Manes
Manen , from Latin d (i) i manes (m.), Are the spirits of the dead in the Roman religion (especially during the imperial period ), including some environmental spirits. These are mostly hostile to the Romans, as they are the ancestors of their enemies. They were therefore made mild with various sacrifices (including goats) and rites , as well as being referred to as di manes , 'good gods'. If these sacrifices and rites were not carried out, the manes could become larvae or lemures , which were threatening in character.
In some cases, the di manes were also equated with the di parentes (the deceased ancestors), who rose from the underworld on their feast days and awaited appropriate expiatory sacrifices . For this purpose, people moved to the lapis manalis , a stone that covered a pit in which the sacrificial animal was deposited and the manes were appeased.
literature
- Franz Bömer : Ancestor cult and belief in ancient Rome. Teubner, Leipzig 1943
- Ernst Marbach : Manes 2. In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XIV, 1, Stuttgart 1928, Sp. 1051-1060.
- Francesca Prescendi: Di Manes. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 7, Metzler, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-476-01477-0 , column 803 f.
- Winfried Schmitz : Manes. In: Real Lexicon for Antiquity and Christianity . Volume 23, Hiersemann, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-7772-1013-1 , Sp. 1266-1274
- Hermann Steuding : Manes . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 2.2, Leipzig 1897, Col. 2316–2323 ( digitized version ).
