Editing Genius (mythology) (section)

==History of the concept==

===Origin===
[[File:Vindobona Hoher Markt-92.JPG|thumb|upright|Head of a genius wearing a ''[[Modius (headdress)|modius]]'', found at [[Vindobona]], the Roman military camp in [[Pannonia]] (2nd century AD)]]
The English term is [[Loanword|borrowed]] from [[Latin]] ''[[wikt:en:genius#Latin|genius]],'' "household guardian spirit"; earlier, "innate male power of a race or clan", deriving from the [[Indo-European language|Indo-European]] root *g̑enh₁-, "give birth, produce", which is also reflected in Latin ''gignō'', "give birth", and ''[[wikt:en:gens#Latin|gēns]], gentis'', "tribe, people".<ref>
{{cite encyclopedia
    | title=Genius
    | url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=g&p=3|encyclopedia=Online Etymological Dictionary
    | access-date=2 July 2009
    | year=2001
    | first=Douglas
    | last=Harper
}}</ref><ref>
{{cite web
    | url=                       http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3Dgens
    | title=                     gens
    | date=                     1879  <!--  Publishing date (where this is stated on the page)  -->
    | last=                      Lewis  <!--  Author's last name (use for a person)  -->
    | first=                     Charlton T.  <!--  Author's forename(s) / initials (use for a person)  -->
    | author-link=           Charlton T. Lewis  <!--  Link to author's Wikipedia article (if any)  -->
    | last2=                    Short  <!--  . .  -->
    | first2=                   Charles  <!--  . .  -->
    | author-link2=         Charles Short
    | work=                   A Latin Dictionary  <!--  (name of website or section of website, etc.)	  -->
    | publisher=            Perseus Digital Library
    | access-date=         8 March 2019  <!--  Date you reviewed the source (blank this if the publishing date is cited above)	-->
    }}
</ref>

The ''genius'' appears explicitly in Roman literature as early as [[Plautus]], where one character jests that the father of another is so avaricious that he uses cheap Samian ware in sacrifices to his own ''genius'', so as not to tempt the ''genius'' to steal it.<ref>Plautus, ''[[Captivi]]'' 2.2.</ref> In this passage, the ''genius'' is not identical to the person, as to propitiate oneself would be absurd, and yet the ''genius'' also has the avarice of the person; that is, the same character, the implication being, like person, like ''genius''.

[[Horace]], writing when the first emperor was introducing the cult of his own ''genius'', describes the ''genius'' as "the companion which controls the natal star; the god of human nature, in that he is mortal for each person, with a changing expression, white or black".<ref>Horace, ''Epistles'', II, 2, 187-189.</ref>

===Imperial genii===
[[File:Genius Domitian Musei Capitolini MC1130.jpg|thumb|upright|Genius of [[Domitian]]]]
[[Octavius Caesar]] on return to Rome after the final victory of the [[Roman Civil War]] at the [[Battle of Actium]] appeared to the Senate to be a man of great power and success, clearly a mark of divinity. In recognition of the prodigy they voted that all banquets should include a libation to his ''genius''. In concession to this sentiment he chose the name [[Augustus]], capturing the numinous meaning of English "august". The household cult of the ''Genius Augusti'' dates from this period. It was propitiated at every meal along with the other household ''numina''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Fishwick|first=Duncan|title=The imperial cult in the Latin West: studies in the ruler cult of the western provinces of the Roman Empire|publisher=E.J. Brill|location=Leiden; New York |date=1987–2005|volume=2 Part 1|pages=375–377|isbn=90-04-07179-2}}</ref> Thus began the tradition of the [[Roman imperial cult]], in which Romans cultivated the ''genius'' of the emperor rather than the person.

[[File:GenioLVIIGEM.jpg|thumb|left|Inscription on votive altar to the genius of [[Legio VII Gemina]] by L. Attius Macro ([[Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum|CIL]] II 5083)]]
If the ''genius'' of the ''[[imperator]]'', or commander of all troops, was to be propitiated, so was that of all the units under his command. The provincial troops expanded the idea of the ''genii'' of state; for example, from Roman Britain have been found altars to the ''genii'' of ''Roma'', ''Roma aeterna'', ''Britannia'', and to every ''[[Roman legion|legion]]'', ''[[Cohort (military unit)|cohors]]'', ''[[Ala (Roman military)|ala]]'' and ''[[centuria]]'' in Britain, as well as to the ''[[praetorium]]'' of every ''[[castra]]'' and even to the ''[[Vexillatio|vexillae]]''.<ref>{{cite book|title=Roman Era in Britain|first=John |last=Ward|publisher=Methuen & Co. Ltd.; LacusCurtius, University of Chicago|location=London, Chicago|orig-year=1911|year=2003|chapter=Chapter VI Religions of Roman Britain|chapter-url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Great_Britain/_Periods/Roman/_Texts/WARREB/6*.html|pages=102–103}}</ref> Inscriptional dedications to ''genius'' were not confined to the military. From [[Gallia Cisalpina]] under the empire are numerous dedications to the ''genii'' of persons of authority and respect; in addition to the emperor's ''genius principis'', were the ''genii'' of patrons of freedmen, owners of slaves, patrons of guilds, philanthropists, officials, villages, other divinities, relatives and friends. Sometimes the dedication is combined with other words, such as "to the genius and honor" or in the case of couples, "to the genius and Juno".<ref>{{cite book|pages=[https://archive.org/details/cultscisalpineg00murlgoog/page/n32 19]–24|title=The cults of Cisalpine Gaul as seen in the inscriptions|url=https://archive.org/details/cultscisalpineg00murlgoog|first=Joseph Clyde |last=Murley|publisher=George Banta Publishing Company|location=Menasha Wisconsin|year=1922}}</ref>

Surviving from the time of the empire hundreds of dedicatory, votive and sepulchral inscriptions ranging over the entire territory testify to the flourishing of  official cult ''([[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#cultus|cultus]]'') of ''genius''. Stock phrases were abbreviated: GPR, ''genio populi Romani'' ("to the genius of the Roman people"); GHL, ''genio huius loci'' ("to the genius of this place"); GDN, ''genio domini nostri'' ("to the genius of our master"), and so on. In 392 AD with the final victory of Christianity [[Theodosius I]] declared the veneration of the ''genii'', [[Lares]] and [[Penates]] to be treason, ending their official terms.<ref>{{cite book|page=165|title=History of Rome and the Roman people|first=Victor |last=Duruy|editor-first=John Pentland |editor-last=Mahaffy|volume=IV|publisher=Dana Estes & Charles E. Lauriat|location=Boston|year=1885|isbn=1-4325-5089-6}} The authors cite [[Codex Theodosianus]] XVI.x.xii.</ref> The concept, however, continued in representation and speech under different names or with accepted modifications.