The myth of the vampire has very distant origins: there are traces of it among the ancient Babylonians and the Chinese, and
it was not unknown to the later Greek and Latin civilisations, or even several African and American Indian tribes. The vampires of these ancient peoples were nothing like those today, in fact they were frightening and demonic in
appearance. The idea of the “un-dead” dates back to the 18th Century; there were many reports in this period (some dating back to the century before that) documenting epidemics of vampirism, above all in Slavic regions (the term “vampire” is of Slavic origin). This contributed to the explosion of the vampire legend in the subsequent century, when Romanticism was in full swing, but it was above all due to John William Polidori. The ‘Romantic’ vision of the vampire began to resemble that of the 20th century. It was still a demon, but its appearance had become more seductive. Stoker’s documentation is extremely detailed, as is evident in the words of Van Helsing, who often refers to the ancient myth of the vampire, and moreover, the Count has all the seductive power of a vampire in the Romantic period.
The combination of centuries-old
tradition and Romantic ideology created a character that still survives today, and above all in the world of cinema. We must not forget, however, that Dracula was published in 1897, and therefore when the Romantic movement was more or less over. As a result, some people believe that the real reason for the book’s success was its use of new psychoanalytical theories, and the more “realistic” portrayal of the vampire. There are therefore many conflicting opinions as to the success of Dracula and the vampires modelled on him, and the true secret of the Count’s immortality probably lies not in the blood of his victims, but in the pen of Bram Stoker.