Vampire, in popular legend, a creature, often fanged, that preys upon humans, generally by consuming their blood. Vampires have been featured in folklore and fiction of various cultures for hundreds of years, predominantly in Europe, although belief in them has waned in modern times.
What Is a Vampire? There are almost as many different characteristics of vampires as there are vampire legends. But the main characteristic of vampires (or vampyres) is they drink human...
There is a long tradition in these legends and literatures forewarning against the vampire as a malevolent imitation of humanity, setting the vampire at the intersection of themes of sexuality, religion, politics, and death.
From Dracula to Twilight, vampires have left a prominent mark on popular media. What makes vampires so interesting is the fact that they’re always portrayed differently depending on the source material.
Today, there are even thousands of people who readily identify as vampires. And, yes, they drink human blood. Read on to learn about nine real vampires from history, from serial killers and Serbian peasants to cruel leaders with insatiable bloodlust.
Between 1725 and the 1750s, villagers in central Europe witnessed a mass hysteria frenzy that would later be known as the Great Vampire Epidemic, the largest vampire epidemic in history: killing several people, terrorizing thousands, and marking the rise of the vampire.
In most cases, vampires are revenants of evil beings, suicide victims, or witches, but they can also be created by a malevolent spirit possessing a corpse or by being bitten by a vampire. Belief in such legends became so pervasive that in some areas it caused mass hysteria and even public executions of people believed to be vampires.