The Vrykolakas of Santorini
In Greek folklore, the restless dead could rise and knock on doors at night. Santorini was said to have so many that people sent their dead there.
What was reported
A vrykolakas is the Greek undead: someone who had died but didn't decay, and rose from the grave to wander at night, knocking on doors and calling out names. Those who answered, it was said, would soon die themselves.
Santorini was famous for them, and a Greek saying spoke of sending vampires to Santorini, as one might speak of taking coals to Newcastle. People believed the island's soil kept bodies from decaying. Travellers in the 1700s described ceremonies to lay one to rest on Mykonos.
Explanations offered
Santorini's volcanic soil does slow decay, which is probably why bodies found there seemed unchanged, and why the island became linked with the undead. Beliefs like this were common across south-eastern Europe before modern medicine explained decomposition.
- When
- Told for centuries
- Where
- Santorini, South Aegean, Greece
- Witnesses
- Greek folklore, and travellers since the 1700s
- Status
- Explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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