Vampires Essay, Research Paper

Vampires

Vampires have been seen and documented throughout history. The history

of vampires goes further back in time than most people realize. The chaldeans,

who lived near the Euphrates river in the southwestern part of Asia more than

five hundred years before the time of Christ , feared vampire or creatures

similar to vampires enough so that they created charms to protect themselves

from being attacked by such creatures. The Assyrians and the Babylonians feared

a creature similar to a vampire known as an Ekimmu. These creatures known as

Ekimmus were believed by the Assyrians to roam the planet searching for food

although it was not always a persons blood but rather a persons’ vitality or

that persons’ energy force. It was believed that if such a creature would enter

someone’s house that person along with his or her family would slowly weaken,

get sick and probably die. In the countries of Syria and Palestine references

were made to such blood sucking monsters on ancient carved tablets. In Ireland

the people believed in these creatures, which they affectionately came to call

“red blood suckers” . Due to their belief in these mythical creatures they began

the practice of placing stones on these vampires graves to kep them from

escaping.This then became standard practice and is still used to this day in the

form of a tombstone. Tombstones were used to control ghosts and other spirits

instead of their original use in controlling vampires.

Due to the fact that vampires seemed to be so commonplace around the

globe, there was a large variety of vampires that differed in shape, behavior

and method of becoming a vampire. All of these factors varied from region to

region. In the country of Bulgaria a vampire had only one nostril. This

Bulgarian vampire would rise out of it’s grave nine days after death in the form

of a shower of sparks and remained in this shape for a period of forty days.

After the completion of these forty days the shower of sparks would regain it’s

human form. Once human-like the vampire goes from playing childish tricks, which

it did in it’s “spark” form , to more serious matters , such as the attacking of

humans and drinking of their blood. Vampires are well known for their craving

for blood but in many countries vampires were not limited to just that

substance as part of their diet, but would also consume foods that humans ate

such as eggs and rice. That, however, does not mean that their yearn for blood

was any weaker than before. Most vampires would attack their victims and suck

the blood from puncture wounds made in the neck (The Russian vampire would suck

the blood directly from the victims heart). Sometimes the vampire would gorge

itself until it had drained the victim completely while other times it would

take just enough to satisfy that night’s thirst and come back the following

night and take a bit more. The method of drinking from the same victim night

after night would cause the victim to get weaker and weaker . Due to the fact

that the victim was indeed attacked by a vampire, that would mean that upon the

victims death they too would become “undead.” (. Vampires p22)

Certain cultures around the globe also had systems to recognize vampires.

In some cultures vampires were distinguished due to the color of their hair. In

most Christian countries vampires could be recognized because they had red hair

like Judas Iscariot, the man who betrayed Christ in the bible, was said to have

had red hair. Eye color was another tell-tale sign used to identify vampires. In

Greece ,where most people have dark colored eyes, vampires were said to have

blue eyes, Rumania they were said to have had gray eyes, and in Ireland they had

black eyes.

Vampires have been around for centuries , in some cases they have been

recognized and feared by cultures that were around thousands of years before the

time of Christ, such as the Babylonians and the Assyrians. Throughout the ages

many medical explanations that could explain the vampire phenomena have been

overlooked. The first reason was the lack of education that many people, because

schooling was not an important part of these societies. Their lack of medical

knowledge about diseases, some of which are quite rare and hard to explain even

to this day was a large factor in the spread of vampire lore. Along with the

fact that very uneducated people have always had a tendency of being overly

superstitious also contributed to the vampire legend. In 1985 Dr. David Dolphin,

Ph.D., a professor of chemistry at the University of British Columbia presented

his theory that blood-drinking vampires were not vampires at all but rather

victims of a disease known as Porphyria.(Dresser, Norine. American Vampires

p171) ” Porphyria is an incurable genetic disease which affects at least 50,000

patients in the U.S. that causes sudden symptoms of severe pain , respiratory

problems, Skin lesions and sometimes death.”(Dresser, Norine. American vampires

p171) “Porphyria may well have been responsible for many a vampire tale -

especially since the disease is hereditary” (Garden, Nancy. Vampires p98) A

person that is affected by Porphyria can seem very scary to the average person

since the disease causes the persons gums to tighten. That causes their teeth to

be seen much more prominently as well as causing their teeth and nails to gain a

fluorescent glow.These traits could then go on to explain the fact that many

vampire stories described the vampires as giving off a greenish glow. Victims of

this disease are likely to be deformed in other ways as well but usually in the

facial area. Because of the skin lesions suffered by victims of Porphyria they

are usually very sensitive to light which would cause them to not venture out of

their homes until night. This aspect of the lifestyles of people suffering

Porphyria would fit in very well with vampire lore. Garlic was used as a

repellent of vampires butmore likely victims of the disease known as Porphyria

would have a strange chemical reaction with garlic which would cause the person

to have a severe porphyria attack. This would then make that person very

reluctant to come close to the garlic since it contains large amounts of Dialkyl

Disulfide which destroys Heme in the persons blood ( Heme is the pigmented

component of Hemoglobin and related substances found in largest amounts in the

bone marrow, red blood cells, and the liver ). The further destruction of Heme

in a Porphyria victim would set off a severe allergic reaction. Since Porphyria

is also a genetic disease several siblings in a family usually carry the

defective gene. While the siblings may share the same defective gene sometimes

only one of the siblings will display any of the symptoms . It is known that in

many vampire tales , vampires return to attack their sibling or other family

members.This along with the fact that Porphyria could be triggered in a person

who is genetically predisposed to have the disease by a sudden loss of large

amounts of blood. When these factor are taken into consideration, one could say

that when a vampire came back to attack a sibling and when the sibling also

began to show some vampire characteristics , it could be assumed that the

Porphyria gene in the second sibling could have been triggered by the loss of

blood which was suffered during the attack by the first sibling or the

“vampire.” This would make it seem as though the vampire attack had caused the

second sibling to turn into a vampire as well.

Plague was another factor which could explain the growth of the vampire

legend. In the Stephen King book Salem’s Lot which is the story of a town that

is infested by Vampires and due to the infestation of vampires causes the town

to become a ghost town. In the book it says” But a little over a year ago

something began to happen in Jerusalem’s Lot that was not unusual, people began

to drop out of sight.” (King, Stephen. Salem’s Lot p15) This phenomenon which is

found in Stephen King’s book was not at all uncommon in ancient times especially

in remote places. Villagers in these remote places would have believed that

blood was a Vital substance that gave life. Since they did not know much about

disease their lack of knowledge of diseases and their lack of medical

practitioners in these remote areas would give the perfect opportunity for their

superstitious beliefs to come into play. If suddenly much of the town began to

fall ill at the same time and they all displayed similar symptoms such as weight

loss , weakness and paleness they would think that these people must have been

drained of the vital substance, blood. Searching for an explanation without any

medical knowledge the one thing that would make sense to them would be that a

vampire was on the loose while the fact that the town could be in the middle of

an epidemic such as the black plague during the Dark Ages. In Stephen King’s

book a town would just seem to disappear for no reason and the only explanation

would be vampires. In the Dark ages the situation would be very similar to that

in the Stephen King book except that in Stephen King’s book the vampires are

real.

Tuberculosis or consumption as it was often called is a disease that

although was not highly contagious was a very common disease up until the mid-

1800’s . The beginning stages of this disease do not contain very recognizable

symptoms.By the time the symptoms showed up (such as weight loss and fatigue

which is where the name consumption came from) the disease was already in it’s

later stages. Tuberculosis would have been very difficult to diagnose by people

with no medical knowledge especially when the most serious symptoms of the

disease such as coughing and spitting up blood were not present. Tuberculosis

was often openly confused with vampirism as was the case when in the mid- 1800’s

the corpses of many victims of Tuberculosis were treated as vampires and buried

face down or by being dug up and burned when members of their families suddenly

came down with Tuberculosis.(Garden,Nancy. Vampires p69)

The mental aspect of vampires has always seemed to be that of someone

who was not in their right mind. In Anne Rice’s book The Vampire Lestat at one

point one of the vampires in the book just looks at the other one and simply

says “You’re the mad one.” ( Rice, Anne. The Vampire Lestat p73) not realizing

that madness plays a large part towards explaining the vampire legend as well as

other mental conditions. One of these conditions which could explain the vampire

legend is the condition known as a cataleptic condition which many times is

brought