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thumb Count Orlok from Nosferatu A vampire is a mythical or folkloric creature said to subsist on human or animal blood often having magical powers and the ability to transform. Usually the vampire is the corpse of a dead person, reanimated or made undead by one means or another. Some cultures have myths of non-human vampires, such as demons or animals like bats, dogs, and spiders. Vampires are often described as having a wide variety of additional powers and character traits, extremely variable in different traditions, and are a frequent subject of folklore, cinema, and contemporary fiction.
Vampirism is the practice of drinking blood. In folklore and popular culture the term generally refers to a belief that one can gain supernaturalThe supernatural refers to conscious magical, religious or unknown forces that cannot ordinarily be perceived except through their effects. This word is often used interchangeably with preternatural or paranormal. Unlike natural forces, these putative sup powers by drinking human blood. The historical practice of vampirism can generally be considered a more specific and less commonly-occurring form of cannibalismCannibalism is the act or practice of eating members of the same species, e. humans eating humans (sometimes called anthropophagy), or dogs eating dogs. Among humans, this practice has been attributed to people in the past all over the world, including ri. The consumption of another's blood has been used as a tactic of psychological warfareDepartment of Defense defines Psychological warfare PSYWAR as: :"The planned use of propaganda and other psychological actions having the primary purpose of influencing the opinions, emotions, attitudes, and behavior of hostile foreign groups in such a wa intended to terrorize the enemy, and it can be used to reflect various spiritual beliefs.
In zoologyThis article is the top of the Zoology series. History of zoology (before Darwin) History of zoology (since Darwin) Zoology is the biological discipline which involves the study of animals. History of zoology Main articles History of zoology (before Darwi the term vampirism is used to refer to leechArhynchobdellida Rhynchobdellida There is some dispute as to whether Hirudinea should be a class itself, or a subclass of the Clitellata. A leech is an annelid in the subclass Hirudinea . There are freshwater, terrestrial and marine leeches. Like their nees, mosquitoThis article is about the insect; for the WWII aircraft see De Havilland Mosquito. See text. Mosquitoes are insects belonging to the order Diptera; genera include Anopheles Culex Psorophora Ochlerotatus Aedes Sabethes Wyeomyia Culiseta and Haemagoggus fors, mistletoeMistletoe is the common name for various evergreen parasitic plants of the families Loranthaceae and Viscaceae, especially "European Mistletoe" Viscum album and "American Mistletoe" Phoradendron flavescens with waxy white berries and smooth-edged oval lea, vampire batVampire bats : Animalia : Chordata : Mammalia : Chiroptera : Phyllostomidae Desmodontinae Genera Desmodus Dyphilla Diaemus Vampire bats are bats that feed on blood. There are only three bat species that feed on blood: The Common Vampire Bat, Desmodus rotus, and other organisms that prey upon the bodily fluids of other creatures. This term also applies to fictional animals of the same nature, including the chupacabra.
Tales of the dead craving blood are ancient. In Homer's Odyssey, for example, the shades that Odysseus meets on his journey to the underworld are lured to the blood of freshly sacrificed rams, a fact which Odysseus uses to his advantage to summon the shade of Tiresias.
Some Slavic peoples believed in vampires as early as the 4th century. In their mythology, a vampire drank blood, was afraid of (but could not be killed by) silver, and could be destroyed by cutting off its head and putting it between the corpse's legs, or by putting a wooden stake into its heart.
In popular western culture, vampires are depicted as unaging, intelligent, and mystically endowed in many ways. The vampire typically has a variety of notable abilities. These include great strength and immunity to any lasting effect of any injury by mundane means, with specific exceptions. Vampires can also change into a mist, wolf, or bat; and some can control the minds of others. They typically have extended canines or fangs.
It is believed that vampires have no reflection, as traditionally it was thought that mirrors reflected your soul and creatures of evil have no soul. Fiction has extended this belief to an actual aversion to mirrors, as depicted in Bram Stoker's novel Dracula when the vampire casts Harker's shaving mirror out of the window.
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