20 Who was the first vampire? Caine? Lilith? Lord Ruthven?
Description
This article is from the Vampires FAQ, by BJ Kuehl bj@alpha1.csd.uwm.edu with numerous contributions by others.
20 Who was the first vampire? Caine? Lilith? Lord Ruthven?
It could be all of the above or none of the above, depending upon how
"vampire" is defined. Whitewolf fiction names Caine as the first [see
_The Book of Nod_]. In other rpgs, Lilith is the first. Etymologists
might consider a 1047 CE reference to one "Upir Lichy" [q.v. 2.02] as
the first mention of a vampire. Historians might point to the influence
of the Gypsies as they spread across Europe in the 15th and 16th
centuries. Certainly there is a strong similarity between the Gypsy mulo
[q.v. 2.04] and the Eastern European vampire. On the other hand, the
literati might look to Polidori's Lord Ruthven [q.v. 3.03] as the
inspiration for today's fictional vampire.
The oldest known document with a reference to a vampirelike being is a
@2400 BCE tablet known as "The Sumerian King List", a very boring list
of all the kings of Sumer, their paternal lineage, and the years of
their rule. One entry is for the famous King Gilgamesh. It says that
Gilgamesh's father was a Lillu. In Sumerian myth, there were a number
of beings who, like the incubi and succubi [q.v. 2.04], come to sleeping
individuals to mate with them. Lillu is an incubus (male). One of the
succubi was Lilake/Lilitu whom some claim to be a forerunner of Lilith.
But not even Sumer can be definitively credited as coming up with the
first vampire. Why? Because Sumer is also the first civilization to
develop cuneiform, a form of writing which uses word sounds rather than
pictures. Consequently, there is no written histories prior to Sumer.
Continue to:
My Books
