Editing Lemures (section)

==Description==
''{{Lang|la|Lemures}}'' may represent the wandering and [[vengeful spirit]]s of those not afforded proper burial, funeral rites or affectionate cult by the living: they are thus not attested by tomb or votive inscriptions. [[Ovid]] interprets them as vagrant, unsatiated and potentially vengeful ''[[Manes|di manes]]'' or ''[[parentalia|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.

''{{Lang|la|Lemures}}'' were formless and [[Liminal deity|liminal]], associated with darkness and its dread. In [[Roman Republic|Republican]] and [[Roman Empire|Imperial Rome]], May 9, 11, and 13 were dedicated to their placation in the household practices of {{Lang|la|Lemuralia}} or ''[[Lemuria (festival)|Lemuria]]''. The head of household (''[[paterfamilias]]'') would rise at midnight and cast black beans behind him with averted gaze; the ''{{Lang|la|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 (mythology)|Jupiter]].<ref>W. Warde Fowler, ''The Roman Festivals of the period of the Republic'', MacMillan (New York, 1899) ''Mensis Maius'', 106–10: {{ISBN?}}</ref> The {{Lang|la|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.<ref>Thaniel, G. (1973). Lemures and Larvae, ''The American Journal of Philology'', 94.2, 182–187.</ref><ref>Beard, M., North, J., Price, S. (1998). ''Religions of Rome'', Vol 1, 31, 50, Cambridge.</ref>