The vampiric Vrykolakas from Greek folklore is said to terrorize the inhabitants of the island of Mykonos. To put an end to the haunting, the body's remains were exhumed, burned and buried on an inhabited island. But did it work?
On the bright Greek island of Mykonos, people mainly think about holidays, blue sea and the lights of the nightlife. What Greece was known to Western Europeans centuries ago was a wild and haunted land, and many returned with ghost stories.
One of the stories told from the time when Venetians and Turks fought for the island in the early 18th century. A story about the dead who come back from the dead to terrorize the living.
Manic panic caused by fear of Vrykolaks
In 1701, the French botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort arrived in Mykonos and witnessed something that he did not believe in himself, but caused the entire local community to panic.
An irascible local resident has been murdered and buried in a chapel in a remote village. It is unclear what happened to his killer and whether anyone ever paid for his death. He was mischievous and argumentative in life, but few liked him alive. No one liked him in his afterlife.
Locals reported that a few days after his burial he haunted the village as a vrykolaka, harassing people in their homes, emptying wine barrels and causing much poltergeist-like unrest. The doors slammed shut and the lights turned off.
Exorcism of Vrykolak
It was said that the things and hauntings caused by vrykolak were mostly harmless, but when he started harassing affluent people and when a beaten donkey was found. The villagers gathered to call the priest to stop all this.
The locals insisted that the man be exhumed and exorcised to put an end to the vrykolak haunting. At least the church allowed it, the rituals took place anyway and the man was buried to view his body. Witnesses said the body was not decomposing as it should and that it was unnatural how well it was preserved.
It is worth noting that, according to de Tournefort and his other foreign associates, he was heavily degraded. What really happened is unknown today, but as we have seen in other Vrykolaki stories, a decaying corpse in the ground does not necessarily stop people from believing that it should be exorcised.
Burn the heart of the Vrykolaks
Finally, it was decided to remove the person's heart and burn it, but there were no trained doctors and instead a butcher was brought to the chapel. However, the butcher had trouble finding the heart and mutilated the body while looking for it. It was a terrible stench, and although the priests burned incense to cover it up, fear spread through the crowd. The author claims that the smell, sight and superstitions made people hallucinate and they started shouting “Vrykolakas” at his mutilated body, hot with what seemed to be fresh blood.
The heart of the corpse was removed, taken to the sea and burned. A fragment of a ritual that took place a hundred years later on the other side of the world during the New England vampire stampede. His body was reburied, but then the vrykolak haunting only intensified. Apparently he was now going into their homes and beating people up in their sleep. According to tradition, knocking on people's doors appears in many stories about vrykolaki. They knocked only once, calling out the names of the people living there. If you open yourself to the vrykolaks, everyone inside could die. That's why in Greece there is still a saying: you should only open the door after the second knock.
They tried to organize a singing prayer march through the village, but it didn't work. They tried to drive nails into the body, but to no avail. People left their homes and the streets were empty after murky.
Ultimately, the body was taken to another island and cremated. Legend has it that the Vrykolaks cannot cross salt water on their own, so on the Greek islands, the bodies of people suspected of being vampires were placed on uninhabited islands. In this case, his body was transported secretly because it was apparently contrary to the Orthodox canon and the local priest feared official reprimand. According to Orthodox doctrine, this is not consistent with the doctrine of bodily resurrection. On January 16, 1701, they set out on a boat, some believing it might have been heading to the islet of Baos off the coast of Mykonos. According to de Tournefort's account, after applying this extreme measure, all phenomena ceased.
When the travel account was published in 1717, the timing coincided with the European vampire panic that had gripped the continent, and vampire cases in Serbia and elsewhere in Eastern Europe established knowledge of vampirism in contemporary folklore.
-
Vrykolakas Vampire in Sunny Mykonos
The vampiric Vrykolakas from Greek folklore is said to terrorize the inhabitants of the island of Mykonos. To put an end to the haunting, the body's remains were exhumed, burned and buried on an inhabited island. But did it work?
-
The night splitter of Filipino folklore
As part of the shapeshifting Aswang demons of the Philippines, Manananggal soared into the sky in her bat-like appearance, hunting for human blood.
-
The penitent vampire Vrykolakas in Santorini
After the man died before atoning for his crimes, he returned from the dead as the vampiric Vrykolakas when his wife did not fulfill his last wishes. The next month was full of terror and hauntings.
-
The vampire Vrykolakas in Patmos
After terrorizing his village, the vampire Vrykolakas from Patmos, Santorini, was taken to an inhabited island and set on fire. The question is, did it really work?
-
Churel: A vengeful vampire from South Asian folklore
Fueled by anger and revenge, the vampire Churel of South Asian folklore is said to haunt humans to drain their blood as a vengeful spirit raised from the dead.
-
The shoe vampire Vrykolakas from Pyrgos Castle
After a humble life as a shoemaker in Santorini, Greece, a man is said to have returned as Vrykolakas, a vampire from Greek folklore. But in the case of this Vrykolaki, it wasn't devouring human life that kept it alive.
-
Sea Draug: A ghostly fisherman from the Norwegian coast
Believed to haunt the murky seas of the north, the Sea Draug is the spirit of drowned fishermen and other unfortunate souls who perish in the waters.
-
Haunted Jane Street Hotel: Echoes of Lost Sailors
After the tragedy and sinking of the Titanic to the bottom of the Atlantic, the surviving crew members were sent to The Jane Street Hotel in New York. According to the stories, they still haunt rooms where the trauma related to their tragedy remains.
-
Soft music haunting Hald Pensionat
Who could be haunting the ancient Hald guesthouse in Mandal? Soft piano music plays in the afterlife and rumors of traces of a Norwegian pirate seem to persist.
-
Mandurugo's vampire bride from Filipino folklore
Hidden among human society, the vampire creature Mandurugo slowly sucks the blood and life of her humble husbands to maintain her eternal youth and beauty.
-
The ghostly guard MS Nordstjernen
The MS Nordstjernen spent decades ferrying passengers north through the Arctic Sea, and although the waters can be brought this far north, it always seemed to reach port unscathed. Some believe it may be Ernst, the ship's ghosts.
-
A cabin in the woods where the forest looks back
There are many strange stories associated with the DNT Flisberget cabin, deep in the mysterious Finnskogen forest, on the border of Norway and Sweden. So much so that it was considered the scariest cabin in the country.
By Light Unseen – Vampires in media and culture
Vroucolaca of Mykonos: Enlightenment Witness to the Greek Vampire Panic
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=gri.ark:/13960/t4th9mz1d&seq=368
Joseph Pitton de Tournefort – Wikipedia
Greek accounts of the Vrykolaki
Image Source: Pixabay.com
