One of the most popular forms of literature out there are ghost stories, but have you ever stopped to think about where exactly they came from? Almost every culture every time line that I know of has had a ghost story in one form or another. Because a lot of these ghosts also include demons and vampires. What exactly is a ghost then if demons and vampires are involved with ghost stories. Well each culture views ghosts differently, from the mesopotamians all the way to modern day America. But at the very basis of ghost is an image or the spirit of a dead person of course there's different types of ghosts different classifications and all that jazz but that's the very basic definition.

There are varying beliefs on where and why ghosts started as a belief. One such belief is by anthropology suggesting this came from some people living in certain climates causing a mist to come out of the mouth. Of course there's always the belief that seeing a dead person is omen of one's demise as seen in Nordic, Celtic, and Mesopotamian mythology. The stories of ghosts I believe come from the creation of animism, all things have a spirit right? The spirit or soul in some texts say that it doesn't just die with the body, except for extreme circumstances of course.

Now the very first ghost story was written in 1st century ad by a Roman author named Pliny the Younger. He wrote the encounter of a spirit with an old man with a beard and chains haunting his residence in Athens.

Lucian of Samosta wrote a satire ghost story stating his disbelief in 2nd century ad. In his story it wasn't spirits of the dead seeking vengeance but young alive men wearing black cloaks and skull masks. Which of course inspired modern views of spirits.

Constantius of Lyon in 5th century ad gave us the first of many constant themes of improperly buried dead. If burried improperly the spirits would come back to haunt. They need to be reburied properly to be at rest.

All throughout history there has been ghost stories of hauntings and demons and vampires on Christmas or Halloween. They have evolved over time through every era to what we know it today. Nowadays ghost stories has involved to even horror films, but no matter what it all started because of mythology. I was curious about the origins of the ghost story thank you for reading reading my post and my findings.

Sources:

https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/historical-ghost-stories

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost

https://www.worldhistory.org/ghost/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_story

https://link.medium.com/baJ4tS5sVrb

https://www.thecollector.com/ghost-stories-ancient-greece-rome/

https://crimereads.com/the-birth-of-the-modern-ghost-story/

https://writersinitiative.com/authors/a-concise-history-of-ghosts-and-famous-s-in-literature