Anaïkatoumenos
Anaïkatoumenos
Variations: Anakathoumenos
Specifically from the Tenos region of Greece,this vampire is like many other GREEK Vampires in that blood drinking is not required to sustain its unlife and neither is it susceptible to sunlight (see GREEK Vampires).
Its name, anaïkatoumenos, translates to mean”one who has sat back up” and may have originally meant that the position of the corpse had changed. Movement from a corpse is not only possible but probable after rigor mortis has occurred in the body.
Another possible explanation as to how the anaïkatoumenos received its name may have to do with an ancient hatred that the Greeks had at one time for the Turks. Many GREEK VAMPIRE stories begin with a person being cursed to UNDEATH because he had a heretical religious belief or had converted to Islam. According to Islamic beliefs, after death two angels, Munkar and Nakeer, come to question the departed who must sit upright in their presence. There is a Romanian story of how a man happened upon an undead being while it was still in its grave “sitting upright like a Turk.”
Source: Summers, Vampire: His Kith and Kin
Taken from the Encyclopedia of Vampire Mythology Written by : Theresa Bane ©2010 Theresa Bane. All rights reserved