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.If the people refused to believe in the vrykolakas, the author seemsto be saying, such things would not exist.29If this canon gave some credence to the belief in the vrykolakas, asecond group of canons rejected it altogether and explained awaythe appearance of an undissolved body in the tomb, arguing thatnatural factors had retarded decomposition.(Henceforth this inter-pretation will be called the  natural interpretation.) In the normalstate of affairs it was thought that the body began to dissolve intoits constituent parts, which corresponded to the four humours, soonafter death.In the case of the vrykolakas, insufficient air inside thetomb meant that the moisture could not be drawn up from the27Ibid.28Ibid.29Lawson, Folklore, pp.366; 403 404 also discusses this text and notes the con-tradiction.However, he concludes that this is due to the existence of two oppos-ing views within the church hierarchy.182 chapter sevencorpse and therefore it failed to decompose.Since the moisture fromthe liquefaction of the humours could not escape because the tombwas sealed, it seeped into the dead body and caused it to swell up.30Although this process of decomposition was explained in terms aliento us, it rested on the classical theory of the four humours, whichremained extremely influential throughout the Byzantine period.According to the theory, the body, like all matter, was made up offour basic components: the author of the nomokanon listed them asblood, phlegm, bile and juices.31 Each of these was linked to one ofthe four elements.Blood was related to fire, for it was believed tobe the source of the body s warmth; juices were associated with air,bile with earth, and phlegm with water.When the soul left the body,the physical matter returned to its constituent elements.After deaththe body cooled and, as the heat left the corpse, the blood seepedout; as the humour associated with fire, it could not remain in thecolder temperature of the corpse.However, the juices were unableto escape to their natural element, air, because the tomb was sealedand instead they forced themselves into the body cavities of thecorpse.This caused the body to bloat and created the distinctiveappearance of the vrykolakas.The vrykolakas therefore should be under-stood purely in terms of natural causes.As a consequence of itsemphasis on natural causes, the text provided no remedy for thevrykolakas: no action needed to be taken because nothing out of theordinary had occurred.Despite their different approaches, both interpretations providedby the canons were hostile to the popular belief in the vrykolakas.The spiritual interpretation refashioned the popular revenant in termsof the supernatural activity of the devil, understanding the physicalstate of the corpse as a reflection of the relationship between thecommunity and God; the natural interpretation understood the exist-ence of the body in terms of natural causes.The divergence in per-spective of the two interpretations extends to their explanations ofthe appearance of the corpse.Characteristically, the vrykolakas lookedred and bloody.The natural interpretation explained the appear-30Mouzakis, Ofl brikÒlakew, p.69; Lambros,  Mãrkou MonaxoË , 345.31Papadopoulos-Kerameus,  Ofl brikÒlakew , 504 505; Lambros,  Mãrkou MonaxoË ,345.the VRYKOLAKAS 183ance in terms of the normal process of decomposition but in thespiritual interpretation it had far more sinister implications.32 Onlyonce the soul had left, did the corpse lose its blood and begin todecay and therefore the appearance of the vrykolakas suggested thatthe soul remained trapped within the body.The behaviour of thevrykolakas, stalking through the streets, also required the presence ofa soul, as the body could not act without one.33 However, the churchargued that it was only through God s power, exercised by his clergyin the form of excommunication, that the soul was permitted toremain in the body after death.In all other cases, the soul had toleave the body and could not return until the Day of Resurrection.Since the vrykolakas was not an excommunicate, the soul could notbe retained within the corpse and thus the vrykolakas could have noreal existence.If a body other than the tympaniaios remained pre-served, it would mean that the devil had independent power on theearth, and could work outside the will of God.The presence ofblood would imply that the devil had the power to bring the bodiesback to a form of life, an anti-life, as it mocked the real resurrectionon the Last Day, and prevented the pitiful victim achieving his/hereternal life.For this reason in the spiritual interpretation, the exist-ence of the vrykolakas has to stem totally from the illusions of the deviland it was therefore important to stress that the appearance andbehaviour of the vrykolakas only took on any kind of reality whenGod punished the community for its poor faith.If the church displayed a reluctance to accept the real existenceof the vrykolakas, even when formulated in terms of an act of thedevil, why did it not reject the belief altogether? As shown above,some canons did follow this route but more seem to have followedthe spiritual interpretation, where real existence was denied but thephenomenon was accepted in terms of a diabolic illusion.Both inter-pretations attempted to combat the lay beliefs and practices but indifferent ways.In the spiritual interpretation, where the church wasless rigorous in its rejection of the vrykolakas, the burning of the corpsewas considered to be the most heinous part of the belief and thepenance was specifically related to this act:32Lambros,  Mãrkou MonaxoË , 345.33Papadopoulos-Kerameus,  Ofl brikÒlakew , 504.184 chapter sevenThey burn that corpse and destroy it completely.The fools do notsee that their punishment in that eternal and inextinguishable fire isalready prepared for them in the terrible second coming of our LordJesus Christ, so that they will burn for all eternity.They burn thatcorpse and destroy it in the present time, but in future time, namelyon the Day of Judgement, they will give account of all such thingsbefore the terrible judge and they will hear from him their condem-nation to go into the fire and be punished for all eternity.If, there-fore, they repent with all their heart for this great wickedness whichthey have carried out, if they are lay people they should remain with-out communion for six years; if they are priests, they should be entirelydeprived of their priesthood [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]