Hi,
Carl—
Quote:
Originally Posted by Carl Copeland
I found this definition of “гений” in the Словарь языка Пушкина: “Статуя, изображающая римское божество — хранителя человека, рода, местности.” Do you know of such statues appearing on headstones? I translated it as “spirits,” but another translator used “angels.”
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The ancient Roman had a very elaborated system for categorizing the spirits of the dead. The general term,
manes was used to refer to the spirits of dead ancestors, who were invoked at funerals and addressed on gravestones by the initials
D.M., for
dis manibus, “to the spirits of the dead.” Unlike the Christian view, which regarded the soul as an integral, eternal part of the person,
manes were, it seems, regarded as attendant, tutelary spirits guarding, as your definition says, people, families, and localities. Apuleius records his belief that the
manes of good people become
lares after the person’s death. These were
dii familiares, household deities, depicted as dancing young men holding cornucopias or drinking horns (
rhytons), honored often with complex rituals.
Penates were spirits that guarded a specific place. In the
Aeneid, Aeneas is granted special permission to bring his
penates from Troy to Rome. Thus, in Bernini’s statue of Aeneas carrying his father Anchises and his son, Ascanius, from Troy, Anchises is holding a small statue.
https://francescacaruso.com/wp-conte...ero-meglio.jpg
The
manes of bad people became
lemures or
larvae, evil spirits who had to be appeased with offerings of black beans thrown behind the house with averted gaze at midnight. Those neither good nor bad were simply called
manes. Additionally, every Roman man had a
genius and every Roman woman had a
juno—something like a guardian angel—who also required appeasement. The Roman view of the world was that it was a place populated my myriad friendly and unfriendly spirts, requiring constant offerings, rituals, and pacification.
Well, you asked!
Glenn
