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Illustration of Vrykolakas
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Vrykolakas

Aussi appelé: βρυκόλακας, vourkolakas, vorvolakas, katakhanas
Folklore et mythesMort-vivantUne malédiction1500 à 1899

The vrykolakas is the Greek undead: an undecayed, bloated corpse that walks out of its grave to plague its village. Seventeenth-century churchmen and travellers described islanders exhuming and burning suspect bodies, and Tournefort's eyewitness account of such a case on Mykonos became famous across Europe. Greek and Ottoman-era graves with corpses nailed or weighted down show how old and how practical the fear was. Its contagious, door-to-door spread makes it one of the closest folkloric relatives of the modern zombie plague.12

L'affronter
Première mention
1645
Described by Leo Allatius in 1645; Tournefort witnessed a 'slaying' on Mykonos in 1701
Origine
Greek
Grèce, Chypre
Ce qui le provoque
Une malédiction
Greek tradition blames excommunication above all, along with grave sin, a parent's curse, burial in unconsecrated ground or an animal jumping over the corpse.
Comment on en devient un
Dying excommunicate or cursed; anyone who answers its first knock dies within days and becomes one too.
Intelligence
Un peu d'intelligence
Points faibles
  • cremation
  • exorcism by a priest
  • impaling, beheading or cutting up the corpse
  • opening the grave on a Saturday, when it is at rest
  • never answering a door on the first knock

Quand est-il apparu pour la première fois ?

Monde antiqueMoyen Âge1500 à 18991900 à 19671968 à 19992000 à 20092010 à aujourd'hui1645

Described by Leo Allatius in 1645; Tournefort witnessed a 'slaying' on Mykonos in 1701

notes de terrain

Ce que disent les sources

1

The body does not decay but swells taut like a drum and turns ruddy12

2

The name is borrowed from a Slavic word that originally meant werewolf12

3

It crushes or suffocates sleepers by sitting on them12

4

Some accounts make it an eater of flesh, especially human livers, rather than a blood-drinker12

5

During the famine of 1941-42 some Greek families beheaded relatives who had to be buried outside cemeteries, to stop them rising12

Sources

  1. Vrykolakas - Wikipedia
  2. Vampire folklore by region - Wikipedia

Chaque fait de cette page provient de ces sources, reformulé dans nos propres mots. Une erreur ? Écrivez-nous à [email protected].

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Du folklore des mêmes contrées

Erichtho's reanimated soldierRoman (literary), 61PhilinnionAncient Greek, 150The corpse of ThelyphronRoman (literary), 170Vrykolakas of MykonosGreek, 1701BouplagosAncient Greek / Roman, 150PolykritosAncient Greek, 150

Même époque : 1500 à 1899

JiangshiChinese, 1789Zombi (Haitian)Haitian (Vodou folklore), 1750StrigoiRomanian, 1714Vampir (South Slavic)South Slavic (Serbian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Bosnian), 1725AbhartachIrish, 1870Arnold PaoleSerbian, 1732
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