and then burned it. William continues: "The Plague, so cruelly destroyed the people completely stopped immediately, as soon as this damn monster was destroyed, as if polluted air has been cleared by fire, which burned the disgusting animal, infects the whole atmosphere» («Historia Rerum Anglicarum»).
Drain and epidemics are equally plagued southeastern Europe in the late XVII and early XVIII centuries., Continued until H1Hv. Epidemic raged on Chios in 1708, in Mezhibozhe and Belgrade in 1725 and 1732, Serbia in 1825, Hungary in 1832 and in Danzig in 1825. Vampirism was as dangerous and in other times and was the subject of academic treatises, published in German universities, especially in Leipzig. In one of the theological studies from the pen of Johann Heinrich Tsopfta (Sopfiusa) and named «Dissertatio de Vampiris Serviensibus» (1733), given the classical description of vampires: "Vampires come out of their graves at night, attack people sleeping quietly in their beds, suck all the blood from their bodies and destroy them. They annoy the living men, women and children, do not settle with age or with the floor. Those who will fall under the fate of their evil influence, complain suffocation and a complete loss of power, then they will soon fade away. " Calmet adds: "The people who have been dead for a long time, ... rise from their graves and come to disturb the living, whose blood they suck and drink." No plague, when "a few hours in the village ill five or six people," can not be compared with vampirism. «The Jewish Spy of d'Argens» (1729) continues: "Their symptoms - total exhaustion and weakness, as if from extreme blood loss ... In spite of all that can make a local druggist, sick people die away within a few days. " Later, an unknown factor causing death, will be named a bacterium or virus.
6 = The existence of certain abnormalities in accordance with current vampire: nekrofagiya (eating of dead bodies), nekrosadizm (damage to corpses, to cause sexual pleasure) and necrophilia (intercourse with a dead body, both normal and pederasticheskoe and masturbatory).
7 = Ernest Jones explains that the vampire - is "the spirit of the night, embracing the sleeper, to suck the blood out of it, it is obvious that he is - a consequence of a nightmare." According to legend, the vampire can be lime, if you find his grave, then perform the exhumation of the corpse (which will be found in the excellent state of preservation) and kill him with one blow or shovel spear through the heart. Calmet, a Benedictine monk, wrote: "No one man can free himself from the horrible attack, dig until the corpse from the grave, not to score his chest a sharp stick, cut off his head, throwing up the heart, or even burn the body without a trace."
According to Balthasar Bekker (Bekker), vampires - a product of Adam himself, who for one hundred and thirty years, sported here and there with succubi, ghosts and shadows ("The Enchanted World", ie I). Without going that far, let me say that in the Bible often mentions malicious creatures that everyone should watch out for. Moses forbids necromancer and access necromancers (Deuteronomy, XVIII, II); Tobit (IV) does not allow it to touch either food or drink to the righteous dead. Saul appeal to a witch of Endor (1 Ch. Samuel, XXVIII, 12-14) is a clear proof that the Jews believed in the power of spirits is alive. However, their shared faith and the neighboring peoples. In Assyrian pantheon were demons, walk through walls, sucking the blood from the veins, digging in the guts, and insatiable lustful Lilith ruled Edom and destroyed by God.
For Leon Alachchi (Alacci) (Cologne, 1645), attached to the Vatican Library, the vampire, whom he calls «Vrykolakas», is the man leading a bad life, excommunicated, his body after death, the devil takes hold, and at night he knocked at door and calls out to people by name.
Vampire - Slavic origin were in body image and acted in various places in a similar way. They barely lowered into the ground as they rose from the grave and taken to sow confusion and fear among the living. They gnaw the victim jugular vein and squeezed her throat to keep her from screaming, "with such force that blood squirted out of her mouth, from the nostrils of the ears ..." ("Mercure Galant", 1693). Sometimes they kill people in order to eat his liver (report Pashley (Pashley) from the island of Kandy and the story RP Labe (the) - Labat). Hitting some and killing others upivshis red blood, they finally returned to their brethren, the grave worms.
In fact, vampire, werewolf sister, belongs to the infernal brethren, and he enjoys playing a ghost, but has at the same time, and organic material, which should support and nourish. "The living dead - wrote Montague Sam Mears - has a body which is his own body. He is neither dead nor alive, but living in death. He - an anomaly in the world of ghosts androgyne; pariah among monsters. "
Hang of it, disgusting: waking he skinny and hairy, and when nasosetsya becomes so bold that he nearly burst of satiety. Fresh blood oozing from his mouth, nose and ears (Prospero Lambertini). His body tells us Summers, who considered everything, even the most controversial types of vampires, always icy, loose skin keeps pallid and phosphorescent shade, but his lips were red and sensual, and between them sparkle protruding sharp teeth. Nails, curved like claws of a predatory bird, dirty and oozing blood, his monstrously bad breath the smell of decay, rotting flesh. Finally, his hair was red, like Typhon, Cain and Judas Iscariot.
This unpleasant description applies not only to the European vampire, but all kinds of vampires. The Chinese and Malaysian vampires who attack women and kill babies, terrible claws, bloodshot eyes and swollen lips. Burmese and Japanese vampires devour the soul, while the Indian Council is content to attend the cremation site and look out for the body, which he could take hold. Tibetan "dead eaters" and "masters cemeteries" show us the bloody eyes and green lips. In the Ashanti vampires at night emit a phosphorescent light, they wander in the woods, just like their relatives in ancient Mexico that are under the patronage of the god Tezcatlipoca and occasionally take the shape of a wolf.
Vampire extremely agile and possesses superhuman strength, enabling him to lift the tombstone, in addition, he sees in the dark and worn with wind speed. Vampire invasion deprived shadows and reflected in the mirror unable to occur at night, because the sun's rays are causing him unbearable pain. But the moonlight shows him the way, and in several districts of East Germany once assured though moonbeams reinforce his zeal.
Rossett du Bal, in his thorough "Psychoanalysis Devil" wrote: "The demons, ghosts, ghosts and witches were the Shadows, vicious and vengeful spirits, that's why they do not have shadows, and it is on this basis they can be recognized. In many parts of Russia, it was believed that the Devil and no shade ... "Add to this that he used to buy a shadow or reflection of the sorcerer or those who joined with him in the deal.
When a vampire dog stand and begin to make a wailing like the dead. Indeed, he can pretend to be a vampire dog or other animals and even take a look whore in order to persuade the priests for immorality. The similarity between the vampires and werewolves, is that they can cause a storm nasylat hunger and disease, and in some countries (Bohemia, China) vampires take wolf look.
