What is in garlic that would repel vampires?
2007-07-25 19:28:18 · 14 answers · asked by korndawg73 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Mythology & Folklore
The Vampire myth can be read as an ancient metaphor for the horrible and (at the time ) unexplainable epidemic deseases like the plague and cholera that killed thousands of people seemingly without a visible cause, which opened the door for these kind of stories to circulate. Under this reading, garlic is important because it is known to be a powerful antiseptic, i.e. it kills germs .
2007-07-25 19:44:59 · answer #1 · answered by tenno1234 4 · 5⤊ 0⤋
Garlic Vampires
2016-12-15 03:48:52 · answer #2 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Vampires And Garlic
2016-11-16 07:47:16 · answer #3 · answered by dierks 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
So, should we all be mixing heads of garlic with our Halloween pumpkin stew? Can it ward off the undead?
The reputation of garlic as a vampire repellent goes back long before Stoker's relatively recent gothic creation. Why should this be? It's true that garlic has long been associated with health and life in general, however why should it ward off vampires rather than all undead?
There are many competing theories as to the origin of the vampire story. Many have to do with disease.
A recent theory tries to associate vampirism with rabies. This works well in general however it fails to explain convincingly the position of garlic in the myth. Instead it relies on the idea of rabies sufferers becoming fixated on the smell of garlic - an idea that could just as likely apply to the smell of coffee, not a known anti-vampire tool!
Another theory is that vampirism can be seen as symbolic of mosquito bites - and garlic is known in folklore as a natural mosquito repellent.
Mosquitoes suck blood and in doing so spread disease. So do vampires. Some of the symptoms of malaria - exhaustion, fever, anemia - are reminiscent of the reputed effects of being bitten by a vampire without being totally drained or turned. Garlic is a known insect repellent which reportedly works well against mosquitoes. This would fit well with the vampire folklore and gothic fiction.
Of course, the $64,000 question is: does garlic actually work against vampires? Would it really protect us from the undead?
Let's hope we never have to find out...
2007-07-25 19:37:09 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 5⤊ 0⤋
They hate garlic because it smells bad. I am not a vampire and I hate garlic also!
2007-07-25 19:34:06 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
I LOVE Garlic. It is meant to have beneficial qualities for the heart & to purify blood, therefore I don't know why they hate it, unless of course it is because they are without a human heart still beating in their bodies.
2007-07-25 20:14:09 · answer #6 · answered by Jock 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Fact: vampires have sensitive noses and can momentarily be driven off by pungent odours. However, this method of deterrence is unreliable and certainly won't work on an experienced vampire.
2007-07-25 22:21:43 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
my theory is that this element comes from observances that garlic is a good deterrant against mosquitoes and presumably other blood-sucking insects; so it's adding a touch of real-world folk-craft and adding it into myth, sort of like JK Rowling concluding that for Britain to have a secret magical society, there would be a Ministry of Magic that resembles other UK gov't institutions.
2007-07-25 19:33:36 · answer #8 · answered by kent_shakespear 7 · 6⤊ 0⤋
garlic is a natural purifier and has astringent properties, if a vampire ate garlic, it would burn them from the inside out because the vampire is infected by a toxin that takes over the blood cells.
2007-07-25 19:38:00 · answer #9 · answered by Carpathian Mage 3 · 4⤊ 1⤋
They hate garlic because that's the way they were written. They are mythological creatures.
2007-07-25 20:51:31 · answer #10 · answered by gerrifriend 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋