lemures

LEMURES

Lemures was the name given by ancient Romans to their ghosts.
These ghosts would return to haunt their relatives and descendants.
They were particularly active during the month of May. Especially around May 28.
Festivals were held to chase away the Lemure.
To drive off a Lemure drums were used as the Lemure were sensitive to noise. Special drummers were often used going from place to place.


Roman Belief in Spirits:
Ancient Romans believed that after death their souls became spirits. There is some debate about the nature of these Roman ghosts. According to the Christian theologian St. Augustine (November 13, 354 – August 28, 430), whose writing follows by a few centuries most of the Latin literary and pagan references to ghosts, there were the following different types:

* lares if good,
* lemures (larvae) if evil, and
* manes if indeterminate.

The Words of Augustus on Lemures and Demon: From Chapter 11. City of God, by St. Augustine
"He [Plotinus] says, indeed, that the souls of men are demons, and that men become Lares if they are good, Lemures or Larvae if they are bad, and Manes if it is uncertain whether they deserve well or ill. Who does not see at a glance that this is a mere whirlpool sucking men to moral destruction?

For, however wicked men have been, if they suppose they shall become Larvae or divine Manes, they will become the worse the more love they have for inflicting injury; for, as the Larvae are hurtful demons made out of wicked men, these men must suppose that after death they will be invoked with sacrifices and divine honors that they may inflict injuries. But this question we must not pursue. He also states that the blessed are called in Greek eudaimones, because they are good souls, that is to say, good demons, confirming his opinion that the souls of men are demons."
Another Interpretation of the Lemures - Haunting Spirits:
Instead of being evil spirits, lemures (larvae) may have been souls that could find no rest because they met with a violent or premature death and were unhappy. They wandered among the living haunting people and driving them to madness.
Lemuria - Festivals to Placate the Lemures:
No sane Roman wanted to be haunted, so they had ceremonies to satisfy the spirits. The lemures (larvae) were propitiated during the nine-day Lemuria festival in May. At the Parentalia or Feralia on the 18th and 21st of February, the living descendants shared a meal with the benevolent spirits of their ancestors (manes or di parentes).


Ovid (43 B.C. – A.D. 17) on the Lemures and Manes:
In Ovid's Fasti 5.422, the Manes and Lemures are synonymous and both hostile, in need of exorcism via the Lemuria. Ovid incorrectly derives the Lemuria from Remuria, saying it was to placate Remus, the brother of Romulus.
Larvae and Lemures:
Usually considered the same, not all ancient authors considered them as such. In the Apocolocyntosis 9.3 and Pliny's Natural History, Larvae are tormentors of the dead.
Manes:
The Manes were originally good spirits (in the plural), whose name was usually seen with the word for gods, di, as in Di manes. Manes came to be used for the ghosts of individuals. The first writer to make this use is Cicero (January 3, 106 B.C. – December 7, 43 B.C.). Reference: "Aeneas and the Demands of the Dead," by Kristina P. Nielson. The Classical Journal, Vol. 79, No. 3. (Feb. - Mar., 1984).

Main Reference: "Lemures and Larvae," by George Thaniel. The American Journal of Philology 1973.

Also see:

Aeneid in the Realm of Hades

Odysseus in the Underworld - Nekuia

Ovid Fasti 5.421ff
"Lemures and Larvae," by George Thaniel The American Journal of Philology. Vol. 94, No. 2 (Summer, 1973), pp. 182-187