neoselket
Ice Queen
For a long time, there has been a feud between monster/horror fans as to which is better, Vampires or Werewolves. To tackle this question, i'm going to delve into(some of) the original myths of the two creatures, so grab a seat, this will take a while.
Vampires
Let's start with Greek mythology, the oldest account(that i know of) of these creatures. The first vampire was a man named ambrogio, who fell in love with a priestess of Apollo named Selene. Apollo was jealous, and cursed Ambrogio so that any contact with sunlight would burn his skin. Ambrogio turned to Hades, the god of death, for protection, and Hades was willing to give it on the condition that Ambrogio bring hades Artemis' silver bow. He managed to convince Artemis to give it, but when she found out the reason she cursed him so touching silver would burn his skin. After explaining the situation, Artemis took pity on Ambrogio and turned him into the first vampire; he could use his fangs to collect blood with which to write love notes to Selene(long story), he would be immortal, and he would have strength and speed to hunt with(Artemis was the goddess of the hunt). He drank Selene's blood and turned her into a vampire, and their descendants were vampires.
(Note: this is the abridged version of the story, the full version can be found at http://www.gods-and-monsters.com/vampire-origin.html also, there were other vampires in Greek mythology, such as empousai and lamia, but this is the main one. There are also many versions of vampires in different regions of the world, but i'll be focusing on this one as there's far too many to list here.)
How to become a vampire
Someone could become a vampire in many ways, such as being promiscuous, having a cat jump over their corpse, and having red hair. Additionally, if a werewolf died, they would become a vampire after death, with the ability to transform into a wolf.
Misc
Before people knew much about decomposition, they came up with supernatural explanations for natural phenomena. For example, a corpse that was bloated with blood and had blood leaking from the mouth would be seen as being a vampire, due to the appearance of having drunk blood. They were believed to leave their graves at night, feed, and return before morning, as that would make them lose their powers. There is also a condition called porphyria which causes people to be extremely vulnerable to sunlight. Additionally, without modern medical technology, people were often buried prematurely, causing scratch marks to be discovered inside their coffins.
The idea of vampires not appearing in mirrors comes from the belief that mirrors were magical, and could show a reflection of someone's soul. Therefore, soulless vampires would not have a reflection.
The idea of vampires turning into bats comes from two sources(most likely): vampire bats and Vlad the impaler. In one battle(i forget which), Vlad released a swarm of bats at nightfall, which flew in the direction of the opposing army, giving the impression Vlad and his army had transformed into bats.
Weaknesses
Vampires could be harmed/killed by silver, garlic, sunlight, a stake through the heart, or holy objects. Additionally, vampires could not cross running water(in some myths), and if grain or salt was spilled near a vampire it would stop and could not leave until it had counted them all(this condition is referred to as arithmomania). Also, to prevent someone from turning into a vampire, people would often put garlic in the corpse's mouth and sew it shut, or put a brick or stone in it. Beheading was also an effective method of killing a vampire.
Abilities
vampires could suck blood, and in some cases had other powers such as turning into wolves(usually only when a werewolf turns into one), transforming into bats, immortality, and enhanced senses, strength, and speed.
Werewolves
Back to Greek mythology, The first werewolf was king Lycaon of arcadia, who wanted to test the god Zeus to see if he was truly omniscient. To this end, he killed one of his own sons and fed him to Zeus. Upon discovering this, Zeus cursed Lycaon and his offspring and turned them into wolves. A variation of this story has Lycaon sacrificing one of his sons to Zeus on an altar instead.(Note: again, there are many versions of werewolves and origin myths, so i'll only be listing one here.)
How to become a werewolf
A person could become a werewolf in a variety of ways, such as consuming the flesh of an animal killed by a wolf, drinking water from the footprint of a wolf, being conceived under a full moon, wearing clothing made of wolfskin, being cursed, or applying a magic salve. Being bitten was not usually on the list.
Misc
There were(rimshot) several types of werewolf. One, where the werewolf would transform by putting on a wolfskin(and would have to take it off at day, leaving it vulnerable), being able to transform at will, being cursed to be a wolf for a specified time(not just at the full moon), or to have one's spirit leave the body in a form of astral projection, roaming around in the form of a wolf.
There is a disease called hypertrichosis, which causes people to grow hair all over the body. This could have contributed to the belief that people were changing into wolves. Also, a mental condition called clinical lycanthropy causes the affected to believe they are a wolf or werewolf.
Characteristics
Werewolves were often interpreted as looking like a normal wolf, but having human eyes and voice, slightly larger, and no tail. They would therefore run on three legs, stretching out the fourth to look like a tail. Characteristics of a werewolf in human form included a unibrow(the eyebrows meeting in the middle), curved fingernails, low set ears, and a swinging stride. In some cases it was believed that cutting the skin of a human werewolf would show fur within the wound. In Russia, bristles under the tongue were a sign of a werewolf. Anthropomorphic(humanoid) wolves were largely a result of modern horror movies and special effects. Other werewolf legends stated that werewolves would be indistinguishable from normal wolves when transformed.
Weaknesses
Werewolves could be cured by being given wolfsbane. Also, if a werewolf was deprived of it's wolf skin while in human form, it would be vulnerable.
Abilities
Transforming into wolves, astral projection
That just scratches the surface, ha, of vampire and werewolf mythology. So in summary, here's a list of advantages and disadvantages to being a werewolf or vampire(cobbled together from different mythologies, not fiction).
Vampire pros: immortality, enhanced senses, strength, and speed, the ability to transform into bats or wolves(if a werewolf in life)
Vampire cons: sunlight, garlic, holy objects, running water, silver, no soul(so either you go to hell when you die or you are separate from your body and therefore not in control)
Werewolf pros: transforming into a wolf, astral projection, increased strength and speed
Werewolf cons: (sometimes) unable to transform if deprived of wolfskin or during daytime, turns into vampire after death
So vampires have more strengths, but also more weaknesses. My vote? Werewolves, definitely. Not only do they have less weaknesses, but they're cooler in my opinion.
Vampires
Let's start with Greek mythology, the oldest account(that i know of) of these creatures. The first vampire was a man named ambrogio, who fell in love with a priestess of Apollo named Selene. Apollo was jealous, and cursed Ambrogio so that any contact with sunlight would burn his skin. Ambrogio turned to Hades, the god of death, for protection, and Hades was willing to give it on the condition that Ambrogio bring hades Artemis' silver bow. He managed to convince Artemis to give it, but when she found out the reason she cursed him so touching silver would burn his skin. After explaining the situation, Artemis took pity on Ambrogio and turned him into the first vampire; he could use his fangs to collect blood with which to write love notes to Selene(long story), he would be immortal, and he would have strength and speed to hunt with(Artemis was the goddess of the hunt). He drank Selene's blood and turned her into a vampire, and their descendants were vampires.
(Note: this is the abridged version of the story, the full version can be found at http://www.gods-and-monsters.com/vampire-origin.html also, there were other vampires in Greek mythology, such as empousai and lamia, but this is the main one. There are also many versions of vampires in different regions of the world, but i'll be focusing on this one as there's far too many to list here.)
How to become a vampire
Someone could become a vampire in many ways, such as being promiscuous, having a cat jump over their corpse, and having red hair. Additionally, if a werewolf died, they would become a vampire after death, with the ability to transform into a wolf.
Misc
Before people knew much about decomposition, they came up with supernatural explanations for natural phenomena. For example, a corpse that was bloated with blood and had blood leaking from the mouth would be seen as being a vampire, due to the appearance of having drunk blood. They were believed to leave their graves at night, feed, and return before morning, as that would make them lose their powers. There is also a condition called porphyria which causes people to be extremely vulnerable to sunlight. Additionally, without modern medical technology, people were often buried prematurely, causing scratch marks to be discovered inside their coffins.
The idea of vampires not appearing in mirrors comes from the belief that mirrors were magical, and could show a reflection of someone's soul. Therefore, soulless vampires would not have a reflection.
The idea of vampires turning into bats comes from two sources(most likely): vampire bats and Vlad the impaler. In one battle(i forget which), Vlad released a swarm of bats at nightfall, which flew in the direction of the opposing army, giving the impression Vlad and his army had transformed into bats.
Weaknesses
Vampires could be harmed/killed by silver, garlic, sunlight, a stake through the heart, or holy objects. Additionally, vampires could not cross running water(in some myths), and if grain or salt was spilled near a vampire it would stop and could not leave until it had counted them all(this condition is referred to as arithmomania). Also, to prevent someone from turning into a vampire, people would often put garlic in the corpse's mouth and sew it shut, or put a brick or stone in it. Beheading was also an effective method of killing a vampire.
Abilities
vampires could suck blood, and in some cases had other powers such as turning into wolves(usually only when a werewolf turns into one), transforming into bats, immortality, and enhanced senses, strength, and speed.
Werewolves
Back to Greek mythology, The first werewolf was king Lycaon of arcadia, who wanted to test the god Zeus to see if he was truly omniscient. To this end, he killed one of his own sons and fed him to Zeus. Upon discovering this, Zeus cursed Lycaon and his offspring and turned them into wolves. A variation of this story has Lycaon sacrificing one of his sons to Zeus on an altar instead.(Note: again, there are many versions of werewolves and origin myths, so i'll only be listing one here.)
How to become a werewolf
A person could become a werewolf in a variety of ways, such as consuming the flesh of an animal killed by a wolf, drinking water from the footprint of a wolf, being conceived under a full moon, wearing clothing made of wolfskin, being cursed, or applying a magic salve. Being bitten was not usually on the list.
Misc
There were(rimshot) several types of werewolf. One, where the werewolf would transform by putting on a wolfskin(and would have to take it off at day, leaving it vulnerable), being able to transform at will, being cursed to be a wolf for a specified time(not just at the full moon), or to have one's spirit leave the body in a form of astral projection, roaming around in the form of a wolf.
There is a disease called hypertrichosis, which causes people to grow hair all over the body. This could have contributed to the belief that people were changing into wolves. Also, a mental condition called clinical lycanthropy causes the affected to believe they are a wolf or werewolf.
Characteristics
Werewolves were often interpreted as looking like a normal wolf, but having human eyes and voice, slightly larger, and no tail. They would therefore run on three legs, stretching out the fourth to look like a tail. Characteristics of a werewolf in human form included a unibrow(the eyebrows meeting in the middle), curved fingernails, low set ears, and a swinging stride. In some cases it was believed that cutting the skin of a human werewolf would show fur within the wound. In Russia, bristles under the tongue were a sign of a werewolf. Anthropomorphic(humanoid) wolves were largely a result of modern horror movies and special effects. Other werewolf legends stated that werewolves would be indistinguishable from normal wolves when transformed.
Weaknesses
Werewolves could be cured by being given wolfsbane. Also, if a werewolf was deprived of it's wolf skin while in human form, it would be vulnerable.
Abilities
Transforming into wolves, astral projection
That just scratches the surface, ha, of vampire and werewolf mythology. So in summary, here's a list of advantages and disadvantages to being a werewolf or vampire(cobbled together from different mythologies, not fiction).
Vampire pros: immortality, enhanced senses, strength, and speed, the ability to transform into bats or wolves(if a werewolf in life)
Vampire cons: sunlight, garlic, holy objects, running water, silver, no soul(so either you go to hell when you die or you are separate from your body and therefore not in control)
Werewolf pros: transforming into a wolf, astral projection, increased strength and speed
Werewolf cons: (sometimes) unable to transform if deprived of wolfskin or during daytime, turns into vampire after death
So vampires have more strengths, but also more weaknesses. My vote? Werewolves, definitely. Not only do they have less weaknesses, but they're cooler in my opinion.