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The idea of the vampire was said to have originated as the lamia, an ancient Greek demon with the head and torso of a woman and the body of a winged serpent. This demon retained many qualities which vampires have been known to possess, including drinking blood of children or seducing men and then exhausting them, emerging at night, living in secluded caves, and having the ability to transform into other figures, including a beautiful woman. .
The Middle Ages: Vampire Lore Develops in Europe and Western Asia.
It remains unclear, even to this day, as to the origin of the vampire in Europe. Many are quick to place vampires in Transylvania, but, according to many historians, the earliest accounts of vampires in Transylvania occurred in 1786, long after they had appeared and developed in many other rural areas across Europe and Western Asia. There had been earlier accounts of demons called strix, but they seemed more closely related to witches than vampires. Transylvania became the "home" for vampires when Bram Stoker wrote Dracula in 1897, a story which is loosely based on Rumanian leader Vlad Drakul, who ruled Transylvania in the late 1400's.
Evidence of vampire folklore in other Slavic areas of Europe including Poland, Bulgaria, and Russia, has been found as early as the 10th century. Around this time, the Orthodox Church began to believe that incorrupt bodies (i.e. those who died outside the realm of the church, -whether they were never baptized or they had been excommunicated-, those who were born with caul, teeth, or tail, those born on certain "demonic" days, and those who suffered an irregular death) came back as vampires. In order to prevent the rising of such corpses, preventative measures were taken, including placing a crucifix in the coffin, nailing the clothes to the coffin or placing blocks on the body, piercing the body with thorns or stakes, or placing seeds on the grave, because vampires had a fascination for counting.
