This library is built in the open.
If you spot an error, have a suggestion, or just want to say hello — we’d love to hear from you.

In sacred matters, they differ with a wide variety: the lines of processions, the silence of mysteries, the duties of priests, the services of those sacrificing; likewise, the statues and vestments of the gods, the rituals and 150 regions of the temples, and the blood and colors of the sacrificial victims. All these things are solemn and 44 established according to the custom of each place, as we have frequently learned through dreams, prophecies, and oracles; 5 often the deities are indignant if anything in the sacred rites is neglected through laziness or pride. I have plenty of examples of this kind at hand, but they are so well-known and common that no one has attempted to recount them without leaving out much more than they included.
Therefore, I will refrain for the present from occupying my speech with these matters, which, if they do not possess 45 a certain faith among all people, at least possess a common knowledge among everyone. It would be better 10 to discuss in Latin how various species of daemons are presented by philosophers, so that you may more clearly and fully learn about the prophetic sign of Socrates and his "friend" deity. For in a certain sense, 46 even the human soul situated within the body is called a "daemon." original: "daemon nuncupatur" [Do the gods xv add this fire to our minds?] This is a quote from Virgil’s Aeneid. Apuleius uses it to suggest that our inner drives and desires are themselves "gods" or "daemons." Therefore, even a good desire of the soul is a "good god." Whence some people think, as has been said before, that the blessed are called eudaemones original: "εὐδαίμονας" — from the Greek words 'eu' (good) and 'daemon' (spirit); literally 'having a good spirit.', whose daemon is good, 14 that is, whose soul is perfected in virtue. You might call this "Genius" In Roman belief, the Genius was a guardian spirit unique to every individual, born with them and representing their higher self. in our language—as I interpret it, though I am not sure if I do so well, certainly I do so at my own risk—because this god, which is the soul of each person, although it is immortal, is nevertheless in a certain way born with the human. Thus those prayers 151 by which people pray to the Genius and the "genua" original: "genua" — knees. There was a linguistic and ritual connection in Rome between 'genus' (birth), 'genius' (spirit), and 'genu' (knee). seem to me to 152 testify to our union and bond, encompassing body and soul under two names, the union and coupling of which we are. There is also a second meaning for a species of daemon: the human soul which, having completed 20 its service of life, departs from its body. 47 I find that the ancients called this by the name of Lemures. Spirit of the dead. From among these Lemures, the one who has obtained the care of his descendants and possesses the house with a peaceful and quiet divinity is called a Lar familiaris Household god.; but he who, on account of the hardships of life... 153
12 Virgil, Aeneid IX, 184 f. Do the gods add this fire to our minds, Euryalus, or does his own fierce desire become a god to each man? 14 Augustine, City of God IX, 11 The same author (Plotinus?) says that in Greek the blessed are called eudaemones, because they have good souls, that is, good daemons, confirming that the souls of men are also daemons. 16 Servius on Virgil’s Aeneid III, 63 Apuleius also seems to be of this opinion in "On the God of Socrates": the souls of better merit are called Manes, which are called Genii while in our body, and Lemures when renouncing the body; when they infested houses with incursions, they were called Larvae, but if they were fair and favoring, they were called Lares familiares. Augustine, City of God IX, 11 He (Plotinus?) says that the souls of men are daemons and that from men they become Lares if they are of good merit; Lemures if evil, or Larvae; but they are called Manes gods if it is uncertain whether they are of good or evil merit. 20 cf. Plato, Cratylus 398 B and Republic V, 468 E ff.