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

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

chthonic The word chthonic (), or chthonian, is derived from the Ancient Greek word ''χθών, "khthon"'', meaning earth or soil. It translates more directly from χθόνιος or "in, under, or beneath the earth" which can be differentiated from Γῆ ...

deities sometimes thought to represent souls of deceased loved ones. They were associated with the '' Lares'', '' Lemures,'' '' Genii'', and '' Di Penates'' as deities ('' di'') that pertained to domestic, local, and personal cult. They belonged broadly to the category of '' di inferi'', "those who dwell below," the undifferentiated collective of divine dead. The Manes were honored during the Parentalia and Feralia in February. The theologian

St. Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afri ...

, 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, the ''Manes'' could be called forth from the caves near Lake Avernus.

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, was the gateway to the underworld." Cyril Bailey writes:

"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 pontifices, which bore the sacred rain-stone from its resting-place by the Porta Capena to the 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..

Etymology and inscriptions

Lapis manalis

See also

References

Further reading