vampires, their history is long, and by long i mean myths about them have been around since 5000 BC, long before Jesus ever came into play. each culture, of course, has their own variations to the myth.
The first myth on vampires predates back to roughly 4000 B.C.E. from the ancient Sumer civilization. The Ekimmu, like many vampires of folklore, was believed to have been created when someone died a violent death or was not buried properly. although not describes as vampires( as the word vampire was not used until the mid 1700's) They were described as demonic in nature, severely rotting corpses, phantom-like entities that roamed the earth, unable to rest, in search of victims.
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| Vlad The Impaler |
Vlad the Impaler, or Dracula as he is commonly known, didn’t come into play until the 1400’s. he is the most widely known of the “vampires” having killed between 40,000 and 100,000 people in his lifetime, using the most brutal of methods to do so. When he was killed, his body was never found, hence the myth that he is in fact a “vampire”. He has had many movies and books written about him. In some adaptations of Dracula, Bram Stokers book and his life story are put together as one.
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| Elizabeth Bathory |
Another widely known “vampire” is Elizabeth Bathory, who as the myth goes, would kill young women, virgins preferably, and would bathe in their blood because she thought that that would keep her young and from dying. She was eventually caught and tried for the killings of several hundred girls. Her legacy definitely followed her, as there have been several books, and movies made about her. She even has several hardcore metal bands named after her.
