Lamia
The
ancient Greeks believed that the Lamia
was a vampire who stole little children to
drink their blood. She was portrayed as a
snake-like creature with a female head and
breasts. Usually female, but sometimes
referred to as a male or a hermaphrodite.
The Lamia had the head and torso of a woman,
but the lower half of her body was
serpentine.
According to legend, she was
once a Libyan queen (or princess) who fell
in love with Zeus. Zeus' jealous wife Hera
deformed her into a monster and murdered
their offspring. She also made Lamia unable
to close her eyes, so that she couldn't find
any rest from the obsessing image of her
dead children. When Zeus saw what had be
done to Lamia, he felt pity for her and gave
his former lover a gift: she could remove
her eyes, and then put them on again. This
way, though sleepless, she could rest from
her misfortune. Lamia envied the other
mothers and took her vengeance by stealing
their children and devouring them.
In Lamia and other Poems
(1820), the English poet John Keats writes
about Lamia too. In this version, based on
the information he found in Anatomy of
Melancholy of the 1600s, Lamia has the
ability to change herself into a beautiful
young woman. Here she assumes a human form
to win a man's love.
"Lamia."
Encyclopedia Mythica from Encyclopedia
Mythica Online.
<http://www.pantheon.org/articles/l/lamia.html>
Lilith
As the mother of all demons,
Lilith has recently been linked to either giving birth to the first
vampires or being the first vampire.
This fallacy is linked to
past Jewish superstitions in that Lilith drank the blood of children
while in the form of an owl.
Who was
Lilith in folklore and myth?
According to Jewish folklore, Lilith
was the first wife of Adam. She was banished from the Garden of Eden
when she refused to make herself inferior to Adam - she refused to get
into the missionary position with him during sex. When she was cast out,
she was made into a demon figure, and Adam was given a second wife, Eve,
who was fashioned from his rib to ensure her obedience to her man.
In other tales,
Lilith captured Jewish babies in the night and ate them. Sometimes she
led young girls and young husbands astray. Although Lilith was demonized
by early Jewish culture as a symbol of promiscuity and disobedience,
many modern Jewish feminists see Lilith as a positive figure, a model of
woman as equal to man in the
creation story.
El Chupacabra
The
mysterious El Chupacabra, considered a cryptid, has feasting patterns
quite similar to those of a vampire.
In Spanish,
El Chupacabra
means "the goat sucker." It has been named the goat sucker because of
the way it sucked all the blood from Puerto Rican goats, as well as
other livestock. As far as we know, there has been no human fatalities
reported.
Sightings began in
Puerto Rico in the early 1990s, and have since been reported as far
north as Maine, and as far south as Chile.
One can easily detect whether the Chupacabra had any involvement in an
animal's death because of its "vampiristic" method of kill. Puncture
wounds in their neck and most of their blood drained is the signature
mark of a Chupacabra. Laser-like cuts on the victim's ears are also
common.
Although some people say they have seen the Chupacabra's tracks, in many
cases there are no signs of blood or tracks around the dead animals.
Though some argue that
the chupacabras may be real creatures, mainstream scientists and experts
generally contend that the chupacabra is a legendary creature, or a type
of urban legend.
http://www.elchupacabra.com/
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