ancient Roman religion Religion in ancient Rome consisted of varying imperial and provincial religious practices, which were followed both by the Roman people, people of Rome as well as those who were brought under its rule. The Romans thought of themselves as high ...

, the ''Manes'' (, , ) or ''Di Manes'' are

chthonic In Greek mythology, deities referred to as chthonic () or chthonian () were gods or spirits who inhabited the underworld or existed in or under the earth, and were typically associated with death or fertility. The terms "chthonic" and "chthonian" ...

deities sometimes thought to represent souls of deceased loved ones. They were associated with the ''

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 ...

'', ''

Lemures The were shades or spirits of the restless or malignant dead in Roman religion, sometimes used interchangeably with the term (from Latin , 'mask'). The term was first used by the Augustan poet Horace (in Epistles 2.2.209), and was the more ...

'', '' Genii'', and ''

Di Penates In ancient Roman religion, the Di Penates () or Penates ( ) were among the ''dii familiares'', or household deities, invoked most often in domestic rituals. When the family had a meal, they threw a bit into the fire on the hearth for the Penates. ...

'' as deities ('' di'') that pertained to domestic, local, and personal cult. They belonged broadly to the category of ''

di inferi The ''di inferi'' or ''dii inferi'' (Latin, "the gods below") were a shadowy collective of ancient Roman deities associated with death and the underworld. The epithet ''inferi'' is also given to the mysterious Manes, a collective of ancestral spi ...

'', "those who dwell below", the undifferentiated collective of divine dead. The Manes were honored during the

Parentalia In ancient Rome, the Parentalia () or ''dies parentales'' (, "ancestral days") was a nine-day festival held in honour of family ancestors, beginning on 13 February. Although the Parentalia was a holiday on the Roman religious calendar, its observ ...

and

Feralia Ferālia was an ancient Roman public festival Dumézil, Georges. ''Archaic Roman Religion''. p. 366. celebrating the Manes (Roman spirits of the dead, particularly the souls of deceased individuals) which fell on 21 February as recorded by ...

in February. The theologian

St. Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced the development of Western philosop ...

, writing about the subject a few centuries after most of the Latin pagan references to such spirits, differentiated Manes from other types of Roman spirits: Latin spells of antiquity were often addressed to the Manes.

Etymology and inscriptions

Manes may be derived from "an archaic adjective manus—''good''—which was the opposite of immanis (monstrous)". Roman tombstones often included the letters ''D.M.'', which stood for ''Dis Manibus'', literally "to the Manes", or figuratively, "to the spirits of the dead", an abbreviation that continued to appear even in Christian inscriptions. The Manes were offered blood sacrifices. The gladiatorial games, originally held at funerals, may have been instituted in the honor of the Manes. According to

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...

, the ''Manes'' could be called forth from the caves near

Lake Avernus __NOTOC__ Lake Avernus () is a volcanic crater lake located in the Avernus crater in the Campania region of southern Italy, around west of Pozzuoli. It is near the volcanic field known as the Phlegraean Fields (') and comprises part of the wide ...

Lapis manalis

When a new town was founded, a round hole would be dug and a stone called a ''lapis manalis'' would be placed in the foundations, representing a gate to the underworld. Due to similar names, the ''lapis manalis'' is often confused with the ''lapis manilis'' in commentaries even in antiquity: "The 'flowing stone' … must not be confused with the stone of the same name which, according to

Festus Festus may refer to: People Ancient world *Porcius Festus, Roman governor of Judea from approximately 58 to 62 AD *Sextus Pompeius Festus (later 2nd century), Roman grammarian *Festus (died 305), martyr along with Proculus of Pozzuoli *Festus (h ...

, was the gateway to the underworld."

Etymology and inscriptions

Lapis manalis

See also

References

Further reading