Manes

2025-07-25T09:13:35Z

89.134.17.10: Category:Souls Category:Chthonic beings to match text

{{Short description|Roman deities believed to be the souls of the dead}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Ancient Roman religion}}

In [[Religion in ancient Rome|ancient Roman religion]], the '''''Manes''''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|m|eɪ|n|iː|z}}, {{Langx|la|mānēs}}, {{IPA|la-x-classic|ˈmaː.neːs̠|lang|link=yes}}) or '''''Di Manes''''' are [[chthonic]] deities sometimes thought to represent souls of deceased loved ones. They were associated with the ''[[Lares]]'', ''[[Lemures]]'', ''[[Genius (mythology)|Genii]]'', and ''[[Di Penates]]'' as deities (''[[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#deus, dea, di, dii|di]]'') that pertained to domestic, local, and personal cult. They belonged broadly to the category of ''[[di inferi]]'', "those who dwell below",<ref>{{Cite book |author=Varro |author-link=Marcus Terentius Varro |date=1938 |title=De Lingua Latina |url=https://archive.org/details/onlatinlanguage01varruoft |translator-last=Kent |translator-first=Roland G. |location=London |publisher=W. Heinemann |chapter=6.13 |pages=185–7 }}</ref> the undifferentiated collective of divine dead.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |editor-last=Gagarin |editor-first=Michael |title=Death |date=2010 |encyclopedia=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome |volume=2 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780195170726 |page=366 }}</ref> The Manes were honored during the [[Parentalia]] and [[Feralia]] in February.

The theologian [[Augustine of Hippo|St. Augustine]], 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:

{{Blockquote| [[Apuleius]] "says, indeed, that the souls of men are demons, and that men become ''[[Lares]]'' if they are good, ''[[Lemures]]'' or ''[[Larvae (Roman religion)|Larvae]]'' if they are bad, and ''Manes'' if it is uncertain whether they deserve well or ill... He also states that the blessed are called in Greek εὐδαίμονες [''eudaimones''], because they are good souls, that is to say, good demons, confirming his opinion that the souls of men are demons." |City of God, Book IX, Chapter 11<ref name="Augustine">{{Cite book |author=St. Augustine of Hippo |author-link=Augustine of Hippo |year=1871 |title=City of God |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/45304 |translator=Rev. Marcus Dods, M.A. |location=Edinburgh |publisher=T. & T. Clark |volume=1 |page=365 |access-date=2016-09-15 }}</ref>}}

Latin spells of antiquity were often addressed to the Manes.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gager |first=John G. |date=1992 |title=Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rmhw2eVJnS0C&pg=PA12 |publisher=Oxford University Press US |isbn=978-0-19-513482-7 |pages=12–13 |access-date=2010-08-22 }}</ref>

==Etymology and inscriptions==
[[File:Stele Licinia Amias Terme 67646.jpg|thumb|left|The abbreviation ''D.M.'' at the top of this 3rd-century Christian tombstone stands for ''Dis Manibus'', "to the Spirits of the Dead"]]

Manes may be derived from "an archaic adjective manus—''good''—which was the opposite of immanis (monstrous)".<ref name="Larousse">{{Cite encyclopedia |editor-last=Guirand |editor-first=Felix |year=1968 |title=The Manes |encyclopedia=New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology |translator-last1=Aldington |translator-first1=Richard |translator-link1=Richard Aldington |translator-last2=Ames |translator-first2=Delano |translator-link2=Delano Ames |location=Fetham, Middlesex, England |publisher=The Hamlyn Publishing Group |page=[https://archive.org/details/newlarousseencyc0000unse_p8o3/page/n239/mode/2up 213] }}</ref>

Roman tombstones often included the letters ''D.M.'', which stood for '''''Dis Manibus''''', literally "to the Manes",<ref>{{Cite book |last1=King |first1=Charles W. |date=2020 |title=The Ancient Roman Afterlife: Di Manes, Belief, and the Cult of the Dead |location=Austin, TX |publisher=University of Texas Press |doi=10.7560/320204 |isbn=978-1-4773-2020-4 |pages=2–3}}</ref> 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 [[gladiator|gladiatorial games]], originally held at funerals, may have been instituted in the honor of the Manes. According to [[Cicero]], the ''Manes'' could be called forth from the caves near [[Lake Avernus]].<ref name="Larousse" />

==Lapis manalis==
{{Main|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 [[Hades|the underworld]].<ref name="Larousse" /> 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 (historian)|Festus]], was the gateway to the underworld."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Burriss |first=Eli Edward |date=1931 |title=Taboo, Magic, Spirits: A Study of Primitive Elements in Roman Religion |url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/tms/tms06.htm#fr_365 |location=New York |publisher=Macmillan Company |page=365 |access-date=2007-08-21 }}</ref>

{{Blockquote
|author=[[Cyril Bailey]]
|source=The Religion of Ancient Rome<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bailey |first=Cyril |date=1907 |title=The Religion of Ancient Rome |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18564 |location=London |publisher=Archibald Constable & Co. |page=5 |access-date=2007-08-21 }}</ref>
|text=Of this we have a characteristic example in the ceremony of the ''[[aquaelicium]]'', designed to produce rain after a long drought. In classical times the ceremony consisted in a procession headed by the [[College of Pontiffs|pontifices]], which bore the sacred [[rain-stone]] from its resting-place by the [[Porta Capena]] to the [[Capitolium|Capitol]], where offerings were made to the sky-deity, Iuppiter, but from the analogy of other primitive cults and the sacred title of the stone (''[[lapis manalis]]''), it is practically certain that the original ritual was the purely imitative process of pouring water over the stone.
}}

==See also==
* [[Ancestor veneration]]
* [[Pitrs]]
* [[Preta]]

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

==Further reading==

*{{cite book|last1=King|first1=Charles W.|date=2020|title=The Ancient Roman Afterlife: Di Manes, Belief, and the Cult of the Dead|location=Austin|publisher=University of Texas Press|isbn=978-1-4773-2020-4|doi=10.7560/320204}}

[[Category:Souls]]
[[Category:Chthonic beings]]
[[Category:Roman underworld]]

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Manes