37. Seeds of the vampire legend are found in many ancient cultures around the world
Strange bodily decomposition, comas, and plague have been around since the dawn of time. Thus it’s no surprise that myths of the walking, murderous dead are present in ancient mythologies. In old Hindu myths, the vetala is a corpse reanimated by an evil spirit which sometimes feeds on the living. Various African tribes have possibly ancient beliefs about the dead walking the earth and causing sickness. Away from the walking dead specifically, blood-sucking demons are recorded in the myths of Ancient Mesopotamia and Persia, and Hebrew texts. These elements all later converged into the vampire we know and love.
