| Religion in ancient Rome |
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Inancient Roman religion, theManes (/ˈmeɪniːz/,Latin:mānēs,Classical Latin:[ˈmaː.neːs̠]) orDi Manes arechthonic deities sometimes thought to represent souls of deceased loved ones. They were associated with theLares,Lemures,Genii, andDi Penates as deities (di) that pertained to domestic, local, and personal cult. They belonged broadly to the category ofdi inferi, "those who dwell below",[1] the undifferentiated collective of divine dead.[2] The Manes were honored during theParentalia andFeralia in February.
The theologianSt. 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:
Apuleius "says, indeed, that the souls of men are demons, and that men becomeLares if they are good,Lemures orLarvae if they are bad, andManes 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[3]
Latin spells of antiquity were often addressed to the Manes.[4]
Manes may be derived from "an archaic adjective manus—good—which was the opposite of immanis (monstrous)".[5]
Roman tombstones often included the lettersD.M., which stood forDis Manibus, literally "to the Manes",[6] or figuratively, "to the spirits of the dead", an abbreviation that continued to appear even in Christian inscriptions.
The Manes were offered blood sacrifices. Thegladiatorial games, originally held at funerals, may have been instituted in the honor of the Manes. According toCicero, theManes could be called forth from the caves nearLake Avernus.[5]
When a new town was founded, a round hole would be dug and a stone called alapis manalis would be placed in the foundations, representing a gate tothe underworld.[5] Due to similar names, thelapis manalis is often confused with thelapis manilis in commentaries even in antiquity: "The 'flowing stone' … must not be confused with the stone of the same name which, according toFestus, was the gateway to the underworld."[7]
Of this we have a characteristic example in the ceremony of theaquaelicium, designed to produce rain after a long drought. In classical times the ceremony consisted in a procession headed by thepontifices, which bore the sacredrain-stone from its resting-place by thePorta Capena to theCapitol, 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.
— Cyril Bailey, The Religion of Ancient Rome[8]