4 mythical characters that have real prototypes

1. Vampire

In modern culture, these creatures usually look quite attractive - for example, like the corny Edward from "Twilight" or the seductive Vlad Dracula from "Van Helsing". But in traditional European folklore, vampires, or, as they are also called, ghouls or strigoi, are much more unpleasant citizens. These are the dead who rise from their graves at night and drink the blood of living people.

There are a lot of ways to cope with a ghoul.P. Barber. Vampires, Burial and Death: Folklore and Reality: drive an aspen stake into the heart (this works well with those aggressors who are not vampires), surround your bed garlic, preventing the vampire from smelling the victim, or pouring poppy seeds on his grave, so that he would start counting them instead of hunting.

Some Romanian peasants, by the way, successfully replaced garlic with feces - they also scared off vampires. And they worked well against ordinary neighbors who want to get to know you better.

instagram viewer

One could say that vampires are simply the invention of illiterate rednecks from Eastern Europe. But modern folklorists and historians believeThe real-life diseases that spread the vampire myth / BBCthat the legends about bloodsuckers in the very form in which they have come down to us, did not appear just like that.

There are good reasons to believeP. Sledzik. Bioarcheological and Biocultural Evidence for the New England Vampire Folk Belief / The American Journal of Physical Anthropologythat night attacks of the hungry dead in Europe of the XVIII century sought to explain the frequent deaths from tuberculosis and other infectious diseases. The pale and bloodless consumptive patient looks like a person from whom almost all the blood has been drunk.

In addition, the imperfection of medicine at that time periodically ledThe real-life diseases that spread the vampire myth / BBC to the fact that people in a state of lethargy, for example, patients with catalepsy, were buried alive.

If the relatives of the tuberculosis sufferer decided that the reason for the poor condition of the patient was not an infection, but a night attack bloodsucker, then they could easily open a fresh grave away from sin, and find a body there in an unnatural and strange pose. That was enough to make the suspicious dead man a ghoul.

2. Lycanthrope

A vampire's best sworn friend is a werewolf, otherwise a wolf or lycanthrope. This is a person who has been cursed or bitten by another sufferer of the same kind. It turns into a full moonB. Curran. Werewolves: A Field Guide to Shapeshifters, Lycanthropes, and Man-Beasts into a wolf and, having lost the ability to control himself, goes to devour people.

In the morning, the lycanthrope comes to his senses, having again returned to human form, and bewilderedly asks the few survivors: "Who did this?"

Sometimes, by the way, sorcerers turned into a wolf of their own accord. To do this, all you had to do was stick a knife into a stump and flip through it three times - anyone can handle it. If you get tired of being a monster, repeat the procedure to regain your natural look. The main thing is that no one takes out the knife while you are away, otherwise you will have to remain covered with wool forever.

Ways to Heal a Werewolf in European FolkloreB. Curran. Werewolves: A Field Guide to Shapeshifters, Lycanthropes, and Man-Beasts a great many. You can skin it off (either heal or kill) or cross it. To strike three times in the forehead with a knife (either cure, or... you get the idea), feed with bread or sprinkle three drops of your own blood into the face of the monster. Or take away the wolf's tail, which the werewolf always carries in his pocket.

Estonians recommend simply grabbing the lycanthrope and making him kneel motionless in front of the cross for 100 years. These guys don't like to rush. At the end of the term, the werewolf will turn into a human - perhaps simply because his patience will run out.

Historians suggest that the image of the wolf-man appeared in mythology for a reason, but because of two diseases. The first is the so-called "clinical lycanthropy", a mental condition rarely seen in schizophrenia and other disorders.

The person suffering from it in a state of psychosis imitatesJ. D. Blom. When Doctors Cry Wolf. A Systematic Review of the Literature on Clinical Lycanthropy / History of Psychiatry wolves or dogs - imitates howling and growling, runs on all fours and tries to bite. Sometimes patients imagine themselves as hyenas, cats, horses, tigers, frogs and even bees. It's much more exotic, you know, than imagining yourself as a banal Napoleon.

Second phenomenonD. Wendelin, D. Pope, S. Mallory. Hypertrichosis / Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology - hypertrichosis, that is, abnormal hair growth throughout the body, including on the face. This disease can be congenital or be the result of disorders in the endocrine system.

In the Middle Ages, children with such a pathology were most likely quickly destroyed as "spawn of the devil." But the surviving and matured people could well become the prototypes of lycanthropes.

3. Amazon

The Amazons in Greek mythology are a tribe of female warriors who lived somewhere in Asia. They were distinguished by their extreme ferocity in battle and absolute ruthlessness to others and to themselves.

When these tough girls had children, they killed the boys, leaving only their daughters. In addition, according to the testimonyStrabo. Geographica the ancient geographer Strabo, the Amazons burned out their right chest so that their curvaceous forms did not interfere with throwing a spear and shooting a bow.

The latter, by the way, is definitely fiction. Because sane archers pull the bowstring not to the bust, but to the cheek.

For a long time it was believed that the Amazons were purely a figment of the imagination of the Greeks, who apparently liked to fantasize about muscular warlike ladies.

But modern researchers since the early 1990s have found aboutThe Amazon Women: Is There Any Truth Behind the Myth? / Smithsonian Magazine 150 burials of Sarmatian women in the South Ural steppes near modern Kazakhstan. And at least a quarter of them had bows and other weapons, which means they took part in the battles along with the men.

Historians combined these finds with the records of Herodotus, who argued that the Amazons lived in the Scythian state, and came to the conclusion that the prototypeThe Amazon Women: Is There Any Truth Behind the Myth? / Smithsonian Magazine female warriors became nomadic women.

It is noteworthy that the Sarmatians, even being warriors, adored beads and beads - their husbands, however, did not lag behind them. But armored swimsuits, as in "Wonder Woman", they apparently did not wear.

4. Blue Beard

This is the nickname for the character of an old French folk tale, which was first recorded by Charles Perrault. Bluebeard is a rich man who married a young girl. He goes on a business trip and leaves his wife the keys to the lock, warning her not to open the little closet under the stairs.

The girl disobeys and finds in the room the bodies of the previous wives killed by the Beard. The maniac, returning home, instantly realizes that his wife has revealed his secret, and is going to deal with her. But the poor man is saved by her brothers, who kill the villain.

There is a popular belief that the historical prototype of Bluebeard was Baron Gilles de Re, a French nobleman who was executed on charges of serial murder.

Gilles de Montmorency-Laval, Baron de Ré, participatedG. Bataille. The Trial of Gilles de Rais in the Hundred Years War and was one of the most famous associates of Jeanne d'Arc. However, then the fellow fell into esotericism, began to engage in witchcraft, necromancy and alchemy, to look for the philosopher's stone and the elixir of eternal life. For these purely scientific purposes, de Ré allegedly sacrificed about 150 minors to Satan.

True, upon closer examination it turns outA. Jost. Gilles de raisthat Bluebeard of de Ré is so-so. First, he had only one wife, Catherine de Toire, whom he treated with respect. Secondly, archaeologists did not find any children's remains in his castle Tiffauge, contrary to the testimony of Gilles' ill-wishers, who swore that the estate was literally littered with them to the very roof.

And, finally, there is reliable information that the baron managed to owe the church, and his property was on bail. Most likely, de Ré was simply slandered by the churchmen and snatched from him a confession of infanticide under torture.

The real prototypeBluebeard: A Reader's Guide to the English Tradition Bluebeard appears to have been Conomor ap Tutwal, ruler of Dumnonia, a state in southern Britain that ruled in the 6th century. This noble master sent his four wives to a better world. However, he did this not out of sadism, but in order to inherit the property of the brides. Such a medieval business.

Finally, for the fifth time, Konomor married Trefina, daughter of Varokh, Count Vann. He safely killed the girl in the forest, but her father could not stand such impudence. With his submission, ap Tutval was excommunicated, and then executed.

And Trefina was canonized as a martyr, who was venerated both in England and in Brittany. Over time, the sad details of her short married life turned into a fairy tale about Bluebeard.