Editing Vampire (section)

=== Ancient beliefs ===
[[File:Lilith (John Collier painting).jpg|thumb|left|upright=.6|''[[Lilith (painting)|Lilith]]'', 1887 by [[John Collier (painter)|John Collier]]. Stories of Lilith depict her as a demon drinking blood.|alt=A painting of a naked woman with a snake wrapped around her.]]
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.<ref>{{cite book|last1=McNally|first1=Raymond T.|last2=Florescu|first2=Radu|title=In Search of Dracula|year=1994|publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin]]|location=Boston, Massachusetts|isbn=978-0-395-65783-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/insearchofdracul00mcna/page/117 117]|url=https://archive.org/details/insearchofdracul00mcna/page/117}}</ref> The term ''vampire'' did not exist in ancient times. [[Blood drinking]] and similar activities were attributed to [[demon]]s or spirits who would eat flesh and drink blood; even the [[devil]] was considered synonymous with the vampire.{{sfn|Marigny|1994|pp=24–25}} Almost every culture associates blood drinking with some kind of revenant or demon, or in some cases a deity. In India tales of [[vetala|vetālas]], ghoulish beings that inhabit corpses, have been compiled in the ''[[Baital Pachisi|Baitāl Pacīsī]]''; a prominent story in the ''[[Kathāsaritsāgara]]'' tells of King [[Vikramāditya]] and his nightly quests to capture an elusive one.<ref>{{cite book|last=Burton|first=Sir Richard R.|author-link=Richard Francis Burton|title=Vikram and The Vampire: Classic Hindu Tales of Adventure, Magic, and Romance|orig-year=1870|year=1893|publisher=Tylston and Edwards|location=London|url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/goth/vav/vav00.htm|access-date=28 September 2007|isbn=978-0-89281-475-6|archive-date=7 November 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111107164840/http://sacred-texts.com/goth/vav/vav00.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> ''[[Piśāca]]'', the returned spirits of evil-doers or those who died insane, also bear vampiric attributes.{{sfn|Bunson|1993|p=200}}

The [[Persian Empire|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.{{sfn|Marigny|1994|p=14}} Ancient [[Babylonia]] and [[Assyria]] had tales of the mythical [[Lilith#Mesopotamian religions|Lilitu]],<ref name="Hurwitz"/> synonymous with and giving rise to [[Lilith]] ([[Hebrew]] לילית) and her daughters the [[Lilu (mythology)|Lilu]] from [[Demonology|Hebrew demonology]]. Lilitu was considered a demon and was often depicted as subsisting on the blood of babies,<ref name="Hurwitz">{{cite book |last=Hurwitz |first=Siegmund |others=Gela Jacobson (trans.) |pages=39–51 |year=1992 |orig-year=1980 |title=Lilith, the First Eve: Historical and Psychological Aspects of the Dark Feminine |location=Einsiedeln, Switzerland |isbn=978-3-85630-522-2 |publisher=Daimon Verlag}}</ref> 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 [[Genesis creation narrative#Seventh day: divine rest|God rested]]. An injured estrie could be healed by eating bread and salt given to her by her attacker.<ref>{{cite web|last=Shael|first=Rabbi|url=http://shaelsiegel.blogspot.com/2009/06/vampires-einstein-and-jewish-folklore.html|title=Rabbi Shael Speaks&nbsp;... Tachles: Vampires, Einstein and Jewish Folklore|website=Shaelsiegel.blogspot.com|date=1 June 2009|access-date=5 December 2010|archive-date=5 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181005071949/http://shaelsiegel.blogspot.com/2009/06/vampires-einstein-and-jewish-folklore.html|url-status=live}}</ref><!-- covers previous two sentences -->

[[Greco-Roman mythology]] described the [[Empusa]]e,{{sfn|Graves|1990|pp=189–190}} the [[Lamia]],{{sfn|Graves|1990|pp=205–206}} the [[Mormo]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theoi.com/Phasma/Empousai.html |title=Philostr Vit. Apoll. iv. 25; Suid. s. v. |access-date=24 October 2020 |archive-date=27 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201027063134/https://www.theoi.com/Phasma/Empousai.html |url-status=live }}</ref> 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.{{sfn|Graves|1990|pp=189–190}} The Lamia preyed on young children in their beds at night, sucking their blood, as did the ''gelloudes'' or [[Gello]].{{sfn|Graves|1990|pp=205–206}} 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.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Oliphant|first=Samuel Grant|date= 1913|title=The Story of the Strix: Ancient|journal=Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association|volume=44|pages=133–49|doi=10.2307/282549|issn=0065-9711|jstor=282549}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |date=2023-08-25 |title=Ubır: A Vampire-Like Creature in Turkic Mythology and Folk Beliefs |url=https://ulukayin.org/ubir-english/ |access-date=2024-01-26 |website=ULUKAYIN English |language=en-US |archive-date=26 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240126093031/https://ulukayin.org/ubir-english/ |url-status=live }}</ref>