|
In Roman mythology, the lemures were shades or spirits of the restless or malignant dead, and are probably cognate with an extended sense of larvae (from Latin ''larva'', "mask") as disturbing or frightening. ''Lemures'' is the more common literary term but even this is rare: it is used by the Augustan poets Horace and Ovid, the latter in his ''Fasti'', the six-book calendar poem on Roman holidays and religious customs.〔Horace, ''Epistles'' 2.2.209; Ovid, ''Fasti'' 2.500-539.〕 The word ''lemures'' can be traced to the PIE stem *', which also appears in the name of the Greek monster Lamia. ==Description== ''Lemures'' may represent the wandering and vengeful spirits of those not afforded proper burial, funeral rites or affectionate cult by the living: they are not attested by tomb or votive inscriptions. Ovid interprets them as vagrant, unsatiated and potentially vengeful ''di manes'' or ''di parentes'', ancestral gods or spirits of the underworld. To him, the rites of their cult suggest an incomprehensibly archaic, quasi-magical and probably very ancient rural tradition. Four centuries later, St. Augustine describes both the ''lemures'' and the ''larvae'' as evil and restless ''manes'' that torment and terrify the living: ''lares'', on the other hand, are good ''manes''.〔St. Augustine, ''The City of God'', 11.〕 ''Lemures'' were formless and liminal, associated with darkness and its dread. In Republican and Imperial Rome, May 9, 11, and 13 were dedicated to their placation in the household practices of ''Lemuralia'' or ''Lemuria''. The head of household (''paterfamilias'') would rise at midnight and cast black beans behind him with averted gaze; the ''Lemures'' were presumed to feast on them. Black was the appropriate colour for offerings to chthonic deities. William Warde Fowler interprets the gift of beans as an offer of life, and points out that they were a ritual pollution for priests of Jupiter.〔W. Warde Fowler, ''The Roman Festivals of the period of the Republic'', MacMillan (New York, 1899) – available at Questia: see ''Mensis Maius'', 106–10: ()〕 The ''lemures'' themselves were both fearsome and fearful: any malevolent shades dissatisfied with the offering of the ''paterfamilias'' could be startled into flight by the loud banging of bronze pots.〔Thaniel, G. (1973). Lemures and Larvae, ''The American Journal of Philology'', 94.2, 182–187.〕〔Beard, M., North, J., Price, S. (1998). ''Religions of Rome'', Vol 1, 31, 50, Cambridge.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lemures」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|