Real Vampires

While vampires have always been a favorite subject for popular culture, they have recently gained further popularity with the recent Twilight phenomenon and the popularity of such television shows as True Blood. There was a time, however, when human society’s fear of vampires was a very real fear and not just a fictitious one. Every culture that has ever existed has had vampire myths and legends in both their folklore and even their religion. From the Judeo-Christian stories of Lilith and her blood drinking daughters the Lilu, to tribes in Madagascar that tell tales of a blood sucking creature called Ramanga, it seems that for some reason the legend of the vampire is a universal aspect of human nature.