In classical Roman religion, a ''genius loci'' (: ''genii locorum'') was the protective spirit of a place. It was often depicted in religious iconography as a figure holding attributes such as a

cornucopia In classical antiquity, the cornucopia (; ), also called the horn of plenty, was a symbol of abundance and nourishment, commonly a large horn-shaped container overflowing with produce, flowers, or nuts. In Greek, it was called the " horn of ...

patera In the material culture of classical antiquity, a ''patera'' () or ''phiale'' ( ) is a shallow ceramic or metal libation bowl. It often has a bulbous indentation ('' omphalos'', "belly button") in the center underside to facilitate holding it, ...

(

libation A libation is a ritual pouring of a liquid as an Sacrifice, offering to a deity or spirit, or in Veneration of the dead, memory of the dead. It was common in many religions of Ancient history, antiquity and continues to be offered in cultures t ...

bowl), or

snake Snakes are elongated limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (). Cladistically squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales much like other members of the group. Many species of snakes have s ...

. Many Roman altars found throughout the

Western Roman Empire In modern historiography, the Western Roman Empire was the western provinces of the Roman Empire, collectively, during any period in which they were administered separately from the eastern provinces by a separate, independent imperial court. ...

were dedicated to a particular ''genius loci''. The Roman imperial cults of the Emperor and the imperial house developed in part in connection with the sacrifices made by neighborhood associations ''( vici)'' to the local ''genius''. These 265 local districts had their cult organised around the ''Lares Compitales'' (guardian spirits or ''

lares Lares ( , ; archaic , singular ) were Tutelary deity#Ancient Rome, guardian deities in ancient Roman religion. Their origin is uncertain; they may have been hero-ancestors, guardians of the hearth, fields, boundaries, or fruitfulness, or an ama ...

'' of the crossroads), which the emperor

Augustus Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...

transformed into ''Lares Augusti'' along with the ''Genius Augusti''. The emperor's ''

genius Genius is a characteristic of original and exceptional insight in the performance of some art or endeavor that surpasses expectations, sets new standards for the future, establishes better methods of operation, or remains outside the capabiliti ...

'' is then regarded as the ''genius loci'' of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

as a whole. Roman examples of these ''genii'' can be found, for instance, at the church of St. Giles,

Tockenham Tockenham is a village and civil parish in north Wiltshire, England. The village is about east of Lyneham and southwest of the town of Royal Wootton Bassett. The parish includes the hamlet of Tockenham Wick. Roman villa A Roman villa a shor ...

, Wiltshire, England, where the ''genius loci'' is depicted as a relief in the wall of a

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 9th and 10th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norma ...

church built of

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

material. This shows "a youthful and curly-haired Roman Genius worked in high relief, holding a cornucopia in his left hand and a ''patera'' in his right", which previously has been "erroneously identified as

Asclepius Asclepius (; ''Asklēpiós'' ; ) is a hero and god of medicine in ancient Religion in ancient Greece, Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology. He is the son of Apollo and Coronis (lover of Apollo), Coronis, or Arsinoe (Greek myth), Ars ...

Asian usage

The numinous spirits of places in Asia are still honored today in city pillar shrines, outdoor

spirit house A spirit house is a shrine to the protective spirit of a place that is found in the Southeast Asian countries of Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines. They are normally in the form of small roofed ...

s and indoor household and business shrines.

Western usage

In contemporary usage, ''genius loci'' usually refers to a location's distinctive atmosphere or a "

spirit of the place Spirit of place (or soul) refers to the unique, distinctive and cherished aspects of a place; often those celebrated by artists and writers, but also those cherished in folk tales, festivals and celebrations. It is thus as much in the invisible w ...

" rather than necessarily a guardian spirit. An example of contemporary usage might be "Light reveals the ''genius loci'' of a place."

Art and architecture

Alexander Pope Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early ...

made the ''genius loci'' an important principle in

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...

and

landscape design Landscape design is an independent profession and a design and art tradition, practiced by landscape designers, combining nature and culture. In contemporary practice, landscape design bridges the space between landscape architecture and garde ...

with the following lines from ''Epistle IV, to Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington'': Pope's verse laid the foundation for one of the most widely agreed principles of

landscape architecture Landscape architecture is the design of outdoor areas, landmarks, and structures to achieve environmental, social-behavioural, or aesthetic outcomes. It involves the systematic design and general engineering of various structures for constructio ...

, that landscape designs should always be adapted to the context in which they are located.

A priori ('from the earlier') and ('from the later') are Latin phrases used in philosophy to distinguish types of knowledge, Justification (epistemology), justification, or argument by their reliance on experience. knowledge is independent from any ...

archetype The concept of an archetype ( ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, philosophy and literary analysis. An archetype can be any of the following: # a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main mo ...

, and ''genius loci'' are the primary principals of Neo-Rationalism or New Rationalism. Pioneered by the Italian architect

Aldo Rossi Aldo Rossi (3 May 1931 – 4 September 1997) was an Italian architect and designer who achieved international recognition in four distinct areas: architectural theory, drawing and design and also product design. He was one of the leading propone ...

, Neo-Rationalism developed in the light of a re-evaluation of the work of

Giuseppe Terragni Giuseppe Terragni (; 18 April 1904 – 19 July 1943) was an Italian architect who worked primarily under the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini and pioneered the Italian modern movement under the rubric of Rationalism. His most famous work is the ...

and gained momentum through the work of

Giorgio Grassi Giorgio Grassi (born 27 October 1935) is one of Italy's most important modern architects, and part of the so-called Italian rationalist school, also known as ''La Tendenza'', associated most famously with Carlo Aymonino and Aldo Rossi that emerg ...

. Characterized by elemental

vernacular Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...

forms and an adaptation to the existing environment, the Neo-Rationalist style has adherents beyond architecture in the greater world of art. In the context of modern architectural theory, ''genius loci'' has profound implications for place-making, falling within the philosophical branch of

phenomenology Phenomenology may refer to: Art * Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties Philosophy * Phenomenology (Peirce), a branch of philosophy according to Charles Sanders Peirce (1839� ...

. This field of architectural discourse is explored most notably by the theorist

Christian Norberg-Schulz Christian Norberg-Schulz (23 May 1926 – 28 March 2000) was a Norwegian architect, author, educator and architectural theorist. Norberg-Schulz was part of the Modernist Movement in architecture and associated with architectural phenomenology. ...

in his book, ''Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture''.

Modern fantasy

Adaptations of the original concept of the ''genius loci'' appear in some modern

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

works.

Tom Bombadil Tom Bombadil is a character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Tolkien's legendarium, legendarium. He first appeared in print in a 1934 poem called "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil", which included ''The Lord of the Rings'' characters Goldberry (his wife), Ol ...

in ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an Epic (genre), epic high fantasy novel written by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book ''The Hobbit'' but eventually d ...

'' has been described by Tolkien scholar

Tom Shippey Thomas Alan Shippey (born 9 September 1943) is a British medievalist, a retired scholar of Middle and Old English literature as well as of modern fantasy and science fiction. He is considered one of the world's leading academic experts on the ...

as the ''genius loci'' of the

Old Forest In J. R. R. Tolkien’s fictional universe of Middle-earth, the Old Forest was a daunting and ancient woodland just beyond the eastern borders of the Shire. Its first and main appearance in print was in the chapter of the 1954 ''The Fellowship ...

, a wooded land bordering the

Shire Shire () is a traditional term for an administrative division of land in Great Britain and some other English-speaking countries. It is generally synonymous with county (such as Cheshire and Worcestershire). British counties are among the oldes ...

. In the ''Dungeons and Dragons'' 3.0 edition book the Epic Level Handbook, the ''genius loci'' is a malign, powerful ooze that mimics the landscape and has no intelligence of its own. It can magically enslave a visitor whose mind affects the ''genius locis behaviour. It is spontaneously generated when a place is undisturbed for a long time. In ''

The Dresden Files ''The Dresden Files'' is a series of contemporary fantasy/Mystery fiction, mystery novels written by American author Jim Butcher. The first novel, ''Storm Front (The Dresden Files), Storm Front''—which was also Butcher's writing debut—was p ...

'', a ''genius loci'' is an elemental spirit of a place. The island of Demonreach has a ''genius loci'', also named Demonreach, which is omniscient regarding the island. Wizards can form a spiritual connection with a ''genius loci'' and the place it represents. The

Rivers of London Rivers of London may refer to * Blue Ribbon Network, a policy element of the London Plan relating to the navigable waterways of London * ''Rivers of London'' (novel), a 2011 urban fantasy novel by Ben Aaronovitch ** ''Rivers of London'' (book se ...

series of novels by

Ben Aaronovitch Ben Dylan Aaronovitch (born 22 February 1964) is an English author and screenwriter. He is the author of the series of novels '' Rivers of London''. He also wrote two ''Doctor Who'' serials in the late 1980s and spin-off novels from ''Doctor Who ...

feature many beings described as ''genii locorum'', primarily those of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...

and its

tributaries A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream ('' main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which the ...

References

External links

Essay on the ''Genius loci'' in landscape and garden design

{{Authority control Ancient Roman religion Geography terminology Landscape design history Psychogeography Roman deities Legendary creatures in Roman mythology Tutelary deities Regional deities