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Being a nerd like I am, I actually went and looked into the origin of vampire myths (as well as werewolves, faeries, unicorns, dragons, etc...) Like were-animals and dragons, there have been many seemingly-independent ancient myths about beings which drink blood. Initially, they were not human in appearance, the closest is one story in which a (dead) mother drank the blood of children who had not been properly warded. She was only a floating head with long hair though.

An almost ubiquitous idea the ancients had was that blood=life. As in, blood does not sustain life, it IS life in physical form. For them someone who wasted away until they died (like with Tuberculosis) must indeed have seemed like something was coming and drinking their life at night.

Whoever first came up with the idea that the dead might rise again, would never have thought that they could live without blood. Thus, the most horrifying, evil, disgusting creature that could possibly be imagined was: a dead human who drank the life of others so they themselves could live.

If we go by the ancient stories, our 'traditional' vampire isn't a vampire at all. Even the Europeans, who came up with the 'walking dead' thing, knew that vampires could live only at night, the time when all sorts of evil things could also exist. They were not generally intelligent either, they were zombies, but to be able to walk around, they had to acquire 'life' somewhere, and thus, the drinking blood thing.

I can swallow the 'logical' explanations as to why vamps can not walk during the day. (sunlight) and the not showing up in the mirror thing has to do with a whole other mythology surrounding mirrors. The cross (or any other way of banishing evil spirits, such as garlic) can also be understood. When Vamps met Christianity, they became corpses reanimated by demons that used the blood to give their newly acquired body unnatural life.

There were 3 "debuts" of the vampire legend as we know it today. The first was a poem about a lesbian vampire who nearly killed her noble lover. (she still had to return to the grave every night, but she was intelligent, and charming) The second a short story about a man who lived a hundred years (very rich) who was also a vampire, but had hidden that fact. The third was 'Dracula' (all versions).

So the vamp became a sensual predator, deceiving maidens (usually) with their charms and magic. Sophisticated, rich, charismatic denizens of the dark recesses of the human mind. All the better to... stimulate you with, I'm sure.

Now we have vamps like the Cullens, and that's where I draw my line. They sparkle in sunlight, can function during the day, and are not even slightly evil. Their similarities to the original vamp stories are long gone. If anything, they are a new kind of thing, perhaps a throwback elf of some sort.

If you want to see real vampires, read Dracula.
(Insert grumblings about the growing illiteracy of people these days)

There are a wide variety of vampire myths from around the world. I'm pretty sure the unifying factor is the drinking of blood from the living, which would unfortunately make the Twilight deuchebags proper vampires in at least that respect.

i dont think vampires are real, and are made up, so you can make your vampire however you want. besides theres 100s of different vampires and vampire stories and theyre all different. some vapires turn into bats and some dont, etc. so i dont think it matters, its Stephenie's vampire. and if you read the books you'd know the vampires in twilight arnt good at all, and most of them are evil, the cullens are the closet to being good, and some of them had dark past