Perhaps one of your summer vacation memories is sitting by the fire, tasting chocolate while listening to someone tell a scary story.
When did they all begin? When and why did people begin whispering these spooky stories? In this article, we'll share some of the most interesting examples of ancient ghost stories from various cultures and continents.
Since ancient times, ghost stories – tales of souls returning from the afterlife to haunt places they have abandoned – have been an important part of the folklore of many different cultures.
The idea of a ghost or spirit is based on the notion that a person's soul exists independently of their physical body, and that many of these souls continue to exist after death. With this in mind, many societies have used funeral rituals to ensure that the soul of the deceased does not return to haunt the living it has left behind.
The souls of the dead appear in literature as early as the 18th century BC in Homer's Odyssey, which tells the story of a journey to the underworld and a hero who encounters the spirits of the dead.
We also encounter several spirits in the Old Testament. Some cite the very first verses of the Book of Genesis as an example ("In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters"). Also worth noting is the story recorded in the 1st Book of Samuel: Saul goes to a soothsayer from Endor and asks her to summon the spirit of Samuel. Samuel appears as "a man covered with a robe."
The Epic of Gilgamesh also contains a record of a spirit apparition (Gilgamesh summons the spirit Enkidu from the afterlife to tell him about the afterlife). Various scholars date this epic to the period from the 7th to the 27th century BCE.
One of the oldest known ghost stories comes from China. In the 5th century BC, the philosopher Mo Di (also known as Mocius) recounted the story of a ruler who was murdered by a vengeful spirit. Mo Di believed in the power of spirits and souls, though his respect for them was more pragmatic. In his discussion of spirits, he stated that even if they did not actually exist, collective gatherings for sacramental devotion could play an important role in strengthening social bonds.
Many references to spirits are found in the mythologies of early Mesopotamian states, primarily Sumer, Babylon, and Assyria. Traces of these beliefs are found in the Abrahamic religions that later dominated the region.
Perhaps one of the first accounts of a haunted place comes from ancient Greece. Around 150 AD, the Greek writer Pausanius described a haunting at the site of the Battle of Marathon (490 BC). "In this place," we read in his account, "the sound of horses neighing and men fighting can be heard all night long. No one who stays there just to experience it derives any good from it, but the spirits do no harm to anyone who goes there against their will." The fact that Pausanius chose to mention this haunting in one of his works suggests that it was quite well known at the time.
The famous Roman writer and politician, Pliny the Younger, recorded one of the first ghost stories in his first-century AD letters, featuring a haunted house. Pliny claimed that the ghost of an old man with a long beard and rattling chains haunted his house in Athens, Greece. The apparition chased everyone away, and after some time, the house fell into ruin, until finally, a brave man arrived and decided to spend the night there. To his surprise, he discovered that the ghost was trying to communicate with him and was leading him to a location. According to Pliny the Younger, the apparition ceased its appearances when a human skeleton was unearthed at the location it had indicated and given a proper, ceremonial burial.
Around the same time, Plutarch described a haunting of the baths at Chaeronea by the ghost of a murdered man. The spirit's loud and terrifying cries caused the townspeople to seal the entrance to the building. Plautus and Lucian also mention haunted houses.
More recently, the ghost sightings of Anne Boleyn are noteworthy. She was the second wife of King Henry VIII of England and the mother of Queen Elizabeth I. Anne Boleyn was accused of dabbling in witchcraft, treason, incest, and adultery and was beheaded in May 1536. Since then, numerous sightings of her spirit have been reported at locations associated with her in life, including Hever Castle in Kent.
Many different cultures have their own versions of ghost stories. "Duppy" is a West Indian ghost who appears on coins and glasses of rum thrown into his grave. The Indian Mumiai is a ghost who scatters objects. Such spirits especially enjoy causing trouble for lazy people or criminals. The Japanese Umi Bozu is a great sea spirit who haunts Japanese sailors.
America has its own rich tradition of historical ghosts, including that of one of its founding fathers: Benjamin Franklin. In the late 19th century, his ghost was seen in Philadelphia, and some claim that the statue of Franklin standing in front of the American Philosophical Society comes alive and begins dancing in the street. The White House in Washington, D.C., has also been the site of numerous ghost sightings over the years. Everyone from First Ladies to Prime Ministers has reported seeing the ghost of the sixteenth US President, Abraham Lincoln. In addition to him, apparitions of other presidents, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, are also frequently seen.
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