# Manes > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Manes > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Manes.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manes > Source revision: 1302424002 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|Roman deities believed to be the souls of the dead}} {{Other uses}} {{Ancient Roman religion}} In [ancient Roman religion](/source/Religion_in_ancient_Rome), 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](/source/chthonic) deities sometimes thought to represent souls of deceased loved ones. They were associated with the ''[Lares](/source/Lares)'', ''[Lemures](/source/Lemures)'', ''[Genii](/source/Genius_(mythology))'', and ''[Di Penates](/source/Di_Penates)'' as deities (''[di](/source/Glossary_of_ancient_Roman_religion)'') that pertained to domestic, local, and personal cult. They belonged broadly to the category of ''[di inferi](/source/di_inferi)'', "those who dwell below",{{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 }} the undifferentiated collective of divine dead.{{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 }} The Manes were honored during the [Parentalia](/source/Parentalia) and [Feralia](/source/Feralia) in February. The theologian [St. Augustine](/source/Augustine_of_Hippo), 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](/source/Apuleius) "says, indeed, that the souls of men are demons, and that men become ''[Lares](/source/Lares)'' if they are good, ''[Lemures](/source/Lemures)'' or ''[Larvae](/source/Larvae_(Roman_religion))'' 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{{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 }}}} Latin spells of antiquity were often addressed to the Manes.{{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 }} ==Etymology and inscriptions== 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)".{{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] }} Roman tombstones often included the letters ''D.M.'', which stood for '''''Dis Manibus''''', literally "to the Manes",{{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}} 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](/source/gladiator), originally held at funerals, may have been instituted in the honor of the Manes. According to [Cicero](/source/Cicero), the ''Manes'' could be called forth from the caves near [Lake Avernus](/source/Lake_Avernus). ==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 [the underworld](/source/Hades). 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](/source/Festus_(historian)), was the gateway to the underworld."{{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 }} {{Blockquote |author=[Cyril Bailey](/source/Cyril_Bailey) |source=The Religion of Ancient Rome{{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 }} |text=Of this we have a characteristic example in the ceremony of the ''[aquaelicium](/source/aquaelicium)'', designed to produce rain after a long drought. In classical times the ceremony consisted in a procession headed by the [pontifices](/source/College_of_Pontiffs), which bore the sacred [rain-stone](/source/rain-stone) from its resting-place by the [Porta Capena](/source/Porta_Capena) to the [Capitol](/source/Capitolium), 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](/source/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](/source/Ancestor_veneration) * [Pitrs](/source/Pitrs) * [Preta](/source/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 --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Manes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manes) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manes?action=history)). 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