The Case of the First Vampire

Draw up a mental image in your mind of a strange-looking cryptid that is half woman and half pterosaurid in nature and appearance, then you might have some idea of what the first nightmarish demoness or vampiric skeleton may have resembled. 50,000 years ago or longer in a land before time, an early modern human female was combing the South African shore for shellfish when she stumbled upon some giant eggs under a hollow tree. Suddenly the woman was attacked by a large flying reptile closely resembling a now extinct species of pterodactyl, who emerged from its nest inside the tree. The woman killed the pterosaurid shortly before dying of her own injuries. Some time passed by, and their remains were eventually picked apart by animals and scattered across the beach. Later some other early humans would find what was left of these remains and would try to solve their mystery by piecing together a monster that was half woman, half creature. They determined that she was indeed a female with reproductive organs unfit for giving birth. She had claw-like hands with an odd number of fingers and bird-like wings or talons instead of feet. They deciphered that she had many razor sharp teeth and was likely a carnivorous man-eater. Her body was given strange hybrid hair which resembled snake scales or even feathers. Her browridge was protruded like a pair of horns on her head, with strange leathery skin. The early humans who found these remains would also discover the hideous woman's dwelling or nest inside the hollow tree, and broken eggshells with the undeveloped embryos of demonic looking fetuses which they determined had large black eyes, claws, wing-like arms, sharp teeth and hairless bodies with ugly beak-like or elongated human faces. Once the creature was assembled and determined to be authentic, it caused early humans to have nightmares and night terrors. The mother all of demons would haunt their psyches at night, giving birth to the vampire mythos of their imaginations. Throughout the centuries, the frightening superstition of these prehistoric events would remain central to cultural civilization. South African tribes told legends of the impundulu or izulu. Sumerians spoke of the zu bird, utukku and lamassu. Hebrew myths described liliths or lilitu, while Greeks refered to these creatures as the lamia. They were given other less closely associated names and etymologies further east, but their overall feminine man-eating and cave or tree-dwelling monstrous nature and description remains the same. The creature looks like an ugly hag who screeches like a night owl, has the roar of a lion, and the ability to fly around or disturb children while they sleep. Specialists of sacred ceremonies were often summoned to deal with these menacing creatures by way of magical incantations and sacrificial rituals, or some form of spiritual divination involving spells to trap the alleged demons inside magical bowls using the old mousetrap mechanism of binding spirits to objects. Sometimes miniature clay figurines of these vampiric deities were crafted and used in such rituals and exorcisms. Over time the female demoness became widely associated with black dogs, lions, cats, snakes, owls, bulls, dragons, bats, griffons, donkeys and leviathans. Native Americans would tell stories of the thunderbird, while myths started to rise about phoenix or sphinx-type creatures. Rumors of lemurians and lake monsters would arise in folkloric legends. Eastern mythology had tales of nagas and raksashas, while Madagascar had legends of ramangas. Egypt has the ka, and India has akasha or Kali, showing that just about every country and continent has had a similar belief in vampires at one time. The first vampire has been given many names throughout history. On at least one Sumerian cuneiform tablet, the first vampire was a horribly wicked woman with seven different manifestations or names, often refered to collectively as the seven demons or seven witches. Among these different names, Lilith is perhaps the most well known of her aliases in the west. Lilith is also said to be the mother of seven kinds of demons including all kinds of vampires, revenants, werewolves and parasitic flies or insects. Lilith was associated with disease, pestilence, sickness, suffocation and exhaustion, and all things leading to illness and death. She nursed pig-faced stillborns and demon-faced infants upon her rotten decayed breast, often with blood and flesh instead of milk. Beliefs in the mare, or ass-like demoness with donkey ears and large horse-like teeth still persists in isolated regions of the world today. She has been blamed for kidnapping, fevers, breathing issues, nightmares, plagues, sexually transmitted diseases and sudden infant death syndrome. Her seven daughters, called lamassu or lilin or liliths, are associated with witchcraft and black magic. Lilith the matriarch was originally described by Sumerians as the daughter of Alu the wicked utukku or ekimmu and a temple prostitute of the goddess Inanna in Uruk, but she was later portrayed by Gnostic occultic writers as being the demonic wife and sister of Samael, the archangel of death in some Roman Catholic and East Orthodox mythologies. Another widespread Jewish myth calls her the first wife of Adam before Eve, or the serpent who deceived Eve in the original Creation garden stories. Other gnostic scriptures refer to Lilitu or Lilith as the first witch, or as the first wife of Cain before Aven in other myths. Male demons who spawned from her were known as lili or lilu or lamashtu. Others were known as shedim, shedu or gallu. Eventually the sons of Seth or Setites would marry the daughters of Cain or Cainites and this union would spawn a race of giants called nephilim, who in turn spawned the rephaim or extinct ghostly races. However, contradictions do tend to exist when mingling in folklore and mythology. There is no canonical belief system involving these matters. Some writers claim that it was Cain's sons who married Seth's daughters, or that Samael the fallen angel married Lilith the sorceress, thereby seducing Cain who killed his own brother. Another story relates to the union of Adam with Lilith, this time portrayed as the original mother of Cain before his adoption by Eve after Adam and Lily's divorce. There are several other variations of this story, and none of them can be proven with absolute certainty. So an alternative rendering of this prehistoric mythology is offered here only for your knowledge and entertainment. Anything beyond these ancient tales and writings is purely speculative.