Vampire Myth and Modern Reality

Finding Vampires in Legend, Hollywood, and Your Neighborhood

A long time ago, people believed that their dead could actually rise again. The myths that most closely resemble our modern interpretation of vampires come from Eastern Europe. The Romanian strigoi, which stems from strix (screech owl) and strigoica (witch), is one of the most well known. They were often considered to be attractive female witches who would become blood-sucking fiends after death. The classic method of dispatching them was to exhume the body, either stake or remove and split the heart, and use a variety of herbs (such as garlic) or flowers on them. This beastly vampire model can be seen in the silent movie "Nosferatu."

Many of these beliefs are mirrored in the more modern tales of Dracula. Assumed to come from the tales of the blood-thirsty ruler Vlad Tepes Dracul, Dracula the vampire has enjoyed many incarnations. From his beginnings in Bram Stoker's classic book, "Dracula," he has been seen in everything from Hollywood movies to breakfast cereal. In popular media, he was portrayed as a highly sensual being fraught with elegant lusts. Another elegant vampire from history would be Erzsebet Bathory, died in 1614, who was reputed to have tortured and killed hundreds of young girls so she could bathe in and drink their blood.

This tragic romantic vision of the vampire was renewed with the publication of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. The world almost completely abandoned the image of vampire as rotting beast, and embraced the beauty of the dark gift. Vampire stories, such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, became very popular. Vampires became prevalent in role-playing games such as Masquerade, and in video games as well.

There have been many different methods of repelling vampires that have been popular over the years. Almost everyone is aware of using crosses or other religious paraphernalia to repel the evil vampires. Another popular method is by using garlic. The strong odor may have something to do with it. There are also accounts of using poppy seeds, roses, silver, or even silk.