gen alpHA

gen z & x list

To do:

  1. wake up
  2. wash hands & face
  3. eat breakfast
  4. wash ur teeth
  5. go work
  6. come home
  7. wash teeth
  8. sleep

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Droaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagan
A dragon is a magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in Western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as winged, horned, and capable of breathing fire. Dragons in eastern cultures are usually depicted as wingless, four-legged, serpentine creatures with above-average intelligence. Commonalities between dragons' traits are often a hybridization of feline, reptilian, mammalian, and avian features. Some scholars believe large extinct or migrating crocodiles bear the closest resemblance, especially when encountered in forested or swampy areas, and are most likely the template of modern Asian dragon imagery.[1][2] Etymology An early appearance of the Old English word dracan in Beowulf[3] The word dragon entered the English language in the early 13th century from Old French dragon, which, in turn, comes from the Latin: draco (genitive draconis) meaning "huge serpent, dragon", from Ancient Greek δράκων, drákōn (genitive δράκοντος, drákontos) "serpent".[4][5] The Greek and Latin term referred to any great serpent, not necessarily mythological.[6] The Greek word δράκων is most likely derived from the Greek verb δέρκομαι (dérkomai) meaning "I see", the aorist form of which is ἔδρακον (édrakon).[5] This is thought to have referred to something with a "deadly glance",[7] or unusually bright[8] or "sharp"[9][10] eyes, or because a snake's eyes appear to be always open; each eye actually sees through a big transparent scale in its eyelids, which are permanently shut. The Greek word probably derives from an Indo-European base *derḱ- meaning "to see"; the Sanskrit root दृश् (dr̥ś-) also means "to see".[11] Historic tales and records Several bones purported to belong to the Wawel Dragon hang outside Wawel Cathedral, but actually belong to a Pleistocene mammal. Draconic creatures appear in virtually all cultures around the globe[12] and the earliest attested reports of draconic creatures resemble giant snakes. Draconic creatures are first described in the mythologies of the ancient Near East and appear in ancient Mesopotamian art and literature. Stories about storm-gods slaying giant serpents occur throughout nearly all Near Eastern and Indo-European mythologies. Famous prototypical draconic creatures include the mušḫuššu of ancient Mesopotamia; Apep in Egyptian mythology; Vṛtra in the Rigveda; the Leviathan in the Hebrew Bible; Grand'Goule in the Poitou region in France; Python, Ladon, Wyvern and the Lernaean Hydra in Greek mythology; Kulshedra in Albanian Mythology; Unhcegila in Lakota mythology; Jörmungandr, Níðhöggr, and Fafnir in Norse mythology; the dragon from Beowulf; and aži and az in ancient Persian mythology, closely related to another mythological figure, called Aži Dahaka or Zahhak. Nonetheless, scholars dispute where the idea of a dragon originates from[13] and a wide variety of hypotheses have been proposed.[13] In his book An Instinct for Dragons (2000), David E. Jones (anthropologist) suggests a hypothesis that humans, like monkeys, have inherited instinctive reactions to snakes, large cats, and birds of prey.[14] He cites a study which found that approximately 39 people in a hundred are afraid of snakes[15] and notes that fear of snakes is especially prominent in children, even in areas where snakes are rare.[15] The earliest attested dragons all resemble snakes or have snakelike attributes.[16] Jones therefore concludes that dragons appear in nearly all cultures because humans have an innate fear of snakes and other animals that were major predators of humans' primate ancestors.[17] Dragons are usually said to reside in "dark caves, deep pools, wild mountain reaches, sea bottoms, haunted forests", all places which would have been fraught with danger for early human ancestors.[18] In her book The First Fossil Hunters: Dinosaurs, Mammoths, and Myth in Greek and Roman Times (2000), Adrienne Mayor argues that some stories of dragons may have been inspired by ancient discoveries of fossils belonging to dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals.[19] She argues that the dragon lore of northern India may have been inspired by "observations of oversized, extraordinary bones in the fossilbeds of the Siwalik Hills below the Himalayas"[20] and that ancient Greek artistic depictions of the Monster of Troy may have been influenced by fossils of Samotherium, an extinct species of giraffe whose fossils are common in the Mediterranean region.[20] In China, a region where fossils of large prehistoric animals are common, these remains are frequently identified as "dragon bones"[21] and are commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine.[21] Mayor, however, is careful to point out that not all stories of dragons and giants are inspired by fossils[21] and notes that Scandinavia has many stories of dragons and sea monsters, but has long "been considered barren of large fossils."[21] In one of her later books, she states that, "Many dragon images around the world were based on folk knowledge or exaggerations of living reptiles, such as Komodo dragons, Gila monsters, iguanas, alligators, or, in California, alligator lizards, though this still fails to account for the Scandinavian legends, as no such animals (historical or otherwise) have ever been found in this region."[22] Robert Blust in The Origin of Dragons (2000) argues that, like many other creations of traditional cultures, dragons are largely explicable as products of a convergence of rational pre-scientific speculation about the world of real events. In this case, the event is the natural mechanism governing rainfall and drought, with particular attention paid to the phenomenon of the rainbow.[23] African stories/records Egypt Illustration from an ancient Egyptian papyrus manuscript showing the god Set spearing the serpent Apep as he attacks the sun boat of Ra In Egyptian mythology, Apep or Apophis is a giant serpentine creature who resides in the Duat, the Egyptian Underworld.[24][25] The Bremner-Rhind papyrus, written around 310 BC, preserves an account of a much older Egyptian tradition that the setting of the sun is caused by Ra descending to the Duat to battle Apep.[24][25] In some accounts, Apep is as long as the height of eight men with a head made of flint.[25] Thunderstorms and earthquakes were thought to be caused by Apep's roar[26] and solar eclipses were thought to be the result of Apep attacking Ra during the daytime.[26] In some myths, Apep is slain by the god Set.[27] Nehebkau is another giant serpent who guards the Duat and aided Ra in his battle against Apep.[26] Nehebkau was so massive in some stories that the entire earth was believed to rest atop his coils.[26] Denwen is a giant serpent mentioned in the Pyramid Texts whose body was made of fire and who ignited a conflagration that nearly destroyed all the gods of the Egyptian pantheon.[28] He was ultimately defeated by the Pharaoh, a victory which affirmed the Pharaoh's divine right to rule.[29] The ouroboros was a well-known Egyptian symbol of a serpent swallowing its own tail.[30] The precursor to the ouroboros was the "Many-Faced",[30] a serpent with five heads, who, according to the Amduat, the oldest surviving Book of the Afterlife, was said to coil around the corpse of the sun god Ra protectively.[30] The earliest surviving depiction of a "true" ouroboros comes from the gilded shrines in the tomb of Tutankhamun.[30] In the early centuries AD, the ouroboros was adopted as a symbol by Gnostic Christians[31] and chapter 136 of the Pistis Sophia, an early Gnostic text, describes "a great dragon whose tail is in its mouth".[31] In medieval alchemy, the ouroboros became a typical western dragon with wings, legs, and a tail.[30] A famous image of the dragon gnawing on its tail from the eleventh-century Codex Marcianus was copied in numerous works on alchemy.[30] Asian stories/records West Asia Mesopotamia The mušḫuššu is a serpentine, draconic monster from ancient Mesopotamian mythology with the body and neck of a snake, the forelegs of a lion, and the hind-legs of a bird.[32] Here it is shown as it appears in the Ishtar Gate from the city of Babylon.[32] Ancient people across the Near East believed in creatures similar to what modern people call "dragons".[33] These ancient people were unaware of the existence of dinosaurs or similar creatures in the distant past.[33] References to dragons of both benevolent and malevolent characters occur throughout ancient Mesopotamian literature.[33] In Sumerian poetry, great kings are often compared to the ušumgal, a gigantic, serpentine monster.[33] A draconic creature with the foreparts of a lion and the hind-legs, tail, and wings of a bird appears in Mesopotamian artwork from the Akkadian Period (c. 2334 – 2154 BC) until the Neo-Babylonian Period (626 BC–539 BC).[34] The dragon is usually shown with its mouth open.[34] It may have been known as the (ūmu) nā’iru, which means "roaring weather beast",[34] and may have been associated with the god Ishkur (Hadad).[34] A slightly different lion-dragon with two horns and the tail of a scorpion appears in art from the Neo-Assyrian Period (911 BC–609 BC).[34] A relief probably commissioned by Sennacherib shows the gods Ashur, Sin, and Adad standing on its back.[34] Another draconic creature with horns, the body and neck of a snake, the forelegs of a lion, and the hind-legs of a bird appears in Mesopotamian art from the Akkadian Period until the Hellenistic Period (323 BC–31 BC).[32] This creature, known in Akkadian as the mušḫuššu, meaning "furious serpent", was used as a symbol for particular deities and also as a general protective emblem.[32] It seems to have originally been the attendant of the Underworld god Ninazu,[32] but later became the attendant to the Hurrian storm-god Tishpak, as well as, later, Ninazu's son Ningishzida, the Babylonian national god Marduk, the scribal god Nabu, and the Assyrian national god Ashur.[32] Scholars disagree regarding the appearance of Tiamat, the Babylonian goddess personifying primeval chaos, slain by Marduk in the Babylonian creation epic Enûma Eliš.[35][36] She was traditionally regarded by scholars as having had the form of a giant serpent,[36] but several scholars have pointed out that this shape "cannot be imputed to Tiamat with certainty"[36] and she seems to have at least sometimes been regarded as anthropomorphic.[35][36] Nonetheless, in some texts, she seems to be described with horns, a tail, and a hide that no weapon can penetrate,[35] all features which suggest she was conceived as some form of dragoness.[35] Levant The Destruction of Leviathan (1865) by Gustave Doré In the Ugaritic Baal Cycle, the sea-dragon Lōtanu is described as "the twisting serpent / the powerful one with seven heads."[37] In KTU 1.5 I 2–3, Lōtanu is slain by the storm-god Baal,[37] but, in KTU 1.3 III 41–42, he is instead slain by the virgin warrior goddess Anat.[37] In the Book of Psalms, Psalm 74, Psalm 74:13–14, the sea-dragon Leviathan, is slain by Yahweh, god of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, as part of the creation of the world.[37][38] In Isaiah 27:1, Yahweh's destruction of Leviathan is foretold as part of his impending overhaul of the universal order:[39][40] Original Hebrew text English א בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא יִפְקֹד יְהוָה בְּחַרְבּוֹ הַקָּשָׁה וְהַגְּדוֹלָה וְהַחֲזָקָה, עַל לִוְיָתָן נָחָשׁ בָּרִחַ, וְעַל לִוְיָתָן, נָחָשׁ עֲקַלָּתוֹן; וְהָרַג אֶת-הַתַּנִּין, אֲשֶׁר בַּיָּם. {ס} On that day The LORD shall punish with his sharp, great, and strong sword, Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent; He will slay the dragon that is in the sea.[37] —Isaiah 27:1 Job 41:1–34 contains a detailed description of the Leviathan, who is described as being so powerful that only Yahweh can overcome it.[41] Job 41:19–21 states that the Leviathan exhales fire and smoke, making its identification as a mythical dragon clearly apparent.[41] In some parts of the Old Testament, the Leviathan is historicized as a symbol for the nations that stand against Yahweh.[38] Rahab, a synonym for "Leviathan", is used in several Biblical passages in reference to Egypt.[38] Isaiah 30:7 declares: "For Egypt's help is worthless and empty, therefore I have called her 'the silenced Rahab'."[38] Similarly, Psalm 87:3 reads: "I reckon Rahab and Babylon as those that know me..."[38] In Ezekiel 29:3–5 and Ezekiel 32:2–8, the pharaoh of Egypt is described as a "dragon" (tannîn).[38] In the story of Bel and the Dragon from the Book of Daniel, the prophet Daniel sees a dragon being worshipped by the Babylonians.[42] Daniel makes "cakes of pitch, fat, and hair";[42] the dragon eats them and bursts open.[43][42] Ancient and Post-classical Iran/Persia Azhi Dahaka (Avestan Great Snake) is a dragon or demonic figure in the texts and mythology of Zoroastrian Persia, where he is one of the subordinates of Angra Mainyu. Alternate names include Azi Dahak, Dahaka, and Dahak. Aži (nominative ažiš) is the Avestan word for "serpent" or "dragon.[44] The Avestan term Aži Dahāka and the Middle Persian azdahāg are the sources of the Middle Persian Manichaean demon of greed "Az", Old Armenian mythological figure Aždahak, Modern Persian 'aždehâ/aždahâ', Tajik Persian 'azhdahâ', Urdu 'azhdahā' (اژدها), as well as the Kurdish ejdîha (ئەژدیها). The name also migrated to Eastern Europe, assumed the form "azhdaja" and the meaning "dragon", "dragoness" or "water snake" in the Balkanic and Slavic languages.[45][46][47] Despite the negative aspect of Aži Dahāka in mythology, dragons have been used on some banners of war throughout the history of Iranian peoples. The Azhdarchid group of pterosaurs are named from a Persian word for "dragon" that ultimately comes from Aži Dahāka. In Zoroastrian literature Aži Dahāka is the most significant and long-lasting of the ažis of the Avesta, the earliest religious texts of Zoroastrianism. He is described as a monster with three mouths, six eyes, and three heads, and as being cunning, strong, and demonic. In other respects, Aži Dahāka has human qualities, and is never a mere animal. In a post-Avestan Zoroastrian text, the Dēnkard, Aži Dahāka is possessed of all possible sins and evil counsels, the opposite of the good king Jam (or Jamshid). The name Dahāg (Dahāka) is punningly interpreted as meaning "having ten (dah) sins". In Persian Sufi literature, Rumi writes in his Masnavi[48] that the dragon symbolizes the sensual soul (nafs), greed and lust, that need to be mortified in a spiritual battle.[49][50] Rustam kills the dragon, folio from Shahnameh of Shah Ismail II, attrib. Sadegi (Beg), Iran, Tabriz, c. 1576 AD, view 1 – Aga Khan Museum – Toronto, Canada In Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, the Iranian hero Rostam must slay an 80-meter-long dragon (which renders itself invisible to human sight) with the aid of his legendary horse, Rakhsh. As Rostam is sleeping, the dragon approaches; Rakhsh attempts to wake Rostam, but fails to alert him to the danger until Rostam sees the dragon. Rakhsh bites the dragon, while Rostam decapitates it. This is the third trial of Rostam's Seven Labors.[51][52][53] Rostam is also credited with the slaughter of other dragons in the Shahnameh and in other Iranian oral traditions, notably in the myth of Babr-e-Bayan. In this tale, Rostam is still an adolescent and kills a dragon in the "Orient" (either India or China, depending on the source) by forcing it to swallow either ox hides filled with quicklime and stones or poisoned blades. The dragon swallows these foreign objects and its stomach bursts, after which Rostam flays the dragon and fashions a coat from its hide called the babr-e bayān. In some variants of the story, Rostam then remains unconscious for two days and nights, but is guarded by his steed Rakhsh. On reviving, he washes himself in a spring. In the Mandean tradition of the story, Rostam hides in a box, is swallowed by the dragon, and kills it from inside its belly. The king of China then gives Rostam his daughter in marriage as a reward.[54][55] East Asia China Main article: Chinese dragon A dragon from the Nine Dragons Scroll by Chen Rong, 1244 AD. Illustration of the dragon Zhulong from a seventeenth-century edition of the Shanhaijing Dragon art on a vase, Yuan dynasty The word "dragon" has come to be applied to the legendary creature in Chinese mythology, loong (traditional 龍, simplified 龙, Japanese simplified 竜, Pinyin lóng), which is associated with good fortune, and many East Asian deities and demigods have dragons as their personal mounts or companions. Dragons were also identified with the Emperor of China, who, during later Chinese imperial history, was the only one permitted to have dragons on his house, clothing, or personal articles. Archaeologist Zhōu Chong-Fa believes that the Chinese word for dragon is an onomatopoeia of the sound of thunder[56] or lùhng in Cantonese.[57] The Chinese dragon (simplified Chinese: 龙; traditional Chinese: 龍; pinyin: lóng) is the highest-ranking creature in the Chinese animal hierarchy. Its origins are vague, but its "ancestors can be found on Neolithic pottery as well as Bronze Age ritual vessels."[58] A number of popular stories deal with the rearing of dragons.[59] The Zuo zhuan, which was probably written during the Warring States period, describes a man named Dongfu, a descendant of Yangshu'an, who loved dragons[59] and, because he could understand a dragon's will, he was able to tame them and raise them well.[59] He served Emperor Shun, who gave him the family name Huanlong, meaning "dragon-raiser".[59] In another story, Kong Jia, the fourteenth emperor of the Xia dynasty, was given a male and a female dragon as a reward for his obedience to the god of heaven,[59] but could not train them, so he hired a dragon-trainer named Liulei, who had learned how to train dragons from Huanlong.[59] One day, the female dragon died unexpectedly, so Liulei secretly chopped her up, cooked her meat, and served it to the king,[59] who loved it so much that he demanded Liulei to serve him the same meal again.[59] Since Liulei had no means of procuring more dragon meat, he fled the palace.[59] One of the most famous dragon stories is about the Lord Ye Gao, who loved dragons obsessively, even though he had never seen one.[60] He decorated his whole house with dragon motifs[60] and, seeing this display of admiration, a real dragon came and visited Ye Gao,[60] but the lord was so terrified at the sight of the creature that he ran away.[60] In Chinese legend, the culture hero Fu Hsi is said to have been crossing the Lo River, when he saw the lung ma, a Chinese horse-dragon with seven dots on its face, six on its back, eight on its left flank, and nine on its right flank.[61] He was so moved by this apparition that, when he arrived home, he drew a picture of it, including the dots.[61] He later used these dots as letters and invented Chinese writing, which he used to write his book I Ching.[61] In another Chinese legend, the physician Ma Shih Huang is said to have healed a sick dragon.[62] Another legend reports that a man once came to the healer Lo Chên-jen, telling him that he was a dragon and that he needed to be healed.[62] After Lo Chên-jen healed the man, a dragon appeared to him and carried him to heaven.[62] In the Shanhaijing, a classic mythography probably compiled mostly during the Han dynasty, various deities and demigods are associated with dragons.[63] One of the most famous Chinese dragons is Ying Long ("responding dragon"), who helped the Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor, defeat the tyrant Chiyou.[64] The dragon Zhulong ("torch dragon") is a god "who composed the universe with his body."[64] In the Shanhaijing, many mythic heroes are said to have been conceived after their mothers copulated with divine dragons, including Huangdi, Shennong, Emperor Yao, and Emperor Shun.[64] The god Zhurong and the emperor Qi are both described as being carried by two dragons,[65] as are Huangdi, Zhuanxu, Yuqiang, and Roshou in various other texts.[59] According to the Huainanzi, an evil black dragon once caused a destructive deluge,[59] which was ended by the mother goddess Nüwa by slaying the dragon.[59] Hongwu Emperor with dragon emblem on his chest. c. 1377 A large number of ethnic myths about dragons are told throughout China.[59] The Houhanshu, compiled in the fifth century BC by Fan Ye, reports a story belonging to the Ailaoyi people, which holds that a woman named Shayi who lived in the region around Mount Lao became pregnant with ten sons after being touched by a tree trunk floating in the water while fishing.[64] She gave birth to the sons and the tree trunk turned into a dragon, who asked to see his sons.[64] The woman showed them to him,[64] but all of them ran away except for the youngest, who the dragon licked on the back and named Jiu Long, meaning "sitting back".[64] The sons later elected him king and the descendants of the ten sons became the Ailaoyi people, who tattooed dragons on their backs in honor of their ancestor.[64] The Miao people of southwest China have a story that a divine dragon created the first humans by breathing on monkeys that came to play in his cave.[59] The Han people have many stories about Short-Tailed Old Li, a black dragon who was born to a poor family in Shandong.[60] When his mother saw him for the first time, she fainted[60] and, when his father came home from the field and saw him, he hit him with a spade and cut off part of his tail.[60] Li burst through the ceiling and flew away to the Black Dragon River in northeast China, where he became the god of that river.[66] On the anniversary of his mother's death on the Chinese lunar calendar, Old Li returns home, causing it to rain.[67] He is still worshipped as a rain god.[67] Diagram representing the Four Dragon Kings of the Four Seas in relation to the central Dragon King of the Earth In China, a dragon is thought to have power over rain. Dragons and their associations with rain are the source of the Chinese customs of dragon dancing and dragon boat racing. Dragons are closely associated with rain[68] and drought is thought to be caused by a dragon's laziness.[69] Prayers invoking dragons to bring rain are common in Chinese texts.[68] The Luxuriant Dew of the Spring and Autumn Annals, attributed to the Han dynasty scholar Dong Zhongshu, prescribes making clay figurines of dragons during a time of drought and having young men and boys pace and dance among the figurines in order to encourage the dragons to bring rain.[68] Texts from the Qing dynasty advise hurling the bone of a tiger or dirty objects into the pool where the dragon lives;[69] since dragons cannot stand tigers or dirt, the dragon of the pool will cause heavy rain to drive the object out.[69] Rainmaking rituals invoking dragons are still very common in many Chinese villages, where each village has its own god said to bring rain and many of these gods are dragons.[69] The Chinese dragon kings are thought of as the inspiration for the Hindu myth of the naga. [69] According to these stories, every body of water is ruled by a dragon king, each with a different power, rank, and ability,[69] so people began establishing temples across the countryside dedicated to these figures.[69] Head of a dragon from a Chinese dragon dance performed in Helsinki in the year 2000. Many traditional Chinese customs revolve around dragons.[70] During various holidays, including the Spring Festival and Lantern Festival, villagers will construct an approximately sixteen-foot-long dragon from grass, cloth, bamboo strips, and paper, which they will parade through the city as part of a dragon dance.[71] The original purpose of this ritual was to bring good weather and a strong harvest,[71] but now it is done mostly only for entertainment.[71] During the Duanwu festival, several villages, or even a whole province, will hold a dragon boat race, in which people race across a body of water in boats carved to look like dragons, while a large audience watches on the banks.[71] The custom is traditionally said to have originated after the poet Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River and people raced out in boats hoping to save him.[71] But most historians agree that the custom actually originated much earlier as a ritual to avert ill fortune.[71] Starting during the Han dynasty and continuing until the Qing dynasty, the Chinese emperor gradually became closely identified with dragons,[71] and emperors themselves claimed to be the incarnations of a divine dragon.[71] Eventually, dragons were only allowed to appear on clothing, houses, and articles of everyday use belonging to the emperor[71] and any commoner who possessed everyday items bearing the image of the dragon was ordered to be executed.[71] After the last Chinese emperor was overthrown in 1911, this situation changed and now many ordinary Chinese people identify themselves as descendants of dragons.[72] The impression of dragons in a large number of Asian countries has been influenced by Chinese culture, such as Korea, Vietnam, Japan, and so on. Chinese tradition has always used the dragon totem as the national emblem, and the "Yellow Dragon flag" of the Qing dynasty has influenced the impression that China is a dragon in many European countries. Silk painting depicting a man riding a dragon, dated to 5th–3rd centuries BC Silk painting depicting a man riding a dragon, dated to 5th–3rd centuries BC Azure Dragon of the East, lacquer painting found in Prince of Lianggong of Han Tomb, Western Han Dynasty Azure Dragon of the East, lacquer painting found in Prince of Lianggong of Han Tomb, Western Han Dynasty Tang dynasty painting of a dragon boat race attributed to Li Zhaodao Tang dynasty painting of a dragon boat race attributed to Li Zhaodao Flag of the Qing dynasty from 1889 to 1912, showing a Chinese dragon Flag of the Qing dynasty from 1889 to 1912, showing a Chinese dragon Dragon sculpture on top of Lungshan Temple, Taipei, Taiwan Dragon sculpture on top of Lungshan Temple, Taipei, Taiwan Members of the Chinese Youth Society of Melbourne performing for Chinese New Year, at Crown Casino, demonstrate a basic "corkscrew" routine Members of the Chinese Youth Society of Melbourne performing for Chinese New Year, at Crown Casino, demonstrate a basic "corkscrew" routine Korea Main article: Korean dragon The Blue Dragon mural depiction at the Goguryeo tombs. The Korean dragon is in many ways similar in appearance to other East Asian dragons such as the Chinese and Japanese dragons. It differs from the Chinese dragon in that it developed a longer beard. Very occasionally, a dragon may be depicted as carrying an orb known as the Yeouiju (여의주), the Korean name for the mythical Cintamani, in its claws or its mouth. It was said that whoever could wield the Yeouiju was blessed with the abilities of omnipotence and creation at will, and that only four-toed dragons (who had thumbs with which to hold the orbs) were both wise and powerful enough to wield these orbs, as opposed to the lesser, three-toed dragons. As with China, the number nine is significant and auspicious in Korea, and dragons were said to have 81 (9×9) scales on their backs, representing yang essence. Dragons in Korean mythology are primarily benevolent beings related to water and agriculture, often considered bringers of rain and clouds. Hence, many Korean dragons are said to have resided in rivers, lakes, oceans, or even deep mountain ponds. And human journeys to undersea realms, and especially the undersea palace of the Dragon King (용왕), are common in Korean folklore.[73] In Korean myths, some kings who founded kingdoms were described as descendants of dragons because the dragon was a symbol of the monarch. Lady Aryeong, who was the first queen of Silla, is said to have been born from a cockatrice,[74] while the grandmother of Taejo of Goryeo, founder of Goryeo, was reportedly the daughter of the dragon king of the West Sea.[75] And King Munmu of Silla who, on his deathbed, wished to become a dragon of the East Sea in order to protect the kingdom. Dragon patterns were used exclusively by the royal family. The royal robe was also called the dragon robe (용포). In the Joseon dynasty, the royal insignia, featuring embroidered dragons, were attached to the robe's shoulders, the chest, and back. The King wore five-taloned dragon insignia while the Crown Prince wore four-taloned dragon insignia.[76] Korean folk mythology states that most dragons were originally Imugis (이무기), or lesser dragons, which were said to resemble gigantic serpents. There are a few different versions of Korean folklore that describe both what imugis are and how they aspire to become full-fledged dragons. Koreans thought that an Imugi could become a true dragon, yong or mireu, if it caught a Yeouiju which had fallen from heaven. Another explanation states they are hornless creatures resembling dragons who have been cursed and thus were unable to become dragons. By other accounts, an Imugi is a proto-dragon which must survive one thousand years in order to become a fully-fledged dragon. In either case, they are said to be large, benevolent, python-like creatures that live in water or caves, and their sighting is associated with good luck.[77] Japan Main article: Japanese dragon Painting of a Japanese dragon by Hokusai (c. 1730 – 1849) Japanese dragon myths amalgamate native legends with imported stories about dragons from China. Like some other dragons, most Japanese dragons are water deities associated with rainfall and bodies of water, and are typically depicted as large, wingless, serpentine creatures with clawed feet. Gould writes (1896:248),[78] the Japanese dragon is "invariably figured as possessing three claws". A story about the samurai Minamoto no Mitsunaka tells that, while he was hunting in his own territory of Settsu, he dreamt under a tree and had a dream in which a beautiful woman appeared to him and begged him to save her land from a giant serpent which was defiling it.[62] Mitsunaka agreed to help and the maiden gave him a magnificent horse.[62] When he woke up, the seahorse was standing before him.[62] He rode it to the Sumiyoshi temple, where he prayed for eight days.[62] Then he confronted the serpent and slew it with an arrow.[62] It was believed that dragons could be appeased or exorcised with metal.[62] Nitta Yoshisada is said to have hurled a famous sword into the sea at Sagami to appease the dragon-god of the sea[62] and Ki no Tsurayuki threw a metal mirror into the sea at Sumiyoshi for the same purpose.[62] Japanese Buddhism has also adapted dragons by subjecting them to Buddhist law;[62] the Japanese Buddhist deities Benten and Kwannon are often shown sitting or standing on the back of a dragon.[62] Several Japanese sennin ("immortals") have taken dragons as their mounts.[62] Bômô is said to have hurled his staff into a puddle of water, causing a dragon to come forth and let him ride it to heaven.[62] The rakan Handaka is said to have been able to conjure a dragon out of a bowl, which he is often shown playing with on kagamibuta.[62] The shachihoko is a creature with the head of a dragon, a bushy tail, fishlike scales, and sometimes with fire emerging from its armpits.[62] The fun has the head of a dragon, feathered wings, and the tail and claws of a bird.[62] A white dragon was believed to reside in a pool in Yamashiro Province[79] and, every fifty years, it would turn into a bird called the Ogonchô, which had a call like the "howling of a wild dog".[79] This event was believed to herald terrible famine.[79] In the Japanese village of Okumura, near Edo, during times of drought, the villagers would make a dragon effigy out of straw, magnolia leaves, and bamboo and parade it through the village to attract rainfall.[79] South Asia India Head of the dragon-god Pakhangba depicted on a musical instrument from Manipur, India In the Rigveda, the oldest of the four Vedas, Indra, the Vedic god of storms, battles Vṛtra, a giant serpent who represents drought.[80] Indra kills Vṛtra using his vajra (thunderbolt) and clears the path for rain,[81][82] which is described in the form of cattle: "You won the cows, hero, you won the Soma,/You freed the seven streams to flow" (Rigveda 1.32.12).[83] In another Rigvedic legend, the three-headed serpent Viśvarūpa, the son of Tvaṣṭṛ, guards a wealth of cows and horses.[84] Indra delivers Viśvarūpa to a god named Trita Āptya,[84] who fights and kills him and sets his cattle free.[84] Indra cuts off Viśvarūpa's heads and drives the cattle home for Trita.[84] This same story is alluded to in the Younger Avesta,[84] in which the hero Thraētaona, the son of Āthbya, slays the three-headed dragon Aži Dahāka and takes his two beautiful wives as spoils.[84] Thraētaona's name (meaning "third grandson of the waters") indicates that Aži Dahāka, like Vṛtra, was seen as a blocker of waters and cause of drought.[84] Bhutan The Druk (Dzongkha: འབྲུག་), also known as 'Thunder Dragon', is one of the national symbols of Bhutan. In the Dzongkha language, Bhutan is known as Druk Yul "Land of Druk", and Bhutanese leaders are called Druk Gyalpo, "Thunder Dragon Kings". The druk was adopted as an emblem by the Drukpa Lineage, which originated in Tibet and later spread to Bhutan.[85] Southeast Asia Vietnam Main article: Vietnamese dragon Stylised map of Đại Nam (Minh Mạng period) Dragon on a porcelain plate during the reign of Lord Trịnh Doanh, Revival Lê dynasty The Vietnamese dragon (Vietnamese: rồng 龍) was a mythical creature that was often used as a deity symbol and was associated with royalty.[86] Similar to other cultures, dragons in Vietnamese culture represent yang and godly beings associated with creation and life. In the creation myth of the Vietnamese people, they are descended from the dragon lord Lạc Long Quân and the fairy Âu Cơ, who bore 100 eggs. When they separated, Lạc Long Quân brought 50 children to the sea while Âu Cơ brought the rest up the mountains. To this day, Vietnamese people often describe themselves as "Children of the dragon, grandchildren of the fairy" (Con rồng cháu tiên).[87] Dragons on antiques from the Lý– Trần dynasties Dragons on antiques from the Lý– Trần dynasties Dragons on antiques from the Lê–Nguyễn dynasties Dragons on antiques from the Lê–Nguyễn dynasties Nguyễn dynasty dragon, Imperial City of Huế Nguyễn dynasty dragon, Imperial City of Huế European stories/records Proto-Indo-European Further information: Chaoskampf, Sea serpent, Serpent slayer, and Serpents in the Bible The tale of a hero slaying a giant serpent occurs in almost all Indo-European mythology.[88][89] In most stories, the hero is some kind of thunder-god.[89] In nearly every iteration of the story, the serpent is either multi-headed or "multiple" in some other way.[88] Furthermore, in nearly every story, the serpent is always somehow associated with water.[89] Bruce Lincoln has proposed that a Proto-Indo-European dragon-slaying myth can be reconstructed as follows:[90][91] First, the sky gods give cattle to a man named *Tritos ("the third"), who is so named because he is the third man on earth,[90][91] but a three-headed serpent named *Ngwhi steals them.[90][91] *Tritos pursues the serpent and is accompanied by *Hanér, whose name means "man".[90][91] Together, the two heroes slay the serpent and rescue the cattle.[90][91] Ancient Greek Main article: Dragons in Greek mythology Greek red-figure vase painting depicting Heracles slaying the Lernaean Hydra, c. 375–340 BC Zeus aiming his thunderbolt at a winged and snake-footed Typhon. Chalcidian black-figured hydria (c. 540–530 BC), Staatliche Antikensammlungen (Inv. 596).[92] The ancient Greek word usually translated as "dragon" (δράκων drákōn, genitive δράκοντοϛ drákontos) could also mean "snake",[93][6] but it usually refers to a kind of giant serpent that either possesses supernatural characteristics or is otherwise controlled by some supernatural power.[94] The first mention of a "dragon" in ancient Greek literature occurs in the Iliad, in which Agamemnon is described as having a blue dragon motif on his sword belt and an emblem of a three-headed dragon on his breast plate.[95] In lines 820–880 of the Theogony, a Greek poem written in the seventh century BC by the Boeotian poet Hesiod, the Greek god Zeus battles the monster Typhon, who has one hundred serpent heads that breathe fire and make many frightening animal noises.[83] Zeus scorches all of Typhon's heads with his lightning bolts and then hurls Typhon into Tartarus. In other Greek sources, Typhon is often depicted as a winged, fire-breathing serpent-like dragon.[96] In the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, the god Apollo uses his poisoned arrows to slay the serpent Python, who has been causing death and pestilence in the area around Delphi.[97][96][98] Apollo then sets up his shrine there.[96] The Roman poet Virgil in his poem Culex, lines 163–201 Appendix Vergiliana: Culex, describing a shepherd having a fight with a big constricting snake, calls it "serpens" and also "draco", showing that in his time the two words were probably interchangeable. Attic red-figure kylix painting from c. 480–470 BC showing Athena observing as the Colchian dragon disgorges the hero Jason[99][100] Hesiod also mentions that the hero Heracles slew the Lernaean Hydra, a multiple-headed serpent which dwelt in the swamps of Lerna.[101] The name "Hydra" means "water snake" in Greek.[96][102] According to the Bibliotheka of Pseudo-Apollodorus, the slaying of the Hydra was the second of the Twelve Labors of Heracles.[103][96] Accounts disagree on which weapon Heracles used to slay the Hydra,[96] but, by the end of the sixth century BC, it was agreed that the clubbed or severed heads needed to be cauterized to prevent them from growing back.[104][96] Heracles was aided in this task by his nephew Iolaus.[104] During the battle, a giant crab crawled out of the marsh and pinched Heracles's foot,[103] but he crushed it under his heel.[105] Hera placed the crab in the sky as the constellation Cancer.[105] One of the Hydra's heads was immortal, so Heracles buried it under a heavy rock after cutting it off.[96][105] For his Eleventh Labor, Heracles must procure a golden apple from the tree in the Garden of the Hesperides, which is guarded by an enormous serpent that never sleeps,[106] which Pseudo-Apollodorus calls "Ladon".[107] In earlier depictions, Ladon is often shown with many heads.[108] In Pseudo-Apollodorus's account, Ladon is immortal,[108] but Sophocles and Euripides both describe Heracles as killing him, although neither of them specifies how.[108] Some suggest that the golden apple was not claimed through battle with Ladon at all but through Heracles charming the Hesperides.[109] The mythographer Herodorus is the first to state that Heracles slew him using his famous club.[108] Apollonius of Rhodes, in his epic poem, the Argonautica, describes Ladon as having been shot full of poisoned arrows dipped in the blood of the Hydra.[110] In Pindar's Fourth Pythian Ode, Aeëtes of Colchis tells the hero Jason that the Golden Fleece he is seeking is in a copse guarded by a dragon, "which surpassed in breadth and length a fifty-oared ship".[111] Jason slays the dragon and makes off with the Golden Fleece together with his co-conspirator, Aeëtes's daughter, Medea.[112] The earliest artistic representation of this story is an Attic red-figure kylix dated to c. 480–470 BC,[113] showing a bedraggled Jason being disgorged from the dragon's open mouth as the Golden Fleece hangs in a tree behind him and Athena, the goddess of wisdom, stands watching.[113][100] A fragment from Pherecydes of Athens states that Jason killed the dragon,[112] but fragments from the Naupactica and from Herodorus state that he merely stole the Fleece and escaped.[112] In Euripides's Medea, Medea boasts that she killed the Colchian dragon herself.[112] In the final scene of the play, Medea also flies away on a chariot pulled by two dragons.[114] In the most famous retelling of the story from Apollonius of Rhodes's Argonautica, Medea drugs the dragon to sleep, allowing Jason to steal the Fleece.[115] Greek vase paintings show her feeding the dragon the sleeping drug in a liquid form from a phialē, or shallow cup.[116] Paestan red-figure kylix-krater (c. 350–340 BC) showing Cadmus fighting the dragon of Ares[117] In the founding myth of Thebes, Cadmus, a Phoenician prince, was instructed by Apollo to follow a heifer and found a city wherever it laid down.[118] Cadmus and his men followed the heifer and, when it laid down, Cadmus ordered his men to find a spring so he could sacrifice the heifer to Athena.[118] His men found a spring, but it was guarded by a dragon, which had been placed there by the god Ares, and the dragon killed them.[118] Cadmus killed the dragon in revenge,[118][119] either by smashing its head with a rock or using his sword.[118] Following the advice of Athena, Cadmus tore out the dragon's teeth and planted them in the earth.[118][119] An army of giant warriors (known as spartoi, which means "sown men") grew from the teeth like plants.[118][119] Cadmus hurled stones into their midst, causing them to kill each other until only five were left.[118] To make restitution for having killed Ares's dragon, Cadmus was forced to serve Ares as a slave for eight years.[118] At the end of this period, Cadmus married Harmonia, the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite.[118] Cadmus and Harmonia moved to Illyria, where they ruled as king and queen, before eventually being transformed into dragons themselves.[120] In the fifth century BC, the Greek historian Herodotus reported in Book IV of his Histories that western Libya was inhabited by monstrous serpents[121] and, in Book III, he states that Arabia was home to many small, winged serpents,[122][123] which came in a variety of colors and enjoyed the trees that produced frankincense.[122][121] Herodotus remarks that the serpent's wings were like those of bats[124] and that, unlike vipers, which are found in every land, winged serpents are only found in Arabia.[124] The second-century BC Greek astronomer Hipparchus (c. 190 BC – c. 120 BC) listed the constellation Draco ("the dragon") as one of forty-six constellations.[125] Hipparchus described the constellation as containing fifteen stars,[126] but the later astronomer Ptolemy (c. 100 – c. 170 AD) increased this number to thirty-one in his Almagest.[126] Ancient Greek mosaic from Caulonia, Italy, depicting a cetus or sea-dragon In the New Testament, Revelation 12:3, written by John of Patmos, describes a vision of a Great Red Dragon with seven heads, ten horns, seven crowns, and a massive tail,[127] an image which is clearly inspired by the vision of the four beasts from the sea in the Book of Daniel[128] and the Leviathan described in various Old Testament passages.[129] The Great Red Dragon knocks "a third of the sun ... a third of the moon, and a third of the stars" out the sky[130] and pursues the Woman of the Apocalypse.[130] Revelation 12:7–9 declares: "And war broke out in Heaven. Michael and his angels fought against Dragon. Dragon and his angels fought back, but they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in Heaven. Dragon the Great was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called Devil and Satan, the one deceiving the whole inhabited World – he was thrown down to earth and his angels were thrown down with him."[131] Then a voice booms down from Heaven heralding the defeat of "the Accuser" (ho Kantegor).[132] In 217 AD, Flavius Philostratus discussed dragons (δράκων, drákōn) in India in The Life of Apollonius of Tyana (II,17 and III,6–8). The Loeb Classical Library translation (by F.C. Conybeare) mentions (III,7) that, "In most respects the tusks resemble the largest swine's, but they are slighter in build and twisted, and have a point as unabraded as sharks' teeth." According to a collection of books by Claudius Aelianus called On Animals, Ethiopia was inhabited by a species of dragon that hunted elephants and could grow to a length of 180 feet (55 m) with a lifespan rivaling that of the most enduring of animals.[133] In the 4th century, Basil of Caesarea, on chapter IX of his Address to Young Men on Greek Literature, mentions mythological dragons as guarding treasures and riches. Post-classical Germanic Main article: Germanic dragon Drawing of the Ramsund carving from c. 1030, illustrating the Völsunga saga on a rock in Sweden. At (5), Sigurd plunges his sword into Fafnir's underside. In the Old Norse poem Grímnismál in the Poetic Edda, the dragon Níðhöggr is described as gnawing on the roots of Yggdrasil, the world tree.[134] In Norse mythology, Jörmungandr is a giant serpent that encircles the entire realm of Miðgarð in the sea around it.[135] According to the Gylfaginning from the Prose Edda, written by the thirteenth-century Icelandic mythographer Snorri Sturluson, Thor, the Norse god of thunder, once went out on a boat with the giant Hymnir to the outer sea and fished for Jörmungandr using an ox-head as bait.[135] Thor caught the serpent and, after pulling its head out of the water, smashed it with his hammer, Mjölnir.[135] Snorri states that the blow was not fatal: "and men say that he struck its head off on the sea bed. But I think the truth to tell you is that the Miðgarð Serpent still lives and lies in the surrounding sea."[135] Towards the end of the Old English epic poem Beowulf, a slave steals a cup from the hoard of a sleeping dragon,[136] causing the dragon to wake up and go on a rampage of destruction across the countryside.[137] The eponymous hero of the poem insists on confronting the dragon alone, even though he is of advanced age,[138][139] but Wiglaf, the youngest of the twelve warriors Beowulf has brought with him, insists on accompanying his king into the battle.[140] Beowulf's sword shatters during the fight and he is mortally wounded,[141][142] but Wiglaf comes to his rescue and helps him slay the dragon.[142] Beowulf dies and tells Wiglaf that the dragon's treasure must be buried rather than shared with the cowardly warriors who did not come to the aid of their king.[143] In the Old Norse Völsunga saga, the hero Sigurd catches the dragon Fafnir by digging a pit between the cave where he lives and the spring where he drinks his water[144] and kills him by stabbing him in the underside.[144] At the advice of Odin, Sigurd drains Fafnir's blood and drinks it, which gives him the ability to understand the language of the birds,[145] who he hears talking about how his mentor Regin is plotting to betray him so that he can keep all of Fafnir's treasure for himself.[145][146] The motif of a hero trying to sneak past a sleeping dragon and steal some of its treasure is common throughout many Old Norse sagas.[147] The fourteenth-century Flóres saga konungs ok sona hans describes a hero who is actively concerned not to wake a sleeping dragon while sneaking past it.[147] In the Yngvars saga víðförla, the protagonist attempts to steal treasure from several sleeping dragons, but accidentally wakes them up.[147] Post-classical Western Main articles: European dragon, Welsh Dragon, Wyvern, Saint George and the Dragon, Margaret the Virgin, and Dacian Draco Fifteenth-century manuscript illustration of the battle of the Red and White Dragons from Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain The modern, western image of a dragon developed in western Europe during the Middle Ages through the combination of the snakelike dragons of classical Graeco-Roman literature, references to Near Eastern dragons preserved in the Bible, and western European folk traditions.[148] The period between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries represents the height of European interest in dragons as living creatures.[149] The twelfth-century Welsh monk, Geoffrey of Monmouth, recounts a famous legend in his Historia Regum Britanniae in which the child prophet Merlin witnesses the Romano-Celtic warlord Vortigern attempt to build a tower on Mount Snowdon to keep safe from the Anglo-Saxons,[150] but the tower keeps being swallowed into the ground.[150] Merlin informs Vortigern that, underneath the foundation he has built, is a pool with two dragons sleeping in it.[150] Vortigern orders for the pool to be drained, exposing a red dragon and a white dragon, who immediately begin fighting.[150] Merlin delivers a prophecy that the white dragon will triumph over the red, symbolizing England's conquest of Wales,[150] but declares that the red dragon will eventually return and defeat the white one.[151] This story remained popular throughout the fifteenth century.[151] MS Harley 3244, a medieval manuscript dated to around 1260 AD, contains the oldest recognizable image of a fully modern, western dragon[13] The oldest recognizable image of a fully modern, western dragon appears in a hand-painted illustration from the medieval manuscript MS Harley 3244, which was produced in around 1260 AD.[13] The dragon in the illustration has two sets of wings and its tail is longer than most modern depictions of dragons,[13] but it clearly displays many of the same distinctive features.[13] Dragons are generally depicted as living in rivers or having an underground lair or cave.[152] They are envisioned as greedy and gluttonous, with voracious appetites.[148] They are often identified with Satan, due to the references to Satan as a "dragon" in the Book of Revelation.[148] The thirteenth-century Golden Legend, written in Latin, records the story of Saint Margaret of Antioch,[42] a virgin martyr who, after being tortured for her faith in the Diocletianic Persecution and thrown back into her cell, is said to have been confronted by a monstrous dragon,[42] but she made the sign of the cross and the dragon vanished.[42] In some versions of the story, she is actually swallowed by the dragon alive and, after making the sign of the cross in the dragon's stomach, emerges unharmed.[42] Manuscript illustration from Verona of Saint George slaying the dragon, dating to c. 1270 The legend of Saint George and the Dragon may be referenced as early as the sixth century AD,[153][154] but the earliest artistic representations of it come from the eleventh century[153] and the first full account of it comes from an eleventh-century Georgian text.[155] The most famous version of the story from the Golden Legend holds that a dragon kept pillaging the sheep of the town of Silene in Libya.[153] After it ate a young shepherd, the people were forced to placate it by leaving two sheep as sacrificial offerings every morning beside the lake where the dragon lived.[153] Eventually, the dragon ate all of the sheep[156] and the people were forced to start offering it their own children.[156] One day, the king's own daughter came up in the lottery and, despite the king's pleas for her life, she was dressed as a bride and chained to a rock beside the lake to be eaten.[156] Then, Saint George arrived and saw the princess.[156] When the dragon arrived to eat her, he stabbed it with his lance and subdued it by making the sign of the cross and tying the princess's girdle around its neck.[156] Saint George and the princess led the now-docile dragon into the town and George promised to kill it if the townspeople would convert to Christianity.[157] All the townspeople converted and Saint George killed the dragon with his sword.[157] In some versions, Saint George marries the princess,[157] but, in others, he continues wandering.[157] Dragon in a granite Relief (14th century). San Anton Museum (A Coruña, Galicia (Spain)). Dragons are well known in myths and legends of Spain, in no small part because St. George (Catalan Sant Jordi) is the patron saint of Catalonia. Like most mythical reptiles, the Catalan dragon (Catalan drac) is an enormous serpent-like creature with four legs and a pair of wings, or rarely, a two-legged creature with a pair of wings, called a wyvern. As in many other parts of the world, the dragon's face may be like that of some other animal, such as a lion or a bull. As is common elsewhere, Catalan dragons are fire-breathers, and the dragon-fire is all-consuming. Catalan dragons also can emit a fetid odor, which can rot away anything it touches.[158] Gargoyles are carved stone figures sometimes resembling dragons that originally served as waterspouts on buildings.[159][160] Precursors to the medieval gargoyle can be found on ancient Greek and Egyptian temples,[159][161][162] but, over the course of the Middle Ages, many fantastic stories were invented to explain them.[163] One medieval French legend holds that, in ancient times, a fearsome dragon known as La Gargouille had been causing floods and sinking ships on the river Seine,[164] so the people of the town of Rouen would offer the dragon a human sacrifice once each year to appease its hunger.[164] Then, around 600 AD, a priest named Romanus promised that, if the people would build a church, he would rid them of the dragon.[164] Romanus slew the dragon and its severed head was mounted on the walls of the city as the first gargoyle.[164][165] Dragons are prominent in medieval heraldry.[166] Uther Pendragon was famously said to have had two gold dragons crowned with red standing back-to-back on his royal coat of arms.[167] Originally, heraldic dragons could have any number of legs,[166] but, by the late Middle Ages, due to the widespread proliferation of bestiaries, heraldry began to distinguish between a "dragon" (which could only have exactly four legs) and a "wyvern" (which could only have exactly two).[166] In myths, wyverns are associated with viciousness, envy, and pestilence,[166] but, in heraldry, they are used as symbols for overthrowing the tyranny of Satan and his demonic forces.[166] Late medieval heraldry also distinguished a draconic creature known as a "cockatrice".[166] A cockatrice is supposedly born when a serpent hatches an egg that has been laid on a dunghill by a rooster[166] and it is so venomous that its breath and its gaze are both lethal to any living creature, except for a weasel, which is the cockatrice's mortal enemy.[166] A basilisk is a serpent with the head of a dragon at the end of its tail that is born when a toad hatches an egg that has been laid in a midden by a nine-year-old cockatrice.[166] Like the cockatrice, its glare is said to be deadly.[166] Post-classical Eastern Main articles: Slavic dragon and Kulshedra Zmey Gorynych, a three-headed dragon from Russian folklore. Illustration of the Wawel Dragon from Sebastian Münster's Cosmographie Universalis (1544). In Albanian mythology and folklore, stihi, ljubi, bolla, bollar, errshaja, and kulshedra are mythological figures described as serpentine dragons. It is believed that bolla, a water and chthonic demonic serpent, undergoes metamorphosis passing through four distinct phases if it lives many years without being seen by a human. The bollar and errshaja are the intermediate stages, while the kulshedra is the ultimate phase, described as a huge multi-headed fire-spitting female serpent which causes drought, storms, flooding, earthquakes, and other natural disasters against mankind. She is usually fought and defeated by a drangue, a semi-human winged divine hero and protector of humans. Heavy thunderstorms are thought to be the result of their battles.[168][169] In Slavic mythology, the words "zmey", "zmiy", or "zmaj" are used to describe dragons. These words are masculine forms of the Slavic word for "snake", which are normally feminine (like Russian zmeya). In Romania, there is a similar figure, derived from the Slavic dragon and named zmeu. Exclusively in Polish and Belarusian folklore, as well as in the other Slavic folklores, a dragon is also called (variously) смок, цмок, or smok. In South Slavic folklores, the same thing is also called lamya (ламя, ламjа, lamja). Although quite similar to other European dragons, Slavic dragons have their peculiarities. In Russian and Ukrainian folklore, Zmey Gorynych is a dragon with three heads, each one bearing twin goatlike horns.[170] He is said to have breathed fire and smelled of sulfur.[170] It was believed that eclipses were caused by Gorynych temporarily swallowing the sun.[171] According to one legend, Gorynych's uncle was the evil sorcerer Nemal Chelovek, who abducted the daughter of the tsar and imprisoned her in his castle in the Ural Mountains.[171] Many knights tried to free her, but all of them were killed by Gorynych's fire.[171] Then a palace guard in Moscow named Ivan Tsarevich overheard two crows talking about the princess.[172] He went to the tsar, who gave him a magic sword, and snuck into the castle.[173] When Chelovek attacked Ivan in the form of a giant, the sword flew from Ivan's hand unbidden and killed him.[173] Then the sword cut off all three of Gorynych's heads at once.[173] Ivan brought the princess back to the tsar, who declared Ivan a nobleman and allowed him to marry the princess.[173] A popular Polish folk tale is the legend of the Wawel Dragon,[174][175][176] which is first recorded in the Chronica Polonorum of Wincenty Kadłubek, written between 1190 and 1208.[175][176] According to Kadłubek, the dragon appeared during the reign of King Krakus[175] and demanded to be fed a fixed number of cattle every week.[175] If the villagers failed to provide enough cattle, the dragon would eat the same number of villagers as the number of cattle they had failed to provide.[175] Krakus ordered his sons to slay the dragon.[175] Since they could not slay it by hand,[175] they tricked the dragon into eating calfskins filled with burning sulfur.[175] Once the dragon was dead, the younger brother attacked and murdered his older brother and returned home to claim all the glory for himself,[175] telling his father that his brother had died fighting the dragon.[175] The younger brother became king after his father died, but his secret was eventually revealed and he was banished.[175] In the fifteenth century, Jan Długosz rewrote the story so that King Krakus himself was the one who slew the dragon.[174][175][176] Another version of the story told by Marcin Bielski instead has the clever shoemaker Skuba come up with the idea for slaying the dragon.[175][177] Bielski's version is now the most popular.[175] Modern depictions See also: List of dragons in fiction Modern fan illustration by David Demaret of the dragon Smaug from J. R. R. Tolkien's 1937 high fantasy novel The Hobbit Dragons and dragon motifs are featured in many works of modern literature, particularly within the fantasy genre.[178][179] As early as the eighteenth century, critical thinkers such as Denis Diderot were already asserting that too much literature had been published on dragons: "There are already in books all too many fabulous stories of dragons".[180] In Lewis Carroll's classic children's novel Through the Looking-Glass (1872), one of the inset poems describes the Jabberwock, a kind of dragon.[12] Carroll's illustrator John Tenniel, a famous political cartoonist, humorously showed the Jabberwock with the waistcoat, buck teeth, and myopic eyes of a Victorian university lecturer, such as Carroll himself.[12] In works of comedic children's fantasy, dragons often fulfill the role of a magic fairy tale helper.[181] In such works, rather than being frightening as they are traditionally portrayed, dragons are instead represented as harmless, benevolent, and inferior to humans.[181] They are sometimes shown living in contact with humans, or in isolated communities of only dragons.[181] Though popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, "such comic and idyllic stories" began to grow increasingly rare after the 1960s, due to demand for more serious children's literature.[181] One of the most iconic modern dragons is Smaug from J. R. R. Tolkien's classic novel, The Hobbit.[178] Dragons also appear in the best-selling Harry Potter series of children's novels by J. K. Rowling.[12] Other prominent works depicting dragons include Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern, Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea Cycle, George R. R. Martin's series A Song of Ice and Fire, and Christopher Paolini's The Inheritance Cycle. Sandra Martina Schwab writes, "With a few exceptions, including McCaffrey's Pern novels and the 2002 film Reign of Fire, dragons seem to fit more into the medievalized setting of fantasy literature than into the more technological world of science fiction. Indeed, they have been called the emblem of fantasy. The hero's fight against the dragon emphasizes and celebrates his masculinity, whereas revisionist fantasies of dragons and dragon-slaying often undermine traditional gender roles. In children's literature (such as Cressida Cowell's How to Train Your Dragon series) the friendly dragon may become a powerful ally in battling the child's fears."[182] The popular role-playing game system Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) makes heavy use of dragons.[
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Phoenix most often refers to: Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a Trojan War hero in Greek mythology Phoenix (son of Agenor), a Greek mythological figure Phoenix, a chieftain who came as Guardian of the young Hymenaeus when they joined Dionysus in his campaign against India (see Phoenix (Greek myth)) Mythical birds called phoenix Phoenix (mythology), a mythical bird from Egyptian, Greek and Roman legends Egyptian Bennu Hindu Garuda and Gandabherunda Firebird (Slavic folklore), in Polish Żar-ptak, Russian Zharptitsa, Serbian Žar ptica, and Slovak Vták Ohnivák Tűzmadár, in Hungarian mythology Persian Simurgh, in Arabian Anka, Turkish Zümrüdü Anka, and Georgian Paskunji Chinese Fenghuang, in Japanese Hō-ō, Tibetan Me Byi Karmo, Korean Bonghwang, and Vietnamese Phượng (hoàng) or Phụng (hoàng) East Asian Vermilion Bird in Chinese Zhū Què, Japanese Suzaku, Korean Jujak or Bulsajo, and Vietnamese Chu Tước Chol (bible), Milcham, Avarshina, Urshinah or other transliterations of אורשינה‎ Nine-headed Bird, one of the earliest forms of the Chinese phoenix (Fenghuang) Places Canada Phoenix, Alberta Phoenix, British Columbia United States Phenix City, Alabama Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix metropolitan area, Arizona Phoenix, Georgia Phoenix, Illinois Phoenix, Louisiana Phoenix, Maryland Phoenix, Michigan Phoenix, Mississippi Phoenix, Edison, New Jersey Phoenix, Sayreville, New Jersey Phoenix, New York Phoenix, Oregon Elsewhere Phoenix (Caria), a town of ancient Caria, now in Turkey Phoenix (Crete), a town of ancient Crete mentioned in the Bible Phoenix (Lycia), a town of ancient Lycia, now in Turkey Phoenix Park, Dublin, Ireland Phoenix Islands, in the Republic of Kiribati Phoenix, KwaZulu-Natal, in South Africa Phoenix City, a nickname for Warsaw, the capital of Poland Phoenix, a river of Thessaly, Greece, that flowed at the ancient city of Anthela Arts and entertainment For media companies, see § Media companies. For theatres, see § Theatres. Fictional entities Characters Phoenix (comics), alias used by several comics characters Phoenix Force (comics), a Marvel Comics entity Jean Grey, also known as Phoenix and Dark Phoenix, an X-Men character Rachel Summers, a Marvel Comics character also known as Phoenix Phoenix (Transformers) Phoenix Hathaway, a character in the British soap opera Hollyoaks Phoenix Raynor, a Shortland Street character Phoenix Wright, an Ace Attorney character Aster Phoenix (or Edo Phoenix), a Yu-Gi-Oh! GX character Paul Phoenix (Tekken), a Tekken character Simon Phoenix, a Demolition Man character Stefano DiMera, also known as The Phoenix, a Days of our Lives character Phoenix, female protagonist of the film Phantom of the Paradise, played by Jessica Harper Phoenix Buchanan, a fictional actor and the main antagonist of Paddington 2 Phoenix Jackson, female protagonist of "A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty Organizations Phoenix Foundation (MacGyver) Phoenix Organization, an organization in John Doe Order of the Phoenix (fictional organisation), a secret society in Harry Potter Vessels Phoenix (Star Trek), a spacecraft Film Fushichō (English: Phoenix), a 1947 film by Keisuke Kinoshita The Phoenix (1959 film), by Robert Aldrich Phoenix (1998 film), a crime film by Danny Cannon Phoenix (2006 film), a gay-related film by Michael Akers Phoenix (2014 film), a film by Christian Petzold Phoenix (2023 film), a Malayalam film Literature Books Phoenix: The Posthumous Papers of D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930), an anthology of work by D. H. Lawrence Phoenix (novel), by Stephen Brust The Phoenix (novel), by Henning Boëtius Phoenix IV: The History of the Videogame Industry, by Leonard Herman Comics Phoenix (manga) (Hi no Tori), by Osamu Tezuka The Phoenix (comics), a weekly British comics anthology Periodicals The Phoenix (magazine), Ireland The Phoenix (newspaper), United States' Phoenix (classics journal), originally The Phoenix, a journal of the Classical Association of Canada Project Phoenix, codename of the aborted BBC Newsbrief magazine List of periodicals named Phoenix Other literature The Phoenix (play), by Thomas Middleton The Phoenix (Old English poem) The Phoenix, a play by Morgan Spurlock The Phoenix, a poem attributed to Lactantius Music Musicians Phoenix (band), a French alternative rock band Transsylvania Phoenix, also known as Phoenix, a Romanian rock band Dave Farrell, American bass guitarist in the band Linkin Park Albums Phoenix (Agathodaimon album) Phoenix (Asia album) Phoenix (Vince Bell album) Phoenix, a 2003 EP by Breaking Pangaea Phoenix (Charlotte Cardin album) Phoenix (Carpark North album) The Phoenix (CKY album) Phoenix (Clan of Xymox album) Phoenix (Classic Crime album) Phoenix (Dreamtale album) Phoenix (Emil Bulls album) Phoenix (Everything in Slow Motion album) The Phoenix (EP), an EP by Flipsyde Phoenix (Dan Fogelberg album) Phoenix (Grand Funk Railroad album) Phoenix: The Very Best of InMe, a 2010 greatest hits collection The Phoenix (Lyfe Jennings album) Phoenix (Just Surrender album) Phoenix (Labelle album) The Phoenix (Mastercastle album) Phoenix (Nocturnal Rites album) Phoenix (Rita Ora album) Phoenix, an album by Pink Turns Blue The Phoenix (Raghav album) Phoenix (Warlocks album) Phoenix (EP), by the Warlocks Phoenix (Zebrahead album) Songs List of songs named for the phoenix Television The Phoenix (1982 TV series), an American science fiction series Phoenix (Australian TV series), an Australian police drama Phoenix (South Korean TV series), a 2004 Korean drama Phoenix (anime), a 2004 Japanese series based on the manga "Phoenix", the 1986 premiere episode of The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers "The Phoenix", a 1995 episode of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman "Phoenix", a 2003 episode of Smallville "Phoenix" (Breaking Bad), a 2009 episode of Breaking Bad "Phoenix" (NCIS), a 2012 episode of NCIS Video gaming Phoenix (1980 video game), a shoot 'em up arcade game Phoenix (1987 video game), a space combat simulation developed by ERE Informatique Phoenix Games (American company), a video game company Phoenix1, a League of Legends team Other uses in arts and entertainment For media companies, see § Media companies. For theatres, see § Theatres. Atlanta from the Ashes (The Phoenix), an Atlanta, Georgia, monument Phoenix Art Museum, the Southwest United States' largest art museum for visual art Phoenix (chess), a fairy chess piece Phoenix (roller coaster) Phoenix, a Looping Starship ride at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay Business For schools, see § Schools. In business, generally: Phoenix company, a commercial entity which has emerged from the collapse of another through insolvency Specific businesses named "Phoenix" include: Airlines Phoenix Air, an airline operating from Georgia, United States Phoenix Aviation, a UAE-Kyrgyzstan airline Finance companies The Phoenix Companies, a Hartford-based financial services company Phoenix Finance, a financial company which attempted to enter into Formula One racing Phoenix Fire Office, a former British insurance company Media companies Phoenix (German TV station) Phoenix (St. Paul's Churchyard), a historical bookseller in London Phoenix Press Phoenix Games (American company) Phoenix Television, a Hong Kong broadcaster Theatres Phoenix Theatre (disambiguation) Phoenix Theatre, London, a West End theatre Phoenix Concert Theatre, a concert venue and nightclub in Toronto, Ontario, Canada La Fenice (The Phoenix), an opera house in Venice, Italy Manufacturers Vehicle manufacturers Phoenix (bicycles), a Chinese company Phoenix (British automobile company), an early 1900s company Phoenix Industries, an American aircraft manufacturer Phoenix Motorcars, a manufacturer of electric vehicles Phoenix Venture Holdings, owner of the MG Rover Group Other manufacturers Phoenix (nuclear technology company), specializing in neutron generator technology Phoenix AG, a German rubber products company Phoenix Beverages, a brewery in Mauritius Phoenix Contact, a manufacturer of industrial automation, interconnection, and interface solutions Phoenix Iron Works (Phoenixville, Pennsylvania), owner of the Phoenix Bridge Company Phoenix Petroleum Philippines, Inc., a Philippine oil and gas company Military AIM-54 Phoenix, a missile BAE Systems Phoenix, an unmanned air vehicle HMHT-302 ("Phoenix"), a U.S. Marine Corps helicopter squadron Phoenix breakwaters, a set of World War II caissons Phoenix Program, a Vietnam War military operation Project Phoenix (South Africa), a National Defence Force program People Phoenix (given name) Phoenix (surname), multiple people Phoenix (drag queen), American drag performer Dave Farrell (born 1977), American bass guitarist, stage name Phoenix, in the band Linkin Park Nahshon Even-Chaim (born 1971), or "Phoenix", convicted Australian computer hacker Jody Fleisch (born 1980), professional wrestler nicknamed "The Phoenix" Vishnuvardhan (actor) (1950–2009), Indian actor, known as the "Phoenix of Indian cinema" Schools University of Phoenix, United States Phoenix Academy (disambiguation), including several private schools Phoenix High School (disambiguation) Science and technology Astronomy Phoenix Cluster, a galaxy cluster Phoenix (Chinese astronomy) Phoenix (constellation) Phoenix stream, a stream of very old stars found in the constellation Phoenix Dwarf, a galaxy Project Phoenix (SETI), a search for extraterrestrial intelligence Biology Phoenix (chicken) Phoenix (grape) Phoenix (moth) Phoenix (plant), a genus of palms Computing Phoenix (computer), an IBM mainframe at the University of Cambridge Phoenix (tkWWW-based browser), a web browser and HTML editor discontinued in 1995 Phoenix (web framework), a web development framework Phoenix Network Coordinates, used to compute network latency Phoenix Object Basic, a RAD tool Phoenix Technologies, a BIOS manufacturer Apache Phoenix, a relational database engine Microsoft Phoenix, a compiler framework Mozilla Phoenix, the original name for the Firefox web browser Phoenix pay system, a payroll processing system Vehicles For ships, see § Ships. Phoenix (spacecraft), a NASA mission to Mars AIM-54 Phoenix, a missile BAE Systems Phoenix, an unmanned air vehicle EADS Phoenix, a prototype launch vehicle Bristol Phoenix, an aircraft engine Chrysler Phoenix engine, an automotive engine series Dodge Dart Phoenix, an American car produced 1960–1961 Dodge Phoenix, Australian car produced 1960–1973 Pontiac Phoenix, an American car produced 1977–1984 Phoenix Air Phoenix, a Czech glider Other technologies Phoenix (ATC), an air traffic control system Fénix capsules, rescue equipment used after the 2010 Copiapó mining accident Ships HMS Phoenix, several Royal Navy ships Phoenix (East Indiaman), several ships that sailed for the British East India Company between 1680 and 1821 USS Phoenix, several U.S. Navy ships Phoenix, involved in the 1688 Siege of Derry Phoenix (1792), involved in the sea otter trade Phoenix (1794), the first ship built in Russian America Phoenix (1798 ship), made one voyage in 1824 carrying convicts to Tasmania; grounded, condemned, and turned into a prison hulk; broken up in 1837 Phoenix (steamboat), a steamboat built 1806–1807 Phoenix (1809 ship), built in France in 1809; captured by the British Royal Navy in 1810; employed as a whaling ship from 1811 to 1829 Phoenix (1810 ship), a merchant vessel launched in 1810; made one voyage to India for the British East India Company; made three voyages transporting convicts to Australia; wrecked in 1829 Phoenix (1815 steamer), a steamboat that burned on Lake Champlain in 1819; its wreck is a Vermont state historic site Phoenix (1821 whaler), a Nantucket whaling vessel in operation 1821–1858 Phoenix (1845), a steamship that burned on Lake Michigan in 1847 with the loss of at least 190 lives USCS Phoenix, a U.S. Coast Survey ship in service from 1845 to 1858 SS Phönix (1913), a German cargo ship which later saw service as the vorpostenboot V-106 Phönix Phoenix (1929 ship), a Danish ship built in 1929 SS Flying Lark, which went by the name Phoenix from 1946 to 1948 Phoenix (fireboat), a 1955 fireboat operating in San Francisco, California Phoenix (1973), a rescue vessel used to save migrants, refugees and other people in distress in the Mediterranean Sea Sports List of sports teams named for the phoenix Phoenix club (sports), a team that closes and is rebuilt under a new structure and often a new name Phoenix Finance, a Formula One entrant Phoenix Hagen, a German basketball club Phoenix Raceway, Avondale, Arizona Phoenix, an annual sports festival at the National Institute of Technology Karnataka Other uses Phoenix (currency), the first currency of modern Greece Phoenix LRT station, Singapore Phoenix codes, radio shorthand used by British police The Phoenix Patrol Challenge, a Scoutcraft competition Phoenix Pay System, a Canadian federal employee payroll system The Phoenix – S K Club, a social club at Harvard College Phoenix National and Literary Society, 1856–1858 precursor of the Irish Republican Brotherhood See also
vambirb
A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mischief or deaths in the neighbourhoods which they inhabited while they were alive. They wore shrouds and were often described as bloated and of ruddy or dark countenance, markedly different from today's gaunt, pale vampire which dates from the early 19th century. Vampiric entities have been recorded in cultures around the world; the term vampire was popularized in Western Europe after reports of an 18th-century mass hysteria of a pre-existing folk belief in Southeastern and Eastern Europe that in some cases resulted in corpses being staked and people being accused of vampirism. Local variants in Southeastern Europe were also known by different names, such as shtriga in Albania, vrykolakas in Greece and strigoi in Romania, cognate to Italian 'Strega', meaning Witch. In modern times, the vampire is generally held to be a fictitious entity, although belief in similar vampiric creatures (such as the chupacabra) still persists in some cultures. Early folk belief in vampires has sometimes been ascribed to the ignorance of the body's process of decomposition after death and how people in pre-industrial societies tried to rationalize this, creating the figure of the vampire to explain the mysteries of death. Porphyria was linked with legends of vampirism in 1985 and received much media exposure, but has since been largely discredited.[1] The charismatic and sophisticated vampire of modern fiction was born in 1819 with the publication of "The Vampyre" by the English writer John Polidori; the story was highly successful and arguably the most influential vampire work of the early 19th century. Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula is remembered as the quintessential vampire novel and provided the basis of the modern vampire legend, even though it was published after fellow Irish author Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's 1872 novel Carmilla. The success of this book spawned a distinctive vampire genre, still popular in the 21st century, with books, films, television shows, and video games. The vampire has since become a dominant figure in the horror genre. Etymology and word distribution The term "vampire" is the earliest recorded in English, Latin and French and they refer to vampirism in Russia, Poland and North Macedonia.[2] The English term was derived (possibly via French vampyre) from the German Vampir, in turn derived in the early 18th century from the Serbian вампир (vampir).[3][4][5] The Serbian form has parallels in virtually all Slavic and Turkic languages: Bulgarian and Macedonian вампир (vampir), Turkish: Ubır, Obur, Obır, Tatar language: Убыр (Ubır), Chuvash language: Вупăр (Vupăr), Bosnian: вампир (vampir), Croatian vampir, Czech and Slovak upír, Polish wąpierz, and (perhaps East Slavic-influenced) upiór, Ukrainian упир (upyr), Russian упырь (upyr'), Belarusian упыр (upyr), from Old East Slavic упирь (upir') (many of these languages have also borrowed forms such as "vampir/wampir" subsequently from the West; these are distinct from the original local words for the creature). The exact etymology is unclear.[6][7] In Albanian the words lu(v)gat and dhampir are used; the latter seems to be derived from the Gheg Albanian words dham 'tooth' and pir 'to drink'.[8][7] The origin of the modern word Vampire (Upiór means Hortdan, Vampire or Witch in Turkic and Slavic myths.) comes from the term Ubir-Upiór, the origin of the word Ubir or Upiór is based on the regions around the Volga (Itil) River and Pontic steppes. Upiór myth is through the migrations of the Kipchak-Cuman people to the Eurasian steppes allegedly spread. The modern word "Vampire" is derived from the Old Slavic and Turkic languages form "онпыр (onpyr)", with the addition of the "v" sound in front of the large nasal vowel (on), characteristic of Old Bulgarian. The Bulgarian format is впир (vpir). (other names: onpyr, vopir, vpir, upir, upierz.)[9][10] Czech linguist Václav Machek proposes Slovak verb vrepiť sa 'stick to, thrust into', or its hypothetical anagram vperiť sa (in Czech, the archaic verb vpeřit means 'to thrust violently') as an etymological background, and thus translates upír as 'someone who thrusts, bites'.[11] The term was introduced to German readers by the Polish Jesuit priest Gabriel Rzączyński in 1721.[12] An early use of the Old Russian word is in the anti-pagan treatise "Word of Saint Grigoriy" (Russian Слово святого Григория), dated variously to the 11th–13th centuries, where pagan worship of upyri is reported.[13][14] The word vampire (as vampyre) first appeared in English in 1732, in news reports about vampire "epidemics" in eastern Europe.[15][a] After Austria gained control of northern Serbia and Oltenia with the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718, officials noted the local practice of exhuming bodies and "killing vampires".[17] These reports, prepared between 1725 and 1732, received widespread publicity.[17][18] Folk beliefs See also: List of vampiric creatures in folklore The notion of vampirism has existed for millennia. Cultures such as the Mesopotamians, Hebrews, Ancient Greeks, Manipuri and Romans had tales of demons and spirits which are considered precursors to modern vampires. Despite the occurrence of vampiric creatures in these ancient civilizations, the folklore for the entity known today as the vampire originates almost exclusively from early 18th-century southeastern Europe,[19] when verbal traditions of many ethnic groups of the region were recorded and published. 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.[20] Description and common attributes A painting of a woman with red hair. Vampire (1895) by Edvard Munch It is difficult to make a single, definitive description of the folkloric vampire, though there are several elements common to many European legends. Vampires were usually reported as bloated in appearance, and ruddy, purplish, or dark in colour; these characteristics were often attributed to the recent drinking of blood, which was often seen seeping from the mouth and nose when one was seen in its shroud or coffin, and its left eye was often open.[21] It would be clad in the linen shroud it was buried in, and its teeth, hair, and nails may have grown somewhat, though in general fangs were not a feature.[22] Chewing sounds were reported emanating from graves.[23] Creating vampires An image of a woman kissing a man with wings. Illustration of a vampire from Max Ernst's Une Semaine de Bonté (1934) The causes of vampiric generation were many and varied in original folklore. In Slavic and Chinese traditions, any corpse that was jumped over by an animal, particularly a dog or a cat, was feared to become one of the undead.[24] A body with a wound that had not been treated with boiling water was also at risk. In Russian folklore, vampires were said to have once been witches or people who had rebelled against the Russian Orthodox Church while they were alive.[25] In Albanian folklore, the dhampir is the hybrid child of the karkanxholl (a lycanthropic creature with an iron mail shirt) or the lugat (a water-dwelling ghost or monster). The dhampir sprung of a karkanxholl has the unique ability to discern the karkanxholl; from this derives the expression the dhampir knows the lugat. The lugat cannot be seen, he can only be killed by the dhampir, who himself is usually the son of a lugat. In different regions, animals can be revenants as lugats; also, living people during their sleep. Dhampiraj is also an Albanian surname.[26] Prevention Cultural practices often arose that were intended to prevent a recently deceased loved one from turning into an undead revenant. Burying a corpse upside-down was widespread, as was placing earthly objects, such as scythes or sickles,[27] near the grave to satisfy any demons entering the body or to appease the dead so that it would not wish to arise from its coffin. This method resembles the ancient Greek practice of placing an obolus in the corpse's mouth to pay the toll to cross the River Styx in the underworld. The coin may have also been intended to ward off any evil spirits from entering the body, and this may have influenced later vampire folklore. This tradition persisted in modern Greek folklore about the vrykolakas, in which a wax cross and piece of pottery with the inscription "Jesus Christ conquers" were placed on the corpse to prevent the body from becoming a vampire.[28] Other methods commonly practised in Europe included severing the tendons at the knees or placing poppy seeds, millet, or sand on the ground at the grave site of a presumed vampire; this was intended to keep the vampire occupied all night by counting the fallen grains,[29][30] indicating an association of vampires with arithmomania. Similar Chinese narratives state that if a vampiric being came across a sack of rice, it would have to count every grain; this is a theme encountered in myths from the Indian subcontinent, as well as in South American tales of witches and other sorts of evil or mischievous spirits or beings.[31] Identifying vampires Many rituals were used to identify a vampire. One method of finding a vampire's grave involved leading a virgin boy through a graveyard or church grounds on a virgin stallion—the horse would supposedly balk at the grave in question.[25] Generally a black horse was required, though in Albania it should be white.[32] Holes appearing in the earth over a grave were taken as a sign of vampirism.[33] Corpses thought to be vampires were generally described as having a healthier appearance than expected, plump and showing little or no signs of decomposition.[34] In some cases, when suspected graves were opened, villagers even described the corpse as having fresh blood from a victim all over its face.[35] Evidence that a vampire was active in a given locality included death of cattle, sheep, relatives or neighbours. Folkloric vampires could also make their presence felt by engaging in minor poltergeist-styled activity, such as hurling stones on roofs or moving household objects,[36] and pressing on people in their sleep.[37] Protection Garlic, Bibles, crucifixes, rosaries, holy water, and mirrors have all been seen in various folkloric traditions as means of warding against or identifying vampires.[38][39] Apotropaics—items able to ward off revenants—are common in vampire folklore. Garlic is a common example;[40] a branch of wild rose and hawthorn are sometimes associated with causing harm to vampires, and in Europe, mustard seeds would be sprinkled on the roof of a house to keep them away.[41] Other apotropaics include sacred items, such as crucifix, rosary, or holy water. Some folklore also states that vampires are unable to walk on consecrated ground, such as that of churches or temples, or cross running water.[39] Although not traditionally regarded as an apotropaic, mirrors have been used to ward off vampires when placed, facing outwards, on a door (in some cultures, vampires do not have a reflection and sometimes do not cast a shadow, perhaps as a manifestation of the vampire's lack of a soul).[42] This attribute is not universal (the Greek vrykolakas/tympanios was capable of both reflection and shadow), but was used by Bram Stoker in Dracula and has remained popular with subsequent authors and filmmakers.[43] Some traditions also hold that a vampire cannot enter a house unless invited by the owner; after the first invitation they can come and go as they please.[42] Though folkloric vampires were believed to be more active at night, they were not generally considered vulnerable to sunlight.[43] Reports in 1693 and 1694 concerning citings of vampires in Poland and Russia claimed that when a vampire's grave was recognized, eating bread baked with its blood mixed into the flour,[44] or simply drinking it, granted the possibility of protection. Other stories (primarily the Arnold Paole case) claimed the eating of dirt from the vampire's grave would have the same effect.[45] Methods of destruction See caption A runestone with an inscription to keep the deceased in its grave.[46] Methods of destroying suspected vampires varied, with staking the most commonly cited method, particularly in South Slavic cultures.[47] Ash was the preferred wood in Russia and the Baltic states,[48] or hawthorn in Serbia,[49] with a record of oak in Silesia.[50][51] Aspen was also used for stakes, as it was believed that Christ's cross was made from aspen (aspen branches on the graves of purported vampires were also believed to prevent their risings at night).[52] Potential vampires were most often staked through the heart, though the mouth was targeted in Russia and northern Germany[53][54] and the stomach in north-eastern Serbia.[55] Piercing the skin of the chest was a way of "deflating" the bloated vampire. This is similar to a practice of "anti-vampire burial": burying sharp objects, such as sickles, with the corpse, so that they may penetrate the skin if the body bloats sufficiently while transforming into a revenant.[56] Decapitation was the preferred method in German and western Slavic areas, with the head buried between the feet, behind the buttocks or away from the body.[47] This act was seen as a way of hastening the departure of the soul, which in some cultures was said to linger in the corpse. The vampire's head, body, or clothes could also be spiked and pinned to the earth to prevent rising.[57] See caption 800-year-old skeleton found in Bulgaria stabbed through the chest with an iron rod.[58] Romani people drove steel or iron needles into a corpse's heart and placed bits of steel in the mouth, over the eyes, ears and between the fingers at the time of burial. They also placed hawthorn in the corpse's sock or drove a hawthorn stake through the legs. In a 16th-century burial near Venice, a brick forced into the mouth of a female corpse has been interpreted as a vampire-slaying ritual by the archaeologists who discovered it in 2006.[59] In Bulgaria, over 100 skeletons with metal objects, such as plough bits, embedded in the torso have been discovered.[58] Further measures included pouring boiling water over the grave or complete incineration of the body. In Southeastern Europe, a vampire could also be killed by being shot or drowned, by repeating the funeral service, by sprinkling holy water on the body, or by exorcism. In Romania, garlic could be placed in the mouth, and as recently as the 19th century, the precaution of shooting a bullet through the coffin was taken. For resistant cases, the body was dismembered and the pieces burned, mixed with water, and administered to family members as a cure. In Saxon regions of Germany, a lemon was placed in the mouth of suspected vampires.[60] Ancient beliefs A painting of a naked woman with a snake wrapped around her. Lilith, 1887 by John Collier. Stories of Lilith depict her as a demon drinking blood. Tales of supernatural beings consuming the blood or flesh of the living have been found in nearly every culture around the world for many centuries.[61] The term vampire did not exist in ancient times. Blood drinking and similar activities were attributed to demons or spirits who would eat flesh and drink blood; even the devil was considered synonymous with the vampire.[62] Almost every culture associates blood drinking with some kind of revenant or demon, or in some cases a deity. In India tales of vetālas, ghoulish beings that inhabit corpses, have been compiled in the Baitāl Pacīsī; a prominent story in the Kathāsaritsāgara tells of King Vikramāditya and his nightly quests to capture an elusive one.[63] Piśāca, the returned spirits of evil-doers or those who died insane, also bear vampiric attributes.[64] The Persians were one of the first civilizations to have tales of blood-drinking demons: creatures attempting to drink blood from men were depicted on excavated pottery shards.[65] Ancient Babylonia and Assyria had tales of the mythical Lilitu,[66] synonymous with and giving rise to Lilith (Hebrew לילית) and her daughters the Lilu from Hebrew demonology. Lilitu was considered a demon and was often depicted as subsisting on the blood of babies,[66] and estries, female shapeshifting, blood-drinking demons, were said to roam the night among the population, seeking victims. According to Sefer Hasidim, estries were creatures created in the twilight hours before God rested. An injured estrie could be healed by eating bread and salt given to her by her attacker.[67] Greco-Roman mythology described the Empusae,[68] the Lamia,[69] the Mormo[70] and the striges. Over time the first two terms became general words to describe witches and demons respectively. Empusa was the daughter of the goddess Hecate and was described as a demonic, bronze-footed creature. She feasted on blood by transforming into a young woman and seduced men as they slept before drinking their blood.[68] The Lamia preyed on young children in their beds at night, sucking their blood, as did the gelloudes or Gello.[69] Like the Lamia, the striges feasted on children, but also preyed on adults. They were described as having the bodies of crows or birds in general, and were later incorporated into Roman mythology as strix, a kind of nocturnal bird that fed on human flesh and blood.[71] In Turkic mythology, an ubır is a vampiric creature characterized by various regional depictions. According to legends, individuals heavily steeped in sin and practitioners of black magic transform into ubırs upon their death, taking on a bestial form within their graves. Ubırs possess the ability to shape-shift, assuming the forms of both humans and various animals. Furthermore, they can seize the soul of a living being and exert control over its body. Someone inhabited by a vampire constantly experiences hunger, becoming increasingly aggressive when unable to find sustenance, ultimately resorting to drinking human blood.[72] Medieval and later European folklore Main article: Vampire folklore by region See caption Lithograph showing townsfolk burning the exhumed skeleton of an alleged vampire. Many myths surrounding vampires originated during the medieval period. The 12th-century British historians and chroniclers Walter Map and William of Newburgh recorded accounts of revenants,[20][73] though records in English legends of vampiric beings after this date are scant.[74] The Old Norse draugr is another medieval example of an undead creature with similarities to vampires.[75] Vampiric beings were rarely written about in Jewish literature; the 16th-century rabbi David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra (Radbaz) wrote of an uncharitable old woman whose body was unguarded and unburied for three days after she died and rose as a vampiric entity, killing hundreds of people. He linked this event to the lack of a shmirah (guarding) after death as the corpse could be a vessel for evil spirits.[76] In 1645, the Greek librarian of the Vatican, Leo Allatius, produced the first methodological description of the Balkan beliefs in vampires (Greek: vrykolakas) in his work De Graecorum hodie quorundam opinationibus ("On certain modern opinions among the Greeks").[77] Vampires properly originating in folklore were widely reported from Eastern Europe in the late 17th and 18th centuries. These tales formed the basis of the vampire legend that later entered Germany and England, where they were subsequently embellished and popularized.[78] An early recording of the time came from the region of Istria in modern Croatia, in 1672; Local reports described a panic among the villagers inspired by the belief that Jure Grando had become a vampire after dying in 1656, drinking blood from victims and sexually harassing his widow. The village leader ordered a stake to be driven through his heart. Later, his corpse was also beheaded.[79] Première page du Tractat von dem Kauen und Schmatzen der Todten in Gräbern (1734), ouvrage de vampirologie de Michael Ranft Title page of treatise on the chewing and smacking of the dead in graves (1734), a book on vampirology by Michael Ranft. From 1679, Philippe Rohr devotes an essay to the dead who chew their shrouds in their graves, a subject resumed by Otto in 1732, and then by Michael Ranft in 1734. The subject was based on the observation that when digging up graves, it was discovered that some corpses had at some point either devoured the interior fabric of their coffin or their own limbs.[80] Ranft described in his treatise of a tradition in some parts of Germany, that to prevent the dead from masticating they placed a mound of dirt under their chin in the coffin, placed a piece of money and a stone in the mouth, or tied a handkerchief tightly around the throat.[81] In 1732 an anonymous writer writing as "the doctor Weimar" discusses the non-putrefaction of these creatures, from a theological point of view.[82] In 1733, Johann Christoph Harenberg wrote a general treatise on vampirism and the Marquis d'Argens cites local cases. Theologians and clergymen also address the topic.[80] Some theological disputes arose. The non-decay of vampires' bodies could recall the incorruption of the bodies of the saints of the Catholic Church. A paragraph on vampires was included in the second edition (1749) of De servorum Dei beatificatione et sanctorum canonizatione, On the beatification of the servants of God and on canonization of the blessed, written by Prospero Lambertini (Pope Benedict XIV).[83] In his opinion, while the incorruption of the bodies of saints was the effect of a divine intervention, all the phenomena attributed to vampires were purely natural or the fruit of "imagination, terror and fear". In other words, vampires did not exist.[84] 18th-century vampire controversy During the 18th century, there was a frenzy of vampire sightings in Eastern Europe, with frequent stakings and grave diggings to identify and kill the potential revenants. Even government officials engaged in the hunting and staking of vampires.[78] Despite being called the Age of Enlightenment, during which most folkloric legends were quelled, the belief in vampires increased dramatically, resulting in a mass hysteria throughout most of Europe.[20] The panic began with an outbreak of alleged vampire attacks in East Prussia in 1721 and in the Habsburg monarchy from 1725 to 1734, which spread to other localities. Two infamous vampire cases, the first to be officially recorded, involved the corpses of Petar Blagojevich and Miloš Čečar from Serbia. Blagojevich was reported to have died at the age of 62, but allegedly returned after his death asking his son for food. When the son refused, he was found dead the following day. Blagojevich supposedly returned and attacked some neighbours who died from loss of blood.[78] In the second case, Miloš, an ex-soldier-turned-farmer who allegedly was attacked by a vampire years before, died while haying. After his death, people began to die in the surrounding area and it was widely believed that Miloš had returned to prey on the neighbours.[85][86] Another infamous Serbian vampire legend recounts the story of a certain Sava Savanović, who lives in a watermill and kills and drinks blood from the millers. The character was later used in the story After Ninety Years (1880) written by Serbian writer Milovan Glišić and in the Yugoslav 1973 horror film Leptirica inspired by the story.[87] See caption Engraving of Dom Augustine Calmet from 1750 The two incidents were well-documented. Government officials examined the bodies, wrote case reports, and published books throughout Europe.[86] The hysteria, commonly referred to as the "18th-Century Vampire Controversy", continued for a generation. The problem was exacerbated by rural epidemics of so-called vampire attacks, undoubtedly caused by the higher amount of superstition that was present in village communities, with locals digging up bodies and in some cases, staking them.[88] Dom Augustine Calmet, a French theologian and scholar, published a comprehensive treatise in 1751 titled Treatise on the Apparitions of Spirits and on Vampires or Revenants which investigated and analysed the evidence for vampirism.[88][b] Numerous readers, including both a critical Voltaire and numerous supportive demonologists interpreted the treatise as claiming that vampires existed.[88][c] The controversy in Austria ceased when Empress Maria Theresa sent her personal physician, Gerard van Swieten, to investigate the claims of vampiric entities. He concluded that vampires did not exist and the Empress passed laws prohibiting the opening of graves and desecration of bodies, ending the vampire epidemics. Other European countries followed suit. Despite this condemnation, the vampire lived on in artistic works and in local folklore.[88] Non-European beliefs Beings having many of the attributes of European vampires appear in the folklore of Africa, Asia, North and South America, and India. Classified as vampires, all share the thirst for blood.[91] Africa Various regions of Africa have folktales featuring beings with vampiric abilities: in West Africa the Ashanti people tell of the iron-toothed and tree-dwelling asanbosam,[92] and the Ewe people of the adze, which can take the form of a firefly and hunts children.[93] The eastern Cape region has the impundulu, which can take the form of a large taloned bird and can summon thunder and lightning, and the Betsileo people of Madagascar tell of the ramanga, an outlaw or living vampire who drinks the blood and eats the nail clippings of nobles.[94] In colonial East Africa, rumors circulated to the effect that employees of the state such as firemen and nurses were vampires, known in Swahili as wazimamoto.[95] Americas The Loogaroo is an example of how a vampire belief can result from a combination of beliefs, here a mixture of French and African Vodu or voodoo. The term Loogaroo possibly comes from the French loup-garou (meaning "werewolf") and is common in the culture of Mauritius. The stories of the Loogaroo are widespread through the Caribbean Islands and Louisiana in the United States.[96] Similar female monsters are the Soucouyant of Trinidad, and the Tunda and Patasola of Colombian folklore, while the Mapuche of southern Chile have the bloodsucking snake known as the Peuchen.[97] Aloe vera hung backwards behind or near a door was thought to ward off vampiric beings in South American folklore.[31] Aztec mythology described tales of the Cihuateteo, skull-faced spirits of those who died in childbirth who stole children and entered into sexual liaisons with the living, driving them mad.[25] During the late 18th and 19th centuries the belief in vampires was widespread in parts of New England, particularly in Rhode Island and eastern Connecticut. There are many documented cases of families disinterring loved ones and removing their hearts in the belief that the deceased was a vampire who was responsible for sickness and death in the family, although the term "vampire" was never used to describe the dead. The deadly disease tuberculosis, or "consumption" as it was known at the time, was believed to be caused by nightly visitations on the part of a dead family member who had died of consumption themselves.[98] The most famous, and most recently recorded, case of suspected vampirism is that of nineteen-year-old Mercy Brown, who died in Exeter, Rhode Island in 1892. Her father, assisted by the family physician, removed her from her tomb two months after her death, cut out her heart and burned it to ashes.[99] Asia Vampires have appeared in Japanese cinema since the late 1950s; the folklore behind it is western in origin.[100] The Nukekubi is a being whose head and neck detach from its body to fly about seeking human prey at night.[101] Legends of female vampiric beings who can detach parts of their upper body also occur in the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. There are two main vampiric creatures in the Philippines: the Tagalog Mandurugo ("blood-sucker") and the Visayan Manananggal ("self-segmenter"). The mandurugo is a variety of the aswang that takes the form of an attractive girl by day, and develops wings and a long, hollow, threadlike tongue by night. The tongue is used to suck up blood from a sleeping victim.[102] The manananggal is described as being an older, beautiful woman capable of severing its upper torso in order to fly into the night with huge batlike wings and prey on unsuspecting, sleeping pregnant women in their homes. They use an elongated proboscis-like tongue to suck fetuses from these pregnant women. They also prefer to eat entrails (specifically the heart and the liver) and the phlegm of sick people.[102] The Malaysian Penanggalan is a woman who obtained her beauty through the active use of black magic or other unnatural means, and is most commonly described in local folklore to be dark or demonic in nature. She is able to detach her fanged head which flies around in the night looking for blood, typically from pregnant women.[103] Malaysians hung jeruju (thistles) around the doors and windows of houses, hoping the Penanggalan would not enter for fear of catching its intestines on the thorns.[104] The Leyak is a similar being from Balinese folklore of Indonesia.[105] A Kuntilanak or Matianak in Indonesia,[106] or Pontianak or Langsuir in Malaysia,[107] is a woman who died during childbirth and became undead, seeking revenge and terrorising villages. She appeared as an attractive woman with long black hair that covered a hole in the back of her neck, with which she sucked the blood of children. Filling the hole with her hair would drive her off. Corpses had their mouths filled with glass beads, eggs under each armpit, and needles in their palms to prevent them from becoming langsuir. This description would also fit the Sundel Bolongs.[108] See caption A stilt house typical of the Tai Dam ethnic minority of Vietnam, whose communities were said to be terrorized by the blood-sucking ma cà rồng. In Vietnam, the word used to translate Western vampires, "ma cà rồng", originally referred to a type of demon that haunts modern-day Phú Thọ Province, within the communities of the Tai Dam ethnic minority. The word was first mentioned in the chronicles of 18th-century Confucian scholar Lê Quý Đôn,[109] who spoke of a creature that lives among humans, but stuffs its toes into its nostrils at night and flies by its ears into houses with pregnant women to suck their blood. Having fed on these women, the ma cà rồng then returns to its house and cleans itself by dipping its toes into barrels of sappanwood water. This allows the ma cà rồng to live undetected among humans during the day, before heading out to attack again by night.[110] Jiangshi, sometimes called "Chinese vampires" by Westerners, are reanimated corpses that hop around, killing living creatures to absorb life essence (qì) from their victims. They are said to be created when a person's soul (魄 pò) fails to leave the deceased's body.[111] Jiangshi are usually represented as mindless creatures with no independent thought.[112] This monster has greenish-white furry skin, perhaps derived from fungus or mould growing on corpses.[113] Jiangshi legends have inspired a genre of jiangshi films and literature in Hong Kong and East Asia. Films like Encounters of the Spooky Kind and Mr. Vampire were released during the jiangshi cinematic boom of the 1980s and 1990s.[114][115] Modern beliefs In modern fiction, the vampire tends to be depicted as a suave, charismatic villain.[22] Vampire hunting societies still exist, but they are largely formed for social reasons.[20] Allegations of vampire attacks swept through Malawi during late 2002 and early 2003, with mobs stoning one person to death and attacking at least four others, including Governor Eric Chiwaya, based on the belief that the government was colluding with vampires.[116] Fears and violence recurred in late 2017, with 6 people accused of being vampires killed.[117] A woman showing teeth with fangs. A vampire costume In early 1970, local press spread rumours that a vampire haunted Highgate Cemetery in London. Amateur vampire hunters flocked in large numbers to the cemetery. Several books have been written about the case, notably by Sean Manchester, a local man who was among the first to suggest the existence of the "Highgate Vampire" and who later claimed to have exorcised and destroyed a whole nest of vampires in the area.[118] In January 2005, rumours circulated that an attacker had bitten a number of people in Birmingham, England, fuelling concerns about a vampire roaming the streets. Local police stated that no such crime had been reported and that the case appears to be an urban legend.[119] The chupacabra ("goat-sucker") of Puerto Rico and Mexico is said to be a creature that feeds upon the flesh or drinks the blood of domesticated animals, leading some to consider it a kind of vampire. The "chupacabra hysteria" was frequently associated with deep economic and political crises, particularly during the mid-1990s.[120] In Europe, where much of the vampire folklore originates, the vampire is usually considered a fictitious being; many communities may have embraced the revenant for economic purposes. In some cases, especially in small localities, beliefs are still rampant and sightings or claims of vampire attacks occur frequently. In Romania during February 2004, several relatives of Toma Petre feared that he had become a vampire. They dug up his corpse, tore out his heart, burned it, and mixed the ashes with water in order to drink it.[121] Origins of vampire beliefs Commentators have offered many theories for the origins of vampire beliefs and related mass hysteria. Everything ranging from premature burial to the early ignorance of the body's decomposition cycle after death has been cited as the cause for the belief in vampires.[122] Pathology Decomposition Author Paul Barber stated that belief in vampires resulted from people of pre-industrial societies attempting to explain the natural, but to them inexplicable, process of death and decomposition.[122] People sometimes suspected vampirism when a cadaver did not look as they thought a normal corpse should when disinterred. Rates of decomposition vary depending on temperature and soil composition, and many of the signs are little known. This has led vampire hunters to mistakenly conclude that a dead body had not decomposed at all or to interpret signs of decomposition as signs of continued life.[123] Corpses swell as gases from decomposition accumulate in the torso and the increased pressure forces blood to ooze from the nose and mouth. This causes the body to look "plump", "well-fed", and "ruddy"—changes that are all the more striking if the person was pale or thin in life. In the Arnold Paole case, an old woman's exhumed corpse was judged by her neighbours to look more plump and healthy than she had ever looked in life.[124] The exuding blood gave the impression that the corpse had recently been engaging in vampiric activity.[35] Darkening of the skin is also caused by decomposition.[125] The staking of a swollen, decomposing body could cause the body to bleed and force the accumulated gases to escape the body. This could produce a groan-like sound when the gases moved past the vocal cords, or a sound reminiscent of flatulence when they passed through the anus. The official reporting on the Petar Blagojevich case speaks of "other wild signs which I pass by out of high respect".[126] After death, the skin and gums lose fluids and contract, exposing the roots of the hair, nails, and teeth, even teeth that were concealed in the jaw. This can produce the illusion that the hair, nails, and teeth have grown. At a certain stage, the nails fall off and the skin peels away, as reported in the Blagojevich case—the dermis and nail beds emerging underneath were interpreted as "new skin" and "new nails".[126] Premature burial Vampire legends may have also been influenced by individuals being buried alive because of shortcomings in the medical knowledge of the time. In some cases in which people reported sounds emanating from a specific coffin, it was later dug up and fingernail marks were discovered on the inside from the victim trying to escape. In other cases the person would hit their heads, noses or faces and it would appear that they had been "feeding".[127] A problem with this theory is the question of how people presumably buried alive managed to stay alive for any extended period without food, water or fresh air. An alternate explanation for noise is the bubbling of escaping gases from natural decomposition of bodies.[128] Another likely cause of disordered tombs is grave robbery.[129] Disease Folkloric vampirism has been associated with clusters of deaths from unidentifiable or mysterious illnesses, usually within the same family or the same small community.[98] The epidemic allusion is obvious in the classical cases of Petar Blagojevich and Arnold Paole, and even more so in the case of Mercy Brown and in the vampire beliefs of New England generally, where a specific disease, tuberculosis, was associated with outbreaks of vampirism. As with the pneumonic form of bubonic plague, it was associated with breakdown of lung tissue which would cause blood to appear at the lips.[130] In 1985, biochemist David Dolphin proposed a link between the rare blood disorder porphyria and vampire folklore. Noting that the condition is treated by intravenous haem, he suggested that the consumption of large amounts of blood may result in haem being transported somehow across the stomach wall and into the bloodstream. Thus vampires were merely sufferers of porphyria seeking to replace haem and alleviate their symptoms.[131] The theory has been rebuffed medically as suggestions that porphyria sufferers crave the haem in human blood, or that the consumption of blood might ease the symptoms of porphyria, are based on a misunderstanding of the disease. Furthermore, Dolphin was noted to have confused fictional (bloodsucking) vampires with those of folklore, many of whom were not noted to drink blood.[132] Similarly, a parallel is made between sensitivity to sunlight by sufferers, yet this was associated with fictional and not folkloric vampires. In any case, Dolphin did not go on to publish his work more widely.[133] Despite being dismissed by experts, the link gained media attention[134] and entered popular modern folklore.[135] Juan Gómez-Alonso, a neurologist, examined the possible link of rabies with vampire folklore. The susceptibility to garlic and light could be due to hypersensitivity, which is a symptom of rabies. It can also affect portions of the brain that could lead to disturbance of normal sleep patterns (thus becoming nocturnal) and hypersexuality. Legend once said a man was not rabid if he could look at his own reflection (an allusion to the legend that vampires have no reflection). Wolves and bats, which are often associated with vampires, can be carriers of rabies. The disease can also lead to a drive to bite others and to a bloody frothing at the mouth.[136][137] Psychodynamic theories In his 1931 treatise On the Nightmare, Welsh psychoanalyst Ernest Jones asserted that vampires are symbolic of several unconscious drives and defence mechanisms. Emotions such as love, guilt, and hate fuel the idea of the return of the dead to the grave. Desiring a reunion with loved ones, mourners may project the idea that the recently dead must in return yearn the same. From this arises the belief that folkloric vampires and revenants visit relatives, particularly their spouses, first.[138] In cases where there was unconscious guilt associated with the relationship, the wish for reunion may be subverted by anxiety. This may lead to repression, which Sigmund Freud had linked with the development of morbid dread.[139] Jones surmised in this case the original wish of a (sexual) reunion may be drastically changed: desire is replaced by fear; love is replaced by sadism, and the object or loved one is replaced by an unknown entity. The sexual aspect may or may not be present.[140] Some modern critics have proposed a simpler theory: People identify with immortal vampires because, by so doing, they overcome, or at least temporarily escape from, their fear of dying.[141] Jones linked the innate sexuality of bloodsucking with cannibalism, with a folkloric connection with incubus-like behaviour. He added that when more normal aspects of sexuality are repressed, regressed forms may be expressed, in particular sadism; he felt that oral sadism is integral in vampiric behaviour.[142] Political interpretations See caption Political cartoon from 1885, depicting the Irish National League as the "Irish Vampire" preying on a sleeping woman. The reinvention of the vampire myth in the modern era is not without political overtones.[143] The aristocratic Count Dracula, alone in his castle apart from a few demented retainers, appearing only at night to feed on his peasantry, is symbolic of the parasitic ancien régime. In his entry for "Vampires" in the Dictionnaire philosophique (1764), Voltaire notices how the mid-18th century coincided with the decline of the folkloric belief in the existence of vampires but that now "there were stock-jobbers, brokers, and men of business, who sucked the blood of the people in broad daylight; but they were not dead, though corrupted. These true suckers lived not in cemeteries, but in very agreeable palaces".[144] Marx defined capital as "dead labour which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks".[d] Werner Herzog, in his Nosferatu the Vampyre, gives this political interpretation an extra ironic twist when protagonist Jonathan Harker, a middle-class solicitor, becomes the next vampire; in this way the capitalist bourgeois becomes the next parasitic class.[145] Psychopathology A number of murderers have performed seemingly vampiric rituals upon their victims. Serial killers Peter Kürten and Richard Trenton Chase were both called "vampires" in the tabloids after they were discovered drinking the blood of the people they murdered. In 1932, an unsolved murder case in Stockholm, Sweden, was nicknamed the "Vampire murder", because of the circumstances of the victim's death.[146] The late-16th-century Hungarian countess and mass murderer Elizabeth Báthory became infamous in later centuries' works, which depicted her bathing in her victims' blood to retain beauty or youth.[147] Vampire bats Main article: Vampire bat See caption A vampire bat in Peru. Although many cultures have stories about them, vampire bats have only recently become an integral part of the traditional vampire lore. Vampire bats were integrated into vampire folklore after they were discovered on the South American mainland in the 16th century.[148] There are no vampire bats in Europe, but bats and owls have long been associated with the supernatural and omens, mainly because of their nocturnal habits.[148][149] The three species of vampire bats are all endemic to Latin America, and there is no evidence to suggest that they had any Old World relatives within human memory. It is therefore impossible that the folkloric vampire represents a distorted presentation or memory of the vampire bat. The bats were named after the folkloric vampire rather than vice versa; the Oxford English Dictionary records their folkloric use in English from 1734 and the zoological not until 1774. The danger of rabies infection aside, the vampire bat's bite is usually not harmful to a person, but the bat has been known to actively feed on humans and large prey such as cattle and often leaves the trademark, two-prong bite mark on its victim's skin.[148] The literary Dracula transforms into a bat several times in the novel, and vampire bats themselves are mentioned twice in it. The 1927 stage production of Dracula followed the novel in having Dracula turn into a bat, as did the film, where Béla Lugosi would transform into a bat.[148] The bat transformation scene was used again by Lon Chaney Jr. in 1943's Son of Dracula.[150] In modern culture See also: List of vampires The vampire is now a fixture in popular fiction. Such fiction began with 18th-century poetry and continued with 19th-century short stories, the first and most influential of which was John Polidori's "The Vampyre" (1819), featuring the vampire Lord Ruthven.[151] Lord Ruthven's exploits were further explored in a series of vampire plays in which he was the antihero. The vampire theme continued in penny dreadful serial publications such as Varney the Vampire (1847) and culminated in the pre-eminent vampire novel in history: Dracula by Bram Stoker, published in 1897.[152] Over time, some attributes now regarded as integral became incorporated into the vampire's profile: fangs and vulnerability to sunlight appeared over the course of the 19th century, with Varney the Vampire and Count Dracula both bearing protruding teeth,[153] and Count Orlok of Murnau's Nosferatu (1922) fearing daylight.[154] The cloak appeared in stage productions of the 1920s, with a high collar introduced by playwright Hamilton Deane to help Dracula 'vanish' on stage.[155] Lord Ruthven and Varney were able to be healed by moonlight, although no account of this is known in traditional folklore.[156] Implied though not often explicitly documented in folklore, immortality is one attribute which features heavily in vampire films and literature. Much is made of the price of eternal life, namely the incessant need for the blood of former equals.[157] Literature Main article: Vampire literature See caption Cover from one of the original serialized editions of Varney the Vampire The vampire or revenant first appeared in poems such as The Vampire (1748) by Heinrich August Ossenfelder, Lenore (1773) by Gottfried August Bürger, Die Braut von Corinth (The Bride of Corinth) (1797) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Robert Southey's Thalaba the Destroyer (1801), John Stagg's "The Vampyre" (1810), Percy Bysshe Shelley's "The Spectral Horseman" (1810) ("Nor a yelling vampire reeking with gore") and "Ballad" in St. Irvyne (1811) about a reanimated corpse, Sister Rosa, Samuel Taylor Coleridge's unfinished Christabel and Lord Byron's The Giaour.[158] Byron was also credited with the first prose fiction piece concerned with vampires: "The Vampyre" (1819). This was in reality authored by Byron's personal physician, John Polidori, who adapted an enigmatic fragmentary tale of his illustrious patient, "Fragment of a Novel" (1819), also known as "The Burial: A Fragment".[20][152] Byron's own dominating personality, mediated by his lover Lady Caroline Lamb in her unflattering roman-a-clef Glenarvon (a Gothic fantasia based on Byron's wild life), was used as a model for Polidori's undead protagonist Lord Ruthven. The Vampyre was highly successful and the most influential vampire work of the early 19th century.[159] Varney the Vampire was a popular mid-Victorian era gothic horror story by James Malcolm Rymer and Thomas Peckett Prest, which first appeared from 1845 to 1847 in a series of pamphlets generally referred to as penny dreadfuls because of their low price and gruesome contents.[151] Published in book form in 1847, the story runs to 868 double-columned pages. It has a distinctly suspenseful style, using vivid imagery to describe the horrifying exploits of Varney.[156] Another important addition to the genre was Sheridan Le Fanu's lesbian vampire story Carmilla (1871). Like Varney before her, the vampiress Carmilla is portrayed in a somewhat sympathetic light as the compulsion of her condition is highlighted.[160] A person is lying in a bed while another person is reaching on the bed towards them. Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu, illustrated by D. H. Friston, 1872. No effort to depict vampires in popular fiction was as influential or as definitive as Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897).[161] Its portrayal of vampirism as a disease of contagious demonic possession, with its undertones of sex, blood and death, struck a chord in Victorian Europe where tuberculosis and syphilis were common. The vampiric traits described in Stoker's work merged with and dominated folkloric tradition, eventually evolving into the modern fictional vampire.[151] Drawing on past works such as The Vampyre and Carmilla, Stoker began to research his new book in the late 19th century, reading works such as The Land Beyond the Forest (1888) by Emily Gerard and other books about Transylvania and vampires. In London, a colleague mentioned to him the story of Vlad Ţepeş, the "real-life Dracula", and Stoker immediately incorporated this story into his book. The first chapter of the book was omitted when it was published in 1897, but it was released in 1914 as "Dracula's Guest".[162] The latter part of the 20th century saw the rise of multi-volume vampire epics as well as a renewed interest in the subject in books. The first of these was Gothic romance writer Marilyn Ross's Barnabas Collins series (1966–71), loosely based on the contemporary American TV series Dark Shadows. It also set the trend for seeing vampires as poetic tragic heroes rather than as the more traditional embodiment of evil. This formula was followed in novelist Anne Rice's highly popular Vampire Chronicles (1976–2003),[163] and Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series (2005–2008).[164] Film and television Main articles: Vampire film, List of vampire films, and List of vampire television series A shadow of a vampire and a railing. A scene from F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu, 1922. Considered one of the preeminent figures of the classic horror film, the vampire has proven to be a rich subject for the film, television, and gaming industries. Dracula is a major character in more films than any other but Sherlock Holmes, and many early films were either based on the novel Dracula or closely derived from it. These included the 1922 silent German Expressionist horror film Nosferatu, directed by F. W. Murnau and featuring the first film portrayal of Dracula—although names and characters were intended to mimic Dracula's.[165] Universal's Dracula (1931), starring Béla Lugosi as the Count and directed by Tod Browning, was the first talking film to portray Dracula. Both Lugosi's performance and the film overall were influential in the blossoming horror film genre, now able to use sound and special effects much more efficiently than in the Silent Film Era. The influence of this 1931 film lasted throughout the rest of the 20th century and up through the present day. Stephen King, Francis Ford Coppola, Hammer Horror, and Philip Saville each have at one time or another derived inspiration from this film directly either through staging or even through directly quoting the film, particularly how Stoker's line "Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make!" is delivered by Lugosi; for example Coppola paid homage to this moment with Gary Oldman in his interpretation of the tale in 1992 and King has credited this film as an inspiration for his character Kurt Barlow repeatedly in interviews.[166] It is for these reasons that the film was selected by the US Library of Congress to be in the National Film Registry in 2000.[167] See caption Count Dracula as portrayed by Béla Lugosi in 1931's Dracula. The legend of the vampire continued through the film industry when Dracula was reincarnated in the pertinent Hammer Horror series of films, starring Christopher Lee as the Count. The successful 1958 Dracula starring Lee was followed by seven sequels. Lee returned as Dracula in all but two of these and became well known in the role.[168] By the 1970s, vampires in films had diversified with works such as Count Yorga, Vampire (1970), an African Count in 1972's Blacula, the BBC's Count Dracula featuring French actor Louis Jourdan as Dracula and Frank Finlay as Abraham Van Helsing, and a Nosferatu-like vampire in 1979's Salem's Lot, and a remake of Nosferatu itself, titled Nosferatu the Vampyre with Klaus Kinski the same year. Several films featured the characterization of a female, often lesbian, vampire such as Hammer Horror's The Vampire Lovers (1970), based on Carmilla, though the plotlines still revolved around a central evil vampire character.[168] See caption 1960s television's Dark Shadows, with Jonathan Frid's Barnabas Collins vampire character. The Gothic soap opera Dark Shadows, on American television from 1966 to 1971, featured the vampire character Barnabas Collins, portrayed by Jonathan Frid, which proved partly responsible for making the series one of the most popular of its type, amassing a total of 1,225 episodes in its nearly five-year run. The pilot for the later 1972 television series Kolchak: The Night Stalker revolved around a reporter hunting a vampire on the Las Vegas Strip. Later films showed more diversity in plotline, with some focusing on the vampire-hunter, such as Blade in the Marvel Comics' Blade films and the film Buffy the Vampire Slayer.[151] Buffy, released in 1992, foreshadowed a vampiric presence on television, with its adaptation to a series of the same name and its spin-off Angel. Others showed the vampire as a protagonist, such as 1983's The Hunger, 1994's Interview with the Vampire and its indirect sequel Queen of the Damned, and the 2007 series Moonlight. The 1992 film Bram Stoker's Dracula by Francis Ford Coppola became the then-highest grossing vampire film ever.[169] This increase of interest in vampiric plotlines led to the vampire being depicted in films such as Underworld and Van Helsing, the Russian Night Watch and a TV miniseries remake of Salem's Lot, both from 2004. The series Blood Ties premiered on Lifetime Television in 2007, featuring a character portrayed as Henry Fitzroy, an illegitimate-son-of-Henry-VIII-of-England-turned-vampire, in modern-day Toronto, with a female former Toronto detective in the starring role. A 2008 series from HBO, entitled True Blood, gives a Southern Gothic take on the vampire theme.[164] In 2008 Being Human premiered in Britain and featured a vampire that shared a flat with a werewolf and a ghost.[170][171] The continuing popularity of the vampire theme has been ascribed to a combination of two factors: the representation of sexuality and the perennial dread of mortality.[172] Games Main article: Vampires in games The role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade has been influential upon modern vampire fiction and elements of its terminology, such as embrace and sire, appear in contemporary fiction.[151] Popular video games about vampires include Castlevania, which is an extension of the original Bram Stoker novel Dracula, and Legacy of Kain.[173] The role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons features vampires.[174] Modern vampire subcultures Main article: Vampire lifestyle See also: Psychic vampirism Vampire lifestyle is a term for a contemporary subculture of people, largely within the Goth subculture, who consume the blood of others as a pastime; drawing from the rich recent history of popular culture related to cult symbolism, horror films, the fiction of Anne Rice, and the styles of Victorian England.[175] Active vampirism within the vampire subculture includes both blood-related vampirism, commonly referred to as sanguine vampirism, and psychic vampirism, or supposed feeding from pranic energy.
gorewolf
In folklore, a werewolf[a] (from Old English werwulf 'man-wolf'), or occasionally lycanthrope[b] (from Ancient Greek λυκάνθρωπος, lykánthrōpos, 'wolf-human') is an individual who can shape-shift into a wolf (or, especially in modern film, a therianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature), either purposely or after being placed under a curse or affliction (often a bite or the occasional scratch from another werewolf), with the transformations occurring on the night of a full moon.[c] Early sources for belief in this ability or affliction, called lycanthropy,[d] are Petronius (27–66) and Gervase of Tilbury (1150–1228). The werewolf is a widespread concept in European folklore, existing in many variants, which are related by a common development of a Christian interpretation of underlying European folklore developed during the medieval period. From the early modern period, werewolf beliefs also spread to the New World with colonialism. Belief in werewolves developed in parallel to the belief in witches, in the course of the Late Middle Ages and the early modern period. Like the witchcraft trials as a whole, the trial of supposed werewolves emerged in what is now Switzerland (especially the Valais and Vaud) in the early 15th century and spread throughout Europe in the 16th, peaking in the 17th and subsiding by the 18th century. The persecution of werewolves and the associated folklore is an integral part of the "witch-hunt" phenomenon, albeit a marginal one, accusations of lycanthropy being involved in only a small fraction of witchcraft trials.[e] During the early period, accusations of lycanthropy (transformation into a wolf) were mixed with accusations of wolf-riding or wolf-charming. The case of Peter Stumpp (1589) led to a significant peak in both interest in and persecution of supposed werewolves, primarily in French-speaking and German-speaking Europe. The phenomenon persisted longest in Bavaria and Austria, with persecution of wolf-charmers recorded until well after 1650, the final cases taking place in the early 18th century in Carinthia and Styria.[f] After the end of the witch-trials, the werewolf became of interest in folklore studies and in the emerging Gothic horror genre; werewolf fiction as a genre has pre-modern precedents in medieval romances (e.g. Bisclavret and Guillaume de Palerme) and developed in the 18th century out of the "semi-fictional" chapbook tradition. The trappings of horror literature in the 20th century became part of the horror and fantasy genre of modern popular culture. Names The Modern English werewolf descends from the Old English wer(e)wulf, which is a cognate of Middle Dutch weerwolf, Middle Low German warwulf, werwulf, Middle High German werwolf, and West Frisian waer-ûl(e).[1] These terms are generally derived from a Proto-Germanic form reconstructed as *wira-wulfaz ('man-wolf'), itself from an earlier Pre-Germanic form *wiro-wulpos.[2][3][4] An alternative reconstruction, *wazi-wulfaz ('wolf-clothed'), would bring the Germanic compound closer to the Slavic meaning,[2] with other semantic parallels in Old Norse úlfheðnar ('wolf-skinned') and úlfheðinn ('wolf-coat'), Old Irish luchthonn ('wolf-skin'), and Sanskrit Vṛkājina ('Wolf-skin').[5] The Norse branch underwent taboo modifications, with Old Norse vargúlfr (only attested as a translation of Old French garwaf ~ garwal(f) from Marie's lay of Bisclavret) replacing *wiraz ('man') with vargr ('wolf, outlaw'), perhaps under the influence of the Old French expression leus warous ~ lous garous (modern loup-garou), which literally means 'wolf-werewolf'.[6][7] The modern Norse form varulv (Danish, Norwegian and Swedish) was either borrowed from Middle Low German werwulf,[7] or else derived from an unattested Old Norse *varulfr, posited as the regular descendant of Proto-Germanic *wira-wulfaz.[3] An Old Frankish form *werwolf is inferred from the Middle Low German variant and was most likely borrowed into Old Norman garwa(l)f ~ garo(u)l, with regular Germanic–Romance correspondence w- / g- (cf. William / Guillaume, Wales / Galles, etc.).[7][8] The Proto-Slavic noun *vьlko-dlakь, meaning 'wolf-haired' (cf. *dlaka, 'animal hair, fur'),[2] can be reconstructed from Serbian vukòdlak, Slovenian vołkodlȃk, and Czech vlkodlak, although formal variations in Slavic languages (*vьrdl(j)ak, *vьlkdolk, *vьlklak) and the late attestation of some forms pose difficulties in tracing the origin of the term.[9][10] The Greek Vrykolakas and Romanian Vîrcolac, designating vampire-like creatures in Balkan folklores, were borrowed from Slavic languages.[11][12] The same form is also found in other non-Slavic languages of the region, such as Albanian vurvolak and Turkish vurkolak.[12] Bulgarian vьrkolak and Church Slavonic vurkolak may be interpreted as back-borrowings from Greek.[10] The name vurdalak (вурдалак; 'ghoul, revenant') first appeared in Russian poet Alexander Pushkin's work Pesni, published in 1835. The source of Pushkin's distinctive form remains debated in scholarship.[13][12] A Proto-Celtic noun *wiro-kū, meaning 'man-dog', has been reconstructed from Celtiberian uiroku, the Old Brittonic place-name Viroconium (< *wiroconion, 'place of man-dogs, i.e. werewolves'), the Old Irish noun ferchu ('male dog, fierce dog'), and the medieval personal names Guurci (Old Welsh) and Gurki (Old Breton). Wolves were metaphorically designated as 'dogs' in Celtic cultures.[14][4] The modern term lycanthropy comes from Ancient Greek lukanthrōpía (λυκανθρωπία), itself from lukánthrōpos (λυκάνθρωπος), meaning 'wolf-man'. Ancient writers used the term solely in the context of clinical lycanthropy, a condition in which the patient imagined himself to be a wolf. Modern writers later used lycanthrope as a synonym of werewolf, referring to a person who, according to medieval superstition, could assume the form of wolves.[15] History Indo-European comparative mythology Dolon wearing a wolf-skin. Attic red-figure vase, c. 460 BC. The European motif of the devilish werewolf devouring human flesh harks back to a common development during the Middle Ages in the context of Christianity, although stories of humans turning into wolves take their roots in earlier pre-Christian beliefs.[16][17] Their underlying common origin can be traced back to Proto-Indo-European mythology, where lycanthropy is reconstructed as an aspect of the initiation of the kóryos warrior class, which may have included a cult focused on dogs and wolves identified with an age grade of young, unmarried warriors.[4] The standard comparative overview of this aspect of Indo-European mythology is McCone (1987).[18] Classical antiquity A few references to men changing into wolves are found in Ancient Greek literature and Folklore. Herodotus, in his Histories,[19] wrote that according to what the Scythians and the Greeks settled in Scythia told him, the Neuri which was a tribe to the north-east of Scythia, were all transformed into wolves once every year for several days, and then changed back to their human shape. He added that he is not convinced by the story but the locals swear to its truth.[20] This tale was also mentioned by Pomponius Mela.[21] Zeus turning Lycaon into a wolf, engraving by Hendrik Goltzius. In the second century BC, the Greek geographer Pausanias related the story of King Lycaon of Arcadia, who was transformed into a wolf because he had sacrificed a child in the altar of Zeus Lycaeus.[22] In the version of the legend told by Ovid in his Metamorphoses,[23] when Zeus visits Lycaon disguised as a common man, Lycaon wants to test if he is really a god. To that end, he kills a Molossian hostage and serve his entrails to Zeus. Disgusted, the god turns Lycaon into a wolf. However, in other accounts of the legend, like that of Apollodorus' Bibliotheca,[24] Zeus blasts him and his sons with thunderbolts as punishment. Pausanias also relates the story of an Arcadian man called Damarchus of Parrhasia, who was turned into a wolf after tasting the entrails of a human child sacrificed to Zeus Lycaeus. He was restored to human form 10 years later and went on to become an Olympic champion.[25] This tale is also recounted by Pliny the Elder, who calls the man Demaenetus quoting Agriopas.[26] According to Pausanias, this was not a one-off event, but that men have been transformed into wolves during the sacrifices to Zeus Lycaeus since the time of Lycaon. If they abstain of tasting human flesh while being wolves, they would be restored to human form nine years later, but if they do not abstain they will remain wolves forever.[22] Lykos (Λύκος) of Athens was a wolf-shaped herο, whose shrine stood by the jurycourt, and the first jurors were named after him.[27] Pliny the Elder likewise recounts another tale of lycanthropy. Quoting Euanthes,[28] he mentions that in Arcadia, once a year a man was chosen by lot from the Anthus' clan. The chosen man was escorted to a marsh in the area, where he hung his clothes into an oak tree, swam across the marsh and transformed into a wolf, joining a pack for nine years. If during these nine years he refrained from tasting human flesh, he returned to the same marsh, swam back and recovered his previous human form, with nine years added to his appearance.[29] Ovid also relates stories of men who roamed the woods of Arcadia in the form of wolves.[30][31] Virgil, in his poetic work Eclogues, wrote about a man called Moeris, who used herbs and poisons picked in his native Pontus to turn himself into a wolf.[32] In prose, the Satyricon, written circa AD 60 by Gaius Petronius Arbiter, one of the characters, Niceros, tells a story at a banquet about a friend who turned into a wolf (chs. 61–62). He describes the incident as follows, "When I look for my buddy I see he'd stripped and piled his clothes by the roadside... He pees in a circle round his clothes and then, just like that, turns into a wolf!... after he turned into a wolf he started howling and then ran off into the woods."[33] Early Christian authors also mentioned werewolves. In The City of God, Augustine of Hippo gives an account similar to that found in Pliny the Elder. Augustine explains that "It is very generally believed that by certain witches spells men may be turned into wolves..."[34] Physical metamorphosis was also mentioned in the Capitulatum Episcopi, attributed to the Council of Ancyra in the 4th century, which became the Church's doctrinal text in relation to magic, witches, and transformations such as those of werewolves.[35] The Capitulatum Episcopi states that "Whoever believes that anything can be...transformed into another species or likeness, except by God Himself...is beyond doubt an infidel.'[35] In these works of Roman writers, werewolves often receive the name versipellis ("turnskin"). Augustine instead uses the phrase "in lupum fuisse mutatum" (changed into the form of a wolf) to describe the physical metamorphosis of werewolves, which is similar to phrases used in the medieval period. Middle Ages There is evidence of widespread belief in werewolves in medieval Europe. This evidence spans much of the Continent, as well as the British Isles. Werewolves were mentioned in Medieval law codes, such as that of King Cnut, whose Ecclesiastical Ordinances inform us that the codes aim to ensure that "...the madly audacious werewolf do not too widely devastate, nor bite too many of the spiritual flock."[36] Liutprand of Cremona reports a rumor that Bajan, son of Simeon I of Bulgaria, could use magic to turn himself into a wolf.[37] The works of Augustine of Hippo had a large influence on the development of Western Christianity, and were widely read by churchmen of the medieval period; and these churchmen occasionally discussed werewolves in their works. Famous examples include Gerald of Wales's Werewolves of Ossory, found in his Topographica Hibernica, and in Gervase of Tilbury's Otia Imperiala, both written for royal audiences. Gervase reveals to the reader that belief in such transformations (he also mentions women turning into cats and into snakes) was widespread across Europe; he uses the phrase "que ita dinoscuntur" when discussing these metamorphoses, which translates to "it is known". Gervase, who was writing in Germany, also tells the reader that the transformation of men into wolves cannot be easily dismissed, for "...in England we have often seen men change into wolves" ("Vidimus enim frequenter in Anglia per lunationes homines in lupos mutari...").[38] Further evidence of the widespread belief in werewolves and other human-animal transformations can be seen in theological attacks made against such beliefs. Conrad of Hirsau, writing in the 11th century, forbids the reading of stories in which a person's reason is obscured following such a transformation.[39] Conrad specifically refers to the tales of Ovid in his tract. Pseudo-Augustine, writing in the 12th century, follows Augustine of Hippo's argument that no physical transformation can be made by any but God, stating that "...the body corporeally [cannot], be changed into the material limbs of any animal.'[40] Marie de France's poem Bisclavret (c. 1200) is another example, in which the eponymous nobleman Bisclavret, for reasons not described, had to transform into a wolf every week. When his treacherous wife stole his clothing needed to restore his human form, he escaped the king's wolf hunt by imploring the king for mercy and accompanied the king thereafter. His behavior at court was gentle, until his wife and her new husband appeared at court, so much so that his hateful attack on the couple was deemed justly motivated, and the truth was revealed. This lai (a type of Breton sung-poem) follows many themes found within other werewolf tales – the removal of clothing and attempting to refrain from the consumption of human flesh can be found in Pliny the Elder, as well as in the second of Gervase of Tilbury's werewolf stories, about a werewolf by the name of Chaucevaire. Marie also reveals to us the existence of werewolf belief in Breton and Norman France, by telling us the Franco-Norman word for werewolf: garwulf, which, she explains, are common in that part of France, where "...many men turned into werewolves".[41] Gervase also supports this terminology when he tells us that the French use the term "gerulfi" to describe what the English call "werewolves".[42] Melion and Biclarel are two anonymous lais that share the theme of a werewolf knight being betrayed by his wife.[43] The German word werwolf is recorded by Burchard von Worms in the 11th century, and by Bertold of Regensburg in the 13th, but is not recorded in all of medieval German poetry or fiction. While Baring-Gould argues that references to werewolves were also rare in England, presumably because whatever significance the "wolf-men" of Germanic paganism had carried, the associated beliefs and practices had been successfully repressed after Christianization (or if they persisted, they did so outside of the sphere of literacy available to us), we have sources other than those mentioned above.[44] Such examples of werewolves in Ireland and the British Isles can be found in the work of the 9th century Welsh monk Nennius; female werewolves appear in the Irish work Tales of the Elders, from the 12th century; and Welsh werewolves in the 12th to 13th century work, Mabinogion. Vendel period depiction of a warrior wearing a wolf-skin (Tierkrieger). Germanic pagan traditions associated with wolf-men persisted longest in the Scandinavian Viking Age. Harald I of Norway is known to have had a body of Úlfhednar (wolf-coated [men]), which are mentioned in the Vatnsdœla, Haraldskvæði, and the Völsunga saga, and resemble some werewolf legends. The Úlfhednar were fighters similar to the berserkers, though they dressed in wolf hides rather than those of bears and were reputed to channel the spirits of these animals to enhance effectiveness in battle.[45] These warriors were resistant to pain and killed viciously in battle, much like wild animals. Úlfhednar and berserkers are closely associated with the Norse god Odin. The Scandinavian traditions of this period may have spread to Kievan Rus', giving rise to the Slavic "werewolf" tales. The 11th-century Belarusian Prince Vseslav of Polotsk was considered to have been a werewolf, capable of moving at superhuman speeds, as recounted in The Tale of Igor's Campaign: Vseslav the prince judged men; as prince, he ruled towns; but at night he prowled in the guise of a wolf. From Kiev, prowling, he reached, before the cocks crew, Tmutorokan. The path of Great Sun, as a wolf, prowling, he crossed. For him in Polotsk they rang for matins early at St. Sophia the bells; but he heard the ringing in Kiev. The situation as described during the medieval period gives rise to the dual form of werewolf folklore in Early Modern Europe. On one hand the "Germanic" werewolf, which becomes associated with the witchcraft panic, and on the other hand the "Slavic" werewolf or vlkolak, which becomes associated with the concept of the revenant or "vampire". The "eastern" werewolf-vampire is found in the folklore of Central and Eastern Europe, including Hungary, Romania and the Balkans, while the "western" werewolf-sorcerer is found in France, German-speaking Europe and in the Baltic. Being a werewolf was a common accusation in witch trials throughout their history, and it featured even in the Valais witch trials, one of the earliest such trials altogether, in the first half of the 15th century.[46] Likewise, in the Vaud (Switzerland), child-eating werewolves were reported as early as 1448.[citation needed] In 1539, Martin Luther used the form beerwolf to describe a hypothetical ruler worse than a tyrant who must be resisted.[47] In 'Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus' (1555), Olaus Magnus describes (Book 18, Chapter 45) an annual assembly of werewolves near the Lithuania-Courland border. The participants, including Lithuanian nobility and werewolves from the surrounding areas, gather to test their strength by attempting to jump over a castle wall's ruins. Those who succeed are regarded as strong, while weaker participants are punished with whippings.[48] Early modern history Further information: Werewolf witch trials and Wolfssegen There were numerous reports of werewolf attacks – and consequent court trials – in 16th-century France. In some of the cases there was clear evidence against the accused of murder and cannibalism, but no association with wolves. In other cases people have been terrified by such creatures, such as that of Gilles Garnier in Dole in 1573, who was convicted of being a werewolf.[citation needed] In Geneva a man killed 16 children when he had changed himself into a wolf; he was executed on 15 October 1580. Coloured pen drawing, Johann Jakob Wick, Sammlung von Nachrichten zur Zeitgeschichte aus den Jahren. 1560–1587 A peak of attention to lycanthropy came in the late 16th to early 17th century, as part of the European witch-hunts. A number of treatises on werewolves were written in France during 1595 and 1615. Werewolves were sighted in 1598 in Anjou, and a teenage werewolf was sentenced to life imprisonment in Bordeaux in 1603. Henry Boguet wrote a lengthy chapter about werewolves in 1602. In the Vaud, werewolves were convicted in 1602 and in 1624. A treatise by a Vaud pastor in 1653, however, argued that lycanthropy was purely an illusion. After this, the only further record from the Vaud dates to 1670: it is that of a boy who claimed he and his mother could change themselves into wolves, which was, however, not taken seriously. At the beginning of the 17th century witchcraft was prosecuted by James I of England, who regarded "warwoolfes" as victims of delusion induced by "a natural superabundance of melancholic".[49] After 1650, belief in Lycanthropy had mostly disappeared from French-speaking Europe, as evidenced in Diderot's Encyclopedia, which attributed reports of lycanthropy to a "disorder of the brain",[50] although there were continuing reports of extraordinary wolflike beasts but they were not considered to be werewolves. One such report concerned the Beast of Gévaudan which terrorized the general area of the former province of Gévaudan, now called Lozère, in south-central France; from the years 1764 to 1767, it killed upwards of 80 men, women, and children. The part of Europe which showed more vigorous interest in werewolves after 1650 was the Holy Roman Empire. At least nine works on lycanthropy were printed in Germany between 1649 and 1679. In the Austrian and Bavarian Alps, belief in werewolves persisted well into the 18th century.[51] In any case, as late as in 1853, in Galicia, northwestern Spain, Manuel Blanco Romasanta was judged and condemned as the author of a number of murders, but he claimed to be not guilty because of his condition of lobishome, werewolf. Until the 20th century, wolf attacks on humans were an occasional, but still widespread, feature of life in Europe.[52] Some scholars have suggested that it was inevitable that wolves, being the most feared predators in Europe, were projected into the folklore of evil shapeshifters. This is said to be corroborated by the fact that areas devoid of wolves typically use different kinds of predator to fill the niche; werehyenas in Africa, weretigers in India,[45] as well as werepumas ("runa uturuncu")[53][54] and werejaguars ("yaguaraté-abá" or "tigre-capiango")[55][56] in southern South America. An idea is explored in Sabine Baring-Gould's work The Book of Werewolves is that werewolf legends may have been used to explain serial killings. Perhaps the most infamous example is the case of Peter Stumpp (executed in 1589), the German farmer, and alleged serial killer and cannibal, also known as the Werewolf of Bedburg.[57] Asian cultures See also: Asena and Itbarak Common Turkic folklore holds a different, reverential light to the werewolf legends in that Turkic Central Asian shamans after performing long and arduous rites would voluntarily be able to transform into the humanoid "Kurtadam" (literally meaning Wolfman). Since the wolf was the totemic ancestor animal of the Turkic peoples, they would be respectful of any shaman who was in such a form. Lycanthropy as a medical condition See also: Hypertrichosis and Clinical lycanthropy Some modern researchers have tried to explain the reports of werewolf behaviour with recognised medical conditions. Dr Lee Illis of Guy's Hospital in London wrote a paper in 1963 entitled On Porphyria and the Aetiology of Werewolves in which he argues that historical accounts on werewolves could have in fact been referring to victims of congenital porphyria, stating how the symptoms of photosensitivity, reddish teeth, and psychosis could have been grounds for accusing a person of being a werewolf.[58] This is however argued against by Woodward, who points out how mythological werewolves were almost invariably portrayed as resembling true wolves and that their human forms were rarely physically conspicuous as porphyria victims.[45] Others have pointed out the possibility of historical werewolves having been people with hypertrichosis, a hereditary condition manifesting itself in excessive hair growth. However, Woodward dismissed the possibility, as the rarity of the disease ruled it out from happening on a large scale as werewolf cases were in medieval Europe.[45] Woodward suggested rabies as the origin of werewolf beliefs, claiming remarkable similarities between the symptoms of that disease and some of the legends. Woodward focused on the idea that being bitten by a werewolf could result in the victim turning into one, which suggested the idea of a transmittable disease like rabies.[45] However, the idea that lycanthropy could be transmitted in this way is not part of the original myths and legends and only appears in relatively recent beliefs. Lycanthropy can also be met with as the main content of a delusion, for example, the case of a woman has been reported who during episodes of acute psychosis complained of becoming four different species of animals.[59] Folk beliefs Further information: Therianthropy Characteristics A German woodcut from 1722 The beliefs classed together under lycanthropy are far from uniform, and the term is somewhat capriciously applied. The transformation may be temporary or permanent; the were-animal may be the man himself metamorphosed; may be his double whose activity leaves the real man to all appearance unchanged; may be his soul, which goes forth seeking whomever it may devour, leaving its body in a state of trance; or it may be no more than the messenger of the human being, a real animal or a familiar spirit, whose intimate connection with its owner is shown by the fact that any injury to it is believed, by a phenomenon known as repercussion, to cause a corresponding injury to the human being. Werewolves were said in European folklore to bear tell-tale physical traits even in their human form. These included the meeting of both eyebrows at the bridge of the nose, curved fingernails, low-set ears and a swinging stride. One method of identifying a werewolf in its human form was to cut the flesh of the accused, under the pretense that fur would be seen within the wound. A Russian superstition recalls a werewolf can be recognized by bristles under the tongue.[45] The appearance of a werewolf in its animal form varies from culture to culture, though it is most commonly portrayed as being indistinguishable from ordinary wolves save for the fact that it has no tail (a trait thought characteristic of witches in animal form), is often larger, and retains human eyes and a voice. According to some Swedish accounts, the werewolf could be distinguished from a regular wolf by the fact that it would run on three legs, stretching the fourth one backwards to look like a tail.[60] After returning to their human forms, werewolves are usually documented as becoming weak, debilitated and undergoing painful nervous depression.[45] One universally reviled trait in medieval Europe was the werewolf's habit of devouring recently buried corpses, a trait that is documented extensively, particularly in the Annales Medico-psychologiques in the 19th century.[45] Becoming a werewolf Various methods for becoming a werewolf have been reported, one of the simplest being the removal of clothing and putting on a belt made of wolfskin, probably as a substitute for the assumption of an entire animal skin (which also is frequently described).[61] In other cases, the body is rubbed with a magic salve.[61] Drinking rainwater out of the footprint of the animal in question or from certain enchanted streams were also considered effectual modes of accomplishing metamorphosis.[62] The 16th-century Swedish writer Olaus Magnus says that the Livonian werewolves were initiated by draining a cup of specially prepared beer and repeating a set formula. Ralston in his Songs of the Russian People gives the form of incantation still familiar in Russia. In Italy, France and Germany, it was said that a man or woman could turn into a werewolf if he or she, on a certain Wednesday or Friday, slept outside on a summer night with the full moon shining directly on his or her face.[45] In other cases, the transformation was supposedly accomplished by Satanic allegiance for the most loathsome ends, often for the sake of sating a craving for human flesh. "The werewolves", writes Richard Verstegan (Restitution of Decayed Intelligence, 1628), are certayne sorcerers, who having annoynted their bodies with an ointment which they make by the instinct of the devil, and putting on a certayne inchaunted girdle, does not only unto the view of others seem as wolves, but to their own thinking have both the shape and nature of wolves, so long as they wear the said girdle. And they do dispose themselves as very wolves, in worrying and killing, and most of humane creatures. The phenomenon of repercussion, the power of animal metamorphosis, or of sending out a familiar, real or spiritual, as a messenger, and the supernormal powers conferred by association with such a familiar, are also attributed to the magician, male and female, all the world over; and witch superstitions are closely parallel to, if not identical with, lycanthropic beliefs, the occasional involuntary character of lycanthropy being almost the sole distinguishing feature. In another direction the phenomenon of repercussion is asserted to manifest itself in connection with the bush-soul of the West African and the nagual of Central America; but though there is no line of demarcation to be drawn on logical grounds, the assumed power of the magician and the intimate association of the bush-soul or the nagual with a human being are not termed lycanthropy. The curse of lycanthropy was also considered by some scholars as being a divine punishment. Werewolf literature shows many examples of God or saints allegedly cursing those who invoked their wrath with lycanthropy. Such is the case of Lycaon, who was turned into a wolf by Zeus as punishment for slaughtering one of his own sons and serving his remains to the gods as a dinner. Those who were excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church were also said to become werewolves.[45] The power of transforming others into wild beasts was attributed not only to malignant sorcerers, but to Christian saints as well. Omnes angeli, boni et Mali, ex virtute naturali habent potestatem transmutandi corpora nostra ("All angels, good and bad, have the power of transmutating our bodies") was the dictum of St. Thomas Aquinas. St. Patrick was said to have transformed the Welsh King Vereticus into a wolf; Natalis supposedly cursed an illustrious Irish family whose members were each doomed to be a wolf for seven years. In other tales the divine agency is even more direct, while in Russia, again, men supposedly became werewolves when incurring the wrath of the Devil. A notable exception to the association of Lycanthropy and the Devil, comes from a rare and lesser known account of an 80-year-old man named Thiess. In 1692, in Jürgensburg, Livonia, Thiess testified under oath that he and other werewolves were the Hounds of God.[63] He claimed they were warriors who descended into hell to battle witches and demons. Their efforts ensured that the Devil and his minions did not carry off the grain from local failed crops down to hell. Thiess was ultimately sentenced to ten lashes for idolatry and superstitious belief. Remedies Various methods have existed for removing the werewolf form. In antiquity, the Ancient Greeks and Romans believed in the power of exhaustion in curing people of lycanthropy. The victim would be subjected to long periods of physical activity in the hope of being purged of the malady. This practice stemmed from the fact that many alleged werewolves would be left feeling weak and debilitated after committing depredations.[45] In medieval Europe, traditionally, there are three methods one can use to cure a victim of lycanthropy; medicinally (usually via the use of wolfsbane), surgically, or by exorcism. However, many of the cures advocated by medieval medical practitioners proved fatal to the patients. A Sicilian belief of Arabic origin holds that a werewolf can be cured of its ailment by striking it on the forehead or scalp with a knife. Another belief from the same culture involves the piercing of the werewolf's hands with nails. Sometimes, less extreme methods were used. In the German lowland of Schleswig-Holstein, a werewolf could be cured if one were to simply address it three times by its Christian name, while one Danish belief holds that merely scolding a werewolf will cure it.[45] Conversion to Christianity is also a common method of removing lycanthropy in the medieval period; a devotion to St. Hubert has also been cited as both cure for and protection from lycanthropes. Connection to revenants Further information: Revenant Before the end of the 19th century, the Greeks believed that the corpses of werewolves, if not destroyed, would return to life in the form of wolves or hyenas which prowled battlefields, drinking the blood of dying soldiers. In the same vein, in some rural areas of Germany, Poland and Northern France, it was once believed that people who died in mortal sin came back to life as blood-drinking wolves. These "undead" werewolves would return to their human corpse form at daylight. They were dealt with by decapitation with a spade and exorcism by the parish priest. The head would then be thrown into a stream, where the weight of its sins was thought to weigh it down. Sometimes, the same methods used to dispose of ordinary vampires would be used. The vampire was also linked to the werewolf in East European countries, particularly Bulgaria, Serbia and Slovenia. In Serbia, the werewolf and vampire are known collectively as vulkodlak.[45] Hungary and Balkans In Hungarian folklore, werewolves are said to live in the region of Transdanubia, and it was thought that the ability to change into a wolf was obtained in infancy, after suffering parental abuse or by a curse. It is told that at the age of seven the boy or the girl leave home at night to go hunting, and can change to a person or wolf whenever they want. The curse can also be obtained in adulthood if a person passes three times through an arch made of birch with the help of a wild rose's spine. The werewolves were known to exterminate all kind of farm animals, especially sheep. The transformation usually occurred during the winter solstice, Easter and a full moon. Later in the 17th and 18th century, the trials in Hungary were not only conducted against witches, but against werewolves too, and many records exist documenting connections between the two. Vampires and werewolves are closely related in Hungarian folklore, both being feared in antiquity.[64] Among the South Slavs, and also among the ethnic Kashubian people in present-day northern Poland, there was the belief that if a child was born with hair, a birthmark or a caul on their head, they were supposed to possess shapeshifting abilities. Though capable of turning into any animal they wished, it was commonly believed that such people preferred to turn into a wolf.[65] Serbian vukodlaks traditionally had the habit of congregating annually in the winter months, when they would strip off their wolf skins and hang them from trees. They would then get a hold of another vulkodlak's skin and burn it, releasing from its curse the vukodlak from whom the skin came.[45] Caucasus According to Armenian lore, there are women who, in consequence of deadly sins, are condemned to spend seven years in wolf form.[66] In a typical account, a condemned woman is visited by a wolfskin-toting spirit, who orders her to wear the skin, which causes her to acquire frightful cravings for human flesh soon after. With her better nature overcome, the she-wolf devours each of her own children, then her relatives' children in order of relationship, and finally the children of strangers. She wanders only at night, with doors and locks springing open at her approach. When morning arrives, she reverts to human form and removes her wolfskin. The transformation is generally said to be involuntary, but there are alternate versions involving voluntary metamorphosis, where the women can transform at will. Americas and Caribbean Main article: Skin-walker See also: Soucouyant and Rougarou The Naskapis believed that the caribou afterlife is guarded by giant wolves which kill careless hunters venturing too near. The Navajo people feared witches in wolf's clothing called "Mai-cob".[67] Woodward thought that these beliefs were due to the Norse colonization of the Americas.[45] When the European colonization of the Americas occurred, the pioneers brought their own werewolf folklore with them and were later influenced by the lore of their neighbouring colonies and those of the Natives. Belief in the loup-garou present in Canada (thence Acadiana[citation needed]), the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan[68] and upstate New York, originates from French folklore influenced by Native American stories on the Wendigo. In Mexico, there is a belief in a creature called the nagual. In Haiti, there is a superstition that werewolf spirits known locally as Jé-rouge (red eyes) can possess the bodies of unwitting persons and nightly transform them into cannibalistic lupine creatures. The Haitian jé-rouges typically try to trick mothers into giving away their children voluntarily by waking them at night and asking their permission to take their child, to which the disoriented mother may either reply yes or no. The Haitian jé-rouges differ from traditional European werewolves by their habit of actively trying to spread their lycanthropic condition to others, much like vampires.[45] Modern reception Werewolf fiction Main article: Werewolf fiction The Were-Wolf by Clemence Housman Most modern fiction describes werewolves as vulnerable to silver weapons and highly resistant to other injuries. This feature appears in German folklore of the 19th century.[69] The claim that the Beast of Gévaudan, an 18th-century wolf or wolflike creature, was shot by a silver bullet appears to have been introduced by novelists retelling the story from 1935 onwards and not in earlier versions.[70][71][72] English folklore, prior to 1865, showed shapeshifters to be vulnerable to silver. "...till the publican shot a silver button over their heads when they were instantly transformed into two ill-favoured old ladies..."[73] c. 1640 the city of Greifswald, Germany was infested by werewolves. "A clever lad suggested that they gather all their silver buttons, goblets, belt buckles, and so forth, and melt them down into bullets for their muskets and pistols. ... this time they slaughtered the creatures and rid Greifswald of the lycanthropes."[74] The 1897 novel Dracula and the short story "Dracula's Guest", both written by Bram Stoker, drew on earlier mythologies of werewolves and similar legendary demons and "was to voice the anxieties of an age", and the "fears of late Victorian patriarchy".[75] In "Dracula's Guest", a band of military horsemen coming to the aid of the protagonist chase off Dracula, depicted as a great wolf stating the only way to kill it is by a "Sacred Bullet".[76] This is also mentioned in the main novel Dracula as well. Count Dracula stated in the novel that legends of werewolves originated from his Szekely racial bloodline,[77] who himself is also depicted with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf at will during the night but is unable to do so during the day except at noon.[78] The 1928 novel The Wolf's Bride: A Tale from Estonia, written by the Finnish author Aino Kallas, tells story of the forester Priidik's wife Aalo living in Hiiumaa in the 17th century, who became a werewolf under the influence of a malevolent forest spirit, also known as Diabolus Sylvarum.[79] The first feature film to use an anthropomorphic werewolf was Werewolf of London in 1935. The main werewolf of this film is a dapper London scientist who retains some of his style and most of his human features after his transformation,[80] as lead actor Henry Hull was unwilling to spend long hours being made up by makeup artist Jack Pierce.[81] Universal Studios drew on a Balkan tale of a plant associated with lycanthropy as there was no literary work to draw upon, unlike the case with vampires. There is no reference to silver nor other aspects of werewolf lore such as cannibalism.[82] A more tragic character is Lawrence Talbot, played by Lon Chaney Jr. in 1941's The Wolf Man. With Pierce's makeup more elaborate this time,[83] the movie catapulted the werewolf into public consciousness.[80] Sympathetic portrayals are few but notable, such as the comedic but tortured protagonist David Naughton in An American Werewolf in London,[84] and a less anguished and more confident and charismatic Jack Nicholson in the 1994 film Wolf.[85] Over time, the depiction of werewolves has gone from fully malevolent to even heroic creatures, such as in the Underworld and Twilight series, as well as Blood Lad, Dance in the Vampire Bund, Rosario + Vampire, and various other movies, anime, manga, and comic books. Other werewolves are decidedly more willful and malevolent, such as those in the novel The Howling and its subsequent sequels and film adaptations. The form a werewolf assumes was generally anthropomorphic in early films such as The Wolf Man and Werewolf of London, but a larger and powerful wolf in many later films.[86] Werewolves are often depicted as immune to damage caused by ordinary weapons, being vulnerable only to silver objects, such as a silver-tipped cane, bullet or blade; this attribute was first adopted cinematically in The Wolf Man.[83] This negative reaction to silver is sometimes so strong that the mere touch of the metal on a werewolf's skin will cause burns. Current-day werewolf fiction almost exclusively involves lycanthropy being either a hereditary condition or being transmitted like an infectious disease by the bite of another werewolf. In some fiction, the power of the werewolf extends to human form, such as invulnerability to conventional injury due to their healing factor, superhuman speed and strength and falling on their feet from high falls. Also aggressiveness and animalistic urges may be intensified and more difficult to control (hunger, sexual arousal). Usually in these cases the abilities are diminished in human form. In other fiction it can be cured by medicine men or antidotes. Along with the vulnerability to the silver bullet, the full moon being the cause of the transformation only became part of the depiction of werewolves on a widespread basis in the twentieth century.[87] The first movie to feature the transformative effect of the full moon was Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man in 1943.[88] The video game The Quarry greatly altered the transformation process of the werewolf. In the game, a character infected by a werewolf will eventually transform instantly into a werewolf as their body seems to explode. At the end of the full moon night, they will revert to their human form in a similar manner. Werewolves are typically envisioned as "working-class" monsters, often being low in socio-economic status, although they can represent a variety of social classes and at times were seen as a way of representing "aristocratic decadence" during 19th century horror literature.[89][90][91] Nazi Germany Nazi Germany used Werwolf, as the mythical creature's name is spelled in German, in 1942–43 as the codename for one of Hitler's headquarters. In the war's final days, the Nazi "Operation Werwolf" aimed at creating a commando force that would operate behind enemy lines as the Allies advanced through Germany itself. Two fictional depictions of "Operation Werwolf" – the US television series True Blood and the 2012 novel Wolf Hunter by J. L. Benét – mix the two meanings of "Werwolf" by depicting the 1945 diehard Nazi commandos as being actual werewolves
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