Vampire Mythology: Bats baby!

No discussion of vampires is even thinkable without talking about bats. They are integral to the modern day concept of the vampire, but this was not always the case.

Many cultures have various myths about bats. In South America, Camazotz was a bat god of the caves living in the Bathouse of the Underworld. In Europe, bats and owls were long associated with the supernatural, mainly because they were night creatures. On the other hand, the Gypsies thought them lucky-they wore charms made of bad bones. And in England, the Wakefield crest and those of some others have bats on them.

So how did bats end up becoming associated with vampires? There are only three species of vampire bats in the entire world, all of which occur in Central and South America. During the 16th century, the Spanish conquistadors first came into contact with them and recognized the similarity between the feeding habits of the bats and those of their mythical vampires. It wasn't long before they began to associate bats with their vampire legends. Over the following centuries the association became stronger and was used by various people, including James Malcom Rhymer who wrote "Varney the Vampyre" in the 1840's. Stoker cemented the linkage of the bats and vampires in the minds of the general public with what we now know as "Bram Stoker's: Dracula."

Now as we very well know, vampires in media over the past decade don't even turn into bats like the vampires of the olden days. In a ways, it's sort of become taboo. Why would any vampire want to turn into a bat and fly away when they can just run at incredible speeds? The last time I ever saw a vampire turn into a little bat in the media was the movie, "The Littlest Vampire," and that was a kids movie.

Bats and vampires have changed. In movies like Underworld; where Marcus was all bat and his brother was all wolf, and Van Helsing, where Dracula turned into a bat; these bats were ginormous. Not the little tiny bats we see flying around nowadays. These guys were huge and human sized. You would wet your pants if they flew at you.

So there you have it. Bat's influence in the vampire world, even though it's short and sweet-they are still important.