Post by Lady Winter Wolf on Jan 13, 2005 4:57:49 GMT -5
The Greek Vampires
One of the most feared of the paranormal denizens of Greece was the vrykolakas, or vampire. Charles Edwards had this to say about the hardy Cretans he met during the 1880s: “A muscular Cretan, who would not delay to tackle three or four Turks if it were required of him, would be ready to die of dread of a vampire if he saw an inexplicable shadow in the night, and would be for digging up this or that corpse in the neighbouring churchyard, to see if the flush of blood in its normally pale face indicated it as his unholy assailant in the quiet hours.”
Few cultures in the world have a tradition of belief in vampires as long-standing and as widespread as Greece. But to understand the character of the Greek vampire, we must divest ourselves of many of the now fashionable associations of the term, derived from the romantic writers of the nineteenth century.
An informant in the USA explained the Greek concept of a vampire to investigator Dorothy Lee thus: “In the homeland they say that a man is a vrykolakas when, after three years, they dig up his corpse whole. When the body has melted away, and only bones are left, the relatives go and take the bones, they put them in a little box, they pour wine over them, the priest reads over them, they put them in the coemeterion [house of sleep], they put on the box the name of the dead, and the date. But some bodies do not melt away, and of these they say, “He has become a vrykolakas.” In those years we said that these had been cursed by their father, or that the priest had excommunicated them because they had married a relative; or if they had committed a crime, then they said that this man will come out whole after he dies. Now I don’t believe these things, but then I did.
And some people come out of the soil in three years, with flesh on, black and half-decayed. And I saw one, and how could I sleep after that? . . . they had him in the yard of the church, as an example to the people. And after three days his relatives took him, and they had to recite many prayers, and bury him, and again after three years to take him out. Of this they would say that it is a vrykolakas, and we would be afraid . . . Such a thing would give rise to gossip and speculation about the man’s life.”
Extract from "Haunted Greece: Nymphs, Vampires and other Exotika" by John L. Tomkinson www.anagnosis.gr/Haunted_Greece.htm
Read more about Greek vampires. www.anagnosis.gr/Vampires.htm
Read more about other paranormal denizens of Greek folklore. www.anagnosis.gr/Exotika.htm
One of the most feared of the paranormal denizens of Greece was the vrykolakas, or vampire. Charles Edwards had this to say about the hardy Cretans he met during the 1880s: “A muscular Cretan, who would not delay to tackle three or four Turks if it were required of him, would be ready to die of dread of a vampire if he saw an inexplicable shadow in the night, and would be for digging up this or that corpse in the neighbouring churchyard, to see if the flush of blood in its normally pale face indicated it as his unholy assailant in the quiet hours.”
Few cultures in the world have a tradition of belief in vampires as long-standing and as widespread as Greece. But to understand the character of the Greek vampire, we must divest ourselves of many of the now fashionable associations of the term, derived from the romantic writers of the nineteenth century.
An informant in the USA explained the Greek concept of a vampire to investigator Dorothy Lee thus: “In the homeland they say that a man is a vrykolakas when, after three years, they dig up his corpse whole. When the body has melted away, and only bones are left, the relatives go and take the bones, they put them in a little box, they pour wine over them, the priest reads over them, they put them in the coemeterion [house of sleep], they put on the box the name of the dead, and the date. But some bodies do not melt away, and of these they say, “He has become a vrykolakas.” In those years we said that these had been cursed by their father, or that the priest had excommunicated them because they had married a relative; or if they had committed a crime, then they said that this man will come out whole after he dies. Now I don’t believe these things, but then I did.
And some people come out of the soil in three years, with flesh on, black and half-decayed. And I saw one, and how could I sleep after that? . . . they had him in the yard of the church, as an example to the people. And after three days his relatives took him, and they had to recite many prayers, and bury him, and again after three years to take him out. Of this they would say that it is a vrykolakas, and we would be afraid . . . Such a thing would give rise to gossip and speculation about the man’s life.”
Extract from "Haunted Greece: Nymphs, Vampires and other Exotika" by John L. Tomkinson www.anagnosis.gr/Haunted_Greece.htm
Read more about Greek vampires. www.anagnosis.gr/Vampires.htm
Read more about other paranormal denizens of Greek folklore. www.anagnosis.gr/Exotika.htm
