When people hear the word "vampire", they think of Count Dracula from Bram Stoker's book. Vampires appear to us as living dead people drinking blood. The countries of Eastern Europe are home to most of the vampire stories, but other states, including Greece, can also tell legends about immortal creatures. Today we will talk about the Greek vampire - Vrikolakas.
On the island of Crete, they are often called katakano. Dead bodies are known to decompose, but no trace of decay is visible on their bodies. Their bodies look swollen, they are thicker than they were in life. They are believed to swell from the blood they drink. Despite the fact that the Vrikolakos have been underground for several years, they have red-faced faces. Unlike many vampires, vrykolakos can go out into the sunlight without harm to themselves, although they are more active at night. They are believed to be unable to swim.
Where did these creatures come from? In Greece, there was a custom for many centuries, which arose due to the fact that the islands had little land suitable for arranging cemeteries. Three years after the funeral of the deceased, the grave was opened to make a new burial. If it turned out that during this time the body did not rot, it was considered that it was a vrikolakos.
A person became a vrikolakos for various reasons: for example, if he lived a vicious life, if a curse was imposed on him, or if a cat jumps over his not yet buried body.
The captured vrikolakos is re-buried on a deserted island so that it cannot return to its former habitat.
Vrikolakos can be found and destroyed by the Sabbath day (one who was born on Saturday and therefore has special righteous power) and his ghost dog. If you see a lonely dog, be affectionate with it, because the cleanup remains invisible and watches your beloved dog, which you don't even know about.
The name of the Greek variety of the Eastern European vampire comes from the Slavic words "wolf" and "dlaka" and means "wearing the skin of a wolf." Most of the legends tell of vampires as ruthless bloodsuckers. But Vrikolakas does not bite its victims to suck their blood. Instead, he spreads plague and pestilence.
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Vrikolakas is also credited with actions that are usually attributed to the antics of a poltergeist. But this is a misunderstanding, because poltergeist or recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis (RSPK in English) is only a certain force, and the Greek vampire is, so to speak, a creature of flesh.
Some legends accuse Vrikolakas of causing sleep paralysis on people. In this way, the vampire from Greece resembles the Balkan mythical bloodsuckers who strangle their victims by sitting on their chest.
In some parts of Greece, there is a belief that you cannot open the door after the first knock. It is believed that if you do not wait for the second blow and open, then there is a great chance of becoming a victim of the curse. It will not be possible to see the knocker, but the one who opened the door will soon die, and after death will turn into a vampire. In addition, sinners excommunicated, buried in unconsecrated ground, or ate a lamb that was bitten by a werewolf can become vrikolakas.
Even werewolves could become vampires. If a person killed a werewolf, then after death he will turn into a cross between a vrikolakas and a werewolf. Those who committed crimes against their families during their lifetime are especially at risk of becoming the revived dead.
As religion began to influence the Greek way of life everywhere, it also had to deal with popular beliefs about vampires. Her position was the assertion that the devil himself brought the bodies of the dead back to life. The clergy associated the stories of Vrikolakas with the biblical story of the Endor sorceress who summoned the deceased Samuel.
Finally, the church decided that only those who were excommunicated, buried in the wrong place, died a violent death, stillborn and born during major Christian holidays can become a vampire.
The Greeks did not stand on ceremony with the captured living dead: during archaeological excavations on the island of Lesvos in 1994, the bodies of two young people were found with twenty-centimeter wedges sticking out in their backs, groin and ankles. So in the 19th century, they dealt with those who were suspected of returning from the dead.
The skeleton of an alleged vampire found on the island of Lesvos
Ilya Butov