# Myth: Porphyria=Vampirism **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [April 11, 1999, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myth-porphyria-vampirism/89 "1999-04-11T00:40:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 1999, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myth-porphyria-vampirism/89/21 "1999-06-07T20:12:00Z")
Yes, the vampires of movies are far removed from the vampires of legend. Yet, the lineage is still apparent in many ways. For instance, although legendary vampires are not overtly sexy, one cannot help reading sexual undertones in the stories told about them: you yourself point out the similarity to incubi/succubi legends, about helpless victims receving mysterious nocturnal visits from supernatural beings who attack them while they are helpless in bed. And yes, legends tend to overlap more than film lore, where different mythical monsters have fall into clearly differentiated categories with different rules for their behavior and their destruction. Vampires in myth overlap with werewolves and incubi/succubi; in the movies they are much more distinct from each other. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 1999, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myth-porphyria-vampirism/89/22 "1999-06-08T00:58:00Z")
Okay, I’m convinced. I’ll never try to liven up a genetics class again with the porphyria/vamp dis-info. However. CFWEST says that hair and fingernails continue to grow after death. Hasn’t the stake been plunged through that particular idea as well? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 1999, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myth-porphyria-vampirism/89/23 "1999-06-08T16:39:00Z")
No, I don’t think so–at least not that I’ve heard. If you have a reliable source, please let me know, and I’ll stop repeating this particular piece of info. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 1999, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myth-porphyria-vampirism/89/24 "1999-06-09T16:28:00Z")
Loathe though I am to use the phrase, I read it somewhere. Slightly to my credit, I’m fairly sure it was in one of the older SD books. Alas, Cecil’s gems are packed away with all my other books so can’t check my library. Anybody got their TSD books at hand? (silly question) [BTW, sorry for de-Q-ing you earlier.] ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 1999, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myth-porphyria-vampirism/89/25 "1999-06-09T16:30:00Z")
Loathe though I am to use the phrase, I read it somewhere. Slightly to my credit, I’m fairly sure it was in one of the older SD books. Alas, Cecil’s gems are packed away with all my other books so can’t check my library. Anybody got their TSD books at hand? (silly question) As I recall, the idea of hair & nails continuing to grow was caused by the postmortem shrivelling of the surrounding skin, making them appear longer. [BTW, sorry for de-Q-ing you earlier.] ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 1999, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myth-porphyria-vampirism/89/26 "1999-06-09T16:31:00Z")
Loathe though I am to use the phrase, I read it somewhere. Slightly to my credit, I’m fairly sure it was in one of the older SD books. Alas, Cecil’s gems are packed away with all my other books so can’t check my library. Anybody got their TSD books at hand? (silly question) As I recall, the idea of hair & nails continuing to grow was caused by the postmortem shrivelling of the surrounding skin, making them appear longer when folks got dug up after moldering for a while. [BTW, sorry for de-Q-ing you earlier.] ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 1999, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myth-porphyria-vampirism/89/27 "1999-06-10T23:56:00Z")
Praise be my mom doesn’t have to be a vampire anymore–she can be a garden-variety porphyriac. Porphyria is still no walk in the park…too much sun and she blisters quite badly…SPF doesn’t help…only gloves, long sleeves, and sun avoidance…it is a genetic condition and hopefully won’t manifest in myself or sibs… ---
**Author:** ![jab1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee7513/32.png) [@jab1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jab1)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2001, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myth-porphyria-vampirism/89/28 "2001-05-05T20:31:21Z")
I revive this thread because the porphyria=vampire connection was the focus of a recent episode of the excellent fictional TV series _CSI: Crime Scene Investigators._ Investigating the killing of a jogger by a dog, they discovered the dog’s owner was a woman with porphyria who was using the animal to kill people so she could extract their internal organs (liver and heart especially) and grind them into “protein shakes” to drink to try to alleviate her symptoms. Were the other posters here correct in saying this would actually have done her no good at all? ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myth-porphyria-vampirism/89/29 "2001-05-06T12:25:11Z")
In re: “Porphyria”, etc., as a name. Greek word for “purple” or “dark”. And “purple”, of course, has associations of “royal” (because before the late 19th century, good purple dyes were very expensive). ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2001, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myth-porphyria-vampirism/89/30 "2001-05-08T16:20:57Z")
Wow, I get this far and get to post the link: [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/990507.html](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/990507.html) I saw CSI. At least they didn’t overtly make the connection to vampires. According to the story, she ingested the organs for their hemaglobin/iron. As to whether this would work, I don’t know. For a connection of source, I could see linking rabies to werewolfism. But that would just be more speculation on my part, so I won’t advocate that. Oh, and the original column where Cecil mentions porphyria is here. And can I just say - ew. [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2\_131.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_131.html) ---
**Author:** ![jab1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee7513/32.png) [@jab1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jab1)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2001, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myth-porphyria-vampirism/89/31 "2001-05-08T21:26:13Z")
Yeah, _CSI_ never explicitly said the woman was a vampire, but it seems to me that that’s what they wanted the audience to think. (Or, at the least, to think she was LIKE a vampire.) ---
**Author:** ![FarmerOak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@FarmerOak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FarmerOak)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2001, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myth-porphyria-vampirism/89/32 "2001-05-08T23:47:24Z")
Not to get TOO far off the topic, but Max is right, CFQWEST is wrong, regarding the hair and fingernails hooey. Unca Cecil himself has debunked this myth, as have Brunvand, the underappreciated and sorely missed Achenbach, et al. ---
**Author:** ![SteveB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SteveB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveB)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2001, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myth-porphyria-vampirism/89/33 "2001-05-14T07:08:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by FarmerOak \* > \*\*Not to get TOO far off the topic, but Max is right, CFQWEST is wrong, regarding the hair and fingernails hooey. Unca Cecil himself has debunked this myth, as have Brunvand, the underappreciated and sorely missed Achenbach, et al. > \*\* Sorry to fight one myth by perpetuating another, but my original point still stands, whether or not the hair and fingernails grew after death: i.e., descriptions of allaged vampires are based on corpses that were exhumed, not on living people suffering form a disease. [I used to post as CFQWest] ---
**Author:** ![Montfort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Montfort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Montfort)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2001, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myth-porphyria-vampirism/89/34 "2001-05-26T05:20:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by FarmerOak \* > \*\*the underappreciated and sorely missed Achenbach, et al. > \*\* The underappreciated and sorely missed Achenbach is undead and well at [washingtonpost.com](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/nation/columns/roughdraft/). He publishes a semi-regular column there. ---
**Author:** ![FarmerOak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@FarmerOak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FarmerOak)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2001, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myth-porphyria-vampirism/89/35 "2001-05-26T06:13:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Montfort \* > \*\* > The underappreciated and sorely missed Achenbach is undead and well at [washingtonpost.com](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/nation/columns/roughdraft/). He publishes a semi-regular column there. \*\* Yeah, but it’s not “Why Things Are.” He was one of the better Cecil imitators. Thanks for the URL, though, I still like his work. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myth-porphyria-vampirism/89.md?page=1)