The Romans and Greeks also had their share of blood-sucking creatures. In Greek mythology there were Lamiae, Empusae and Striges. They took on human bodily forms to seduce their victims and then they would use them to satisfy their bloodlust.
As the vampire myths continued to grow, horrific crime trails began to arise. One of Joan of Arc’s guards, Frenchman Gilles de Rais was brought to trial for killing and torturing at least 200 boys and using their blood for his experiments. Centuries later, writer Joris-Karl Huysman portrayed Rais in his vampire novel, La-Bas.
In the mid-15th Century, Vampirism again reared its head, most notably in the trial of Frenchman Gilles de Rais. A former member of Joan of Arc's guard and erstwhile Marshal of France, he retired to his lands in Southwest France, devoted to his quest of finding the secret of the "Philosophers' Stone" in blood.
He killed about 200 to 300 children by way of horrifying torture, in order to use their blood in his experiments. Later, in the 19th century, Joris-Karl Huysmans portrayed him as an authentic vampire in his novel La-Bas.
The details of what he allegedly did to the children are too horrific to mention. For further information, please consult any of the following:
1.Huysmans, Joris-Karl. Gilles de Rais (1899)
2.^ "Royal Financial Records Concerning Payments for Twenty-Seven Contingents in the Portions of Joan of Arc's Army Which Arrived at Orléans on 4 July 1429." Joan of Arc Primary Sources Series.
3.^ "Gilles de Rais: The Pious Monster." The Crime Library.
4.^ "Historical Association for Joan of Arc Studies."
5.^ Trevor-Roper, Hugh. The European Witch-craze of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, 1969.
6.^ Russell, Jeffrey. A History of Witchcraft: Sorcerers, Heretics, and Pagans, 1970.
7.^ Simpson, Jacqueline. "Margaret Murray: Who Believed Her and Why?." Folklore 105, 1994, pp. 89–96.
8.^ Hutton, Ronald. The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 1991.
9.^ Hutton, Ronald. The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999
10.^ Kitteredge, G. L. Witchcraft in Old and New England. 1951. pp. 275, 421, 565.
11.^ Cohn, Norman. Europe's Inner Demons. London: Pimlico, 1973.
12.^ Thomas, Keith. Religion and the Decline of Magic, 1971 and 1997, pp. 514–517.
13.^ Barett, W.P. The Trial of Joan of Arc. 1932.
14.^ Pernoud, Regine and Marie Veronique Clin. Joan of Arc, Her Story. 1966
15.^ Meltzer, Françoise. For Fear of the Fire: Joan of Arc and the Limits of Subjectivity. 2001
