The Origins of the Vampire

Origins of the Vampire

This essay is more a "what if" than a serious piece, as it involves the assumption of a number of things for which there is little or no proof. The basis for it is this: if we were to assume that vampires existed in the literal sense of immortal beings possessed of superhuman abilities, where could they have come from, and how could they have come to be.
For information relevant to this, I have looked primarily to mythology and legend, and to documented historical occurences of a vampiric bent. While I am avoiding fiction, I am including some claims from people who seem to sincerely believe themselves to be vampires of the immortal variety.
This artcile does not deal with the origins of the vampire myth, but with the origins of the vampire.

Vampires & Entities Said to Have Created Other Vampires

Lilith
In the Judeo-Christian mythology, Lilith is said to have travelled to the lands by the Red Sea where many demons dwelt after her escape from Eden. It is said that the offspring of her couplings with these demons included many of the earth's demonic creatures.

Cain
Upon being banished from the land of his parents because of his blood sacrifce of his brother Abel to his god, and having been forsaken by his god, Cain is said to have travelled to the lands by the Red Sea where Lilith and the demons dwelled. She is said to have taken him in as one of her own, and to have mated with him.

Given that Lilith and her offspring and, to a lesser extent, Cain and his children have been long linked with vampires and vampiric creatures, it is a possibility that these entities could be among the first vampires, parents of later generations.
Vampires Not Said To Reproduce
There are a number of legends of entities subject to a vampiric condition, often as a result of a curse or unfortunate circumstance, which, while exhibiting traits characteristic of a vampire, are not recorded to have created any other vampires. If this were the case, this would obviously preclude them from being an originator of a vampiric race.

The Aztecs had a myth about a female Vampire called the Cihuateteo. She was created when a woman died during childbirth. She would then return from the grave and attack children and infants.
Means By Which a Vampire May be Created
In this I am not including stories of humans being made vampires by existing vampires, but tales of how a human may become a vampire without coming into contact with a being of that kind.

Vampires by birth. Yep, some people apparently get to be vampires, whether they like it or not. These include a child born with teeth or a caul (a stillborn babies), and a seventh son of the seventh son (this lot seem to get all the luck).
In Greek folklore, people with red hair are said to become vampires. This myth also appears in Egyptian mythology. Certain Christian scholars have claimed that both Cain and Judas Iscariot had red hair.

Animals interfering somehow with a corpse resulting in it rising again as a vampire is a recurring theme. In both Eastern Europe and in China, a person is said to becomes a revenant when an animal jumps over him (it varies from legend to legend, but I believe that in some cases, this applies to a living person who is jumped over too). An airborne varient of the same myth appears in Romania, where a vampire is created if a bat flies over a corpse.
In England, a vampire was said to be made when a cat jumped over a corpse. In a number of places, cats are said to steal the soul of any dead person they might happen to come near. This legend occurs in Japan, among other places, where two-tailed vampire cats appear in folklore with some frequency.
Other things the body suffers after death are said to cause vampirism, such as being improperly buried (which often included being buried in unconsecrated ground), or being reflected in a mirror.
The way in which the person died is also regarded to be significant; suicides and victims of sudden and violent deaths are likely to become vampires, something which also occurs in legends of ghosts.

Vampirism has often been related to religious practice, apparently usually as a means of inspiring fear and revulsion of heretics by members of the faith. Both the Eastern Orthodox and Greek Orthodox churches have at various points claimed that those they excommunicate become vampire, and in many countries it has been common belief that witches and sorcerors (who often do not to the line of the local religious establishment) become vampires. On a related line, committing various sins and breaking assorted taboos apparently make it more likely for one to become a vampire. Having sex with large numbers of people (a sin, in Christianity at least), and eating the meat of a sheep that has been killed by a wolf (a taboo, and one which breaking has a chance of resulting in rabies), are examples of this.
Rather more supernatural means of creating vampires include the belief that the offspring of a witch who has sex with a devil (usually Satan) will be a vampire.