Vampire folklore Vanessa Corrieo 11/17/14 3. Vampires have a lot of different stories and are involved in a lot of different cultures, the stories may have changed over the years. Vampire legends have been around for a millennium; One thing has remained the same though the killing of humans and the draining of their blood who have encountered these demons. Vampires have been included in many regions of the world since the beginning of time. Mesopotamian, Hebrews, Ancient Greeks, and Romans all have stories about vampires each is very different though. Mesopotamians believed in many different greater evils. One creature they believed in was the Ekimmu. The Ekimmu means ''snatched away'', the Ekimmu is said to appear as a demon like phantom to look for victims to feed its misery. Mesopotamians also called these creatures ''evil wind gusts'', the Ekimmu dont drink blood like stereotype vampires instead it feeds off the life forces of plant, animals, elements, and humans by trapping into their aura. Any house that the Ekimmu invades the inhabitants would die a few days later, Ekimmu could also live my behaving criminally or could inflict disease upon them. They brought misery to all their victims. Some more creatures they believed in was called the Uruku, Succubi, Seven Demons, Lamashtu, Lilith, and Vryolakas. The Uruku means ''vampire that attacks man'' its said that just by looking in the eyes of the Uruku a human will be injured. The Uruku haunt deserted places like graveyards, mountains, and seas. Succubi a female and a Incubi a male are said to use a sexual seduction trap to their victims. They prey on them in their sleep, both the Succubi and Incubi manifest mainly in dreams. Churches consider these demons part of satans army.The Seven demons have been found in many religious texts and incarnations. Seven demons relate to what we think vampires are today. The Seven demons drink human blood and avoid the temples of the Gods. In Mesopotamian religion Lamashtu was the daughter of the Sun God Apollo. She was the most terrible female demon, she was known by many different names, and also described as Seven witches and Seven demons. She was said to have killed many children, and drink the blood and eat the flesh of men. She brought nightmares upon her victims, killed nature, contaminated water supplys, and caused womens miscarragies. The legend of Lilith is rooted back to babylonian demonology, its argued that Lilith is the dark demigoddess similur to a Hectate. Lilith is the first wife of Adam, this story is also involved with the story of Adam and Eve. She disobeyed her husband and is punished to forever walk the earth as a demon. Lilith can shape shift, often hunts in the shape of an owl. Her victims usually consist of newborn children and pregnant women. Mesopotamians blamed the Lilith for putting erotic dreams in the minds of men. The last and I would say one powerful denomic is the Vryolakas they are the corpses of people who have been possesed by demons. They rise up from their graves at night and knock on peoples front door calling their name once. If the person opened the door they were doomed to die the next day. Many people avoided death because people would wait for the second name call, Vryolakas could only call name once. The Vryolakas condemned their victims to die of disease. In Hebrews religion the Torah says that ''the blood is life” and also declares that ''The life-force of all creatures resides in the blood (Leviticus 17:11). Drinking blood is forbidden in the Torah, say someone did they would acquire some type of semi-spiritual nature of the demons. Not spiritual in the way they drink blood in order to live but they are not bound to any physical
