werewolf

Author notes

15

marine

on Nov. 25, 2007

Sodomites may refer to:

Those who engage in sodomy, usually limited in usage to Homosexual men. In some jurisdictions, heterosexual couples who engage in oral or anal sex are designated as engaging in sodomy, although the laws are rarely enforced in these instances.

Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings that are renowned for subsisting on human blood or lifeforce, but in some cases may prey on animals. Though vampires have widely varying characteristics, they are described for the most part as reanimated corpses who feed by draining and consuming the blood of living beings. Almost all vampire lore comes from the southeastern region of Europe, particularly the Balkans and Greece, with the term being popularised in the early 18th century.[1] Folkloric vampires were depicted as revenants who visited loved ones and caused mischief or deaths in the neighbourhoods they inhabited when they were living. They wore shrouds, did not bear fangs and were often described as bloated and of ruddy or darkened countenance, markedly different from today's vampire.

The charismatic and sophisticated vampire of modern fiction was born in 1819 with the publication of The Vampyre (1819) by John Polidori; The story was highly successful and the most influential vampire work of the early 19th century.[2] However it is the 1897 novel Dracula which is best remembered as the quintessential vampire novel and provided many traits which have been incorporated into modern vampire legend. The success of this book spawned a distinctive vampire genre, still popular in the 21st century with books, films such as Dracula and television shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Today, the vampire is generally held as a fictitious entity, with little actual belief in the creature surviving, although superstition in vampiric creatures such as the chupacabra still persists in some cultures.