In
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 ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
and
Etruscan mythology
Etruscan religion comprises a set of stories, beliefs, and religious practices of the Etruscan civilization, heavily influenced by the mythology of ancient Greece, and sharing similarities with concurrent Roman mythology and religion. As the Et ...
, Mania (or Manea) was a
goddess of the dead. She, along with
Mantus
In Etruscan myth and religion, Mantus ( ett, Manth) was a god of the underworld in the Po Valley as described by Servius. Servius, note to ''Aeneid'10.199./ref> A dedication to the god ''manθ'' from the Archaic period was found in a sanctuary ...
, ruled the
underworld
The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underwor ...
. She was said to be the mother of
ghosts, the
undead
The undead are beings in mythology, legend, or fiction that are deceased but behave as if alive. Most commonly the term refers to corporeal forms of formerly-alive humans, such as mummies, vampires, and zombies, who have been reanimated by supe ...
, and other spirits of the night, as well as the
Lares
Lares ( , ; archaic , singular ''Lar'') were 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 amalgam of these.
Lare ...
and the
Manes
In ancient Roman religion, the ''Manes'' (, , ) or ''Di Manes'' are chthonic deities sometimes thought to represent souls of deceased loved ones. They were associated with the ''Lares'', '' Lemures,'' '' Genii'', and ''Di Penates'' as deities ( ...
. Her name links her to the Manes,
Mana Genita, and
Manius.
[Roger D. Woodard, ''Indo-European Sacred Space: Vedic and Roman Cult'' (University of Illinois Press, 2006), pp. 116–117.]
Both the Greek and Latin ''Mania'' derive from
PIE (Proto-Indo-European) *''men-'', "to think."
Cognates include
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...
grc, μένος, ménos, mind, thought, label=none, and
Avestan ae, 𐬎𐬫𐬥𐬌𐬀𐬨, mainyu, spirit, label=none.
In Roman and Etruscan mythology, Mania (Manea) is the goddess of Spirits and Chaos. In
Greek mythology
A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities ...
, she is the goddess of insanity and madness (
Maniae
In Ancient Greek mythology, Maniae or Mania () are the spirits personifying insanity, madness, and crazed frenzy. They operate closely with Lyssa, the spirit of rage and rabies, and like Lyssa, are presumed to be daughters of Nyx. They are ...
).
See also
*
Mother of the Lares (Latin ''Mater Larum''), Roman chthonic goddess identified with Mania by
Varro
Marcus Terentius Varro (; 116–27 BC) was a Roman polymath and a prolific author. He is regarded as ancient Rome's greatest scholar, and was described by Petrarch as "the third great light of Rome" (after Vergil and Cicero). He is sometimes calle ...
.
*
Roman festivals
Festivals in ancient Rome were a very important part in Roman religious life during both the Republican and Imperial eras, and one of the primary features of the Roman calendar. ''Feriae'' ("holidays" in the sense of "holy days"; singula ...
*
Lemuria (festival)
References
Death goddesses
Etruscan goddesses
Roman goddesses
Undead
Underworld goddesses
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