Vampires
We couldn’t mention werewolves with out giving a shout out to vampires. Creatures with vampiric characteristics have existed for millennia, with the earliest depiction of blood-drinking demons thought to be from ancient Mesopotamia. Tales of creatures that attacked people in their sleep and drained their bodily fluids existed in ancient Greece as well.
Vampiric entities have been recorded in most cultures throughout history but it would really take hold in medieval Europe in times of disease, most notably when plagues occurred and people lacked a modern understanding of diseases. Believing that conditions such as porphyria, which makes one sensitive to sunlight, tuberculosis, which causes wasting, pellagra, a disease that thins the skin and rabies, which causes biting and general sensitivities that could lead to repulsion by light or garlic. All characteristics associated with vampires
The term vampire was popularized in Western Europe after reports of an 18th-century mass hysteria of a pre-existing folk belief in the Balkans and Eastern Europe that in some cases resulted in corpses being staked and people being accused of vampirism. Again, due to a lack of medical knowledge, people who were very ill, or sometimes even very drunk, and in a coma or in shock were thought dead and later “miraculously” recovered.
Learn more about Vampires here
Adorn your wall with Edvard Munch’s 1895 painting of a Vampire here
