genius (mythology)

Each individual place had a genius (genius loci) and so did powerful objects, such as volcanoes. The concept extended to some specifics: the genius of the theatre, of vineyards, and of festivals, which made performances successful, grapes grow, and celebrations succeed, respectively. It was extremely important in the Roman mind to propitiate the appropriate genii for the major undertakings and events of their lives.

Thus man, following the dictates of his heart, venerated something higher and more divine than he could find in his own limited individuality, and brought to "this great unknown of himself" offerings as a god; thus compensating by veneration for the indistinct knowledge of his divine origin.{{cite book|author=Mary Ann Dwight|title=Grecian and Roman Mythology|page=[https://archive.org/details/grecianandroman02dwiggoog/page/n188/mode/2up 183]|publisher=HardPress |isbn=978-1314004731}}

The Christian theologian Augustine equated the Christian soul with the Roman genius, citing Varro as attributing the rational powers and abilities of every human being to their genius.{{cite book|author=St. Augustine|editor-first=R.W|editor-last=Dyson|title=The City of God against the Pagans|page=[https://archive.org/details/concerningcityof00augu_0/page/284 284]|chapter=VII.13|year=2003 |publisher=Penguin Books |quote=Varro says that a 'genius' is the rational soul of each man ... and that the soul of the world itself is a universal 'genius', and that this is what they call Jupiter.|isbn=0-14-044894-2|chapter-url-access=registration|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/concerningcityof00augu_0/page/284}}

File:Genio romano de Ponte Puñide (M.A.N. 1928-60-1) 01.jpg (1st century AD)]]

Although the term genius might apply to any divinity whatsoever, most of the higher-level and state genii had their own well-established names. Genius applied most often to individual places or people not generally known; that is, to the smallest units of society and settlements, families and their homes. Houses, doors, gates, streets, districts, tribes, each one had its own genius.{{cite encyclopedia|title=Rome: Gods by Conquest|first=P.|last=Grimal|encyclopedia=Larousse World Mythology|year=1965|publisher=The Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited|page=181}} The supreme hierarchy of the Roman gods, like that of the Greeks, was modelled after a human family. It featured a father, Jupiter, who was also the supreme divine unity, and a mother, Juno, queen of the gods. These supreme unities were subdivided into genii for each individual family; hence, the genius of each female, representing the female reproductive power, was a Juno. The male power was a Jupiter.{{cite book|page=291|title=The Mythology of All Races|editor-first=Louis Herbert|editor-last=Gray|editor2-first=George Foot|editor2-last=Moore|volume=I Greek and Roman|first=William Sherwood|last=Fox|publisher=Marshall Jones Company|year=1916|location=Boston|isbn=0-8154-0073-X}}

The Juno was venerated under many titles:

• Iugalis, "of marriage"
• Matronalis, "of married women"
• Pronuba, "of brides"
• Virginalis, "of virginity"

Genii were often viewed as protective spirits, as one would propitiate them for protection. For example, to protect infants one propitiated a number of deities concerned with birth and childrearing: Cuba ("lying down to sleep"), Cunina ("of the cradle") and Rumina ("of breast-feeding").{{cite encyclopedia|title=Cuba |url=http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0909.html |first=Leonhard |last=Schmitz |encyclopedia=Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology |editor-first=William |editor-last=Smith |volume=1 |page=900 |date=2005|orig-year=1867 |publisher=Little, Brown & Company, The Ancient Library |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514090503/http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0909.html |archive-date=14 May 2011}} Certainly, if those genii did not perform their proper function well, the infant would be in danger.

Hundreds of lararia, or family shrines, have been discovered at Pompeii, typically off the atrium, kitchen or garden, where the smoke of burnt offerings could vent through the opening in the roof. Each lararium features a panel fresco containing the same theme: two peripheral figures (Lares) attend on a central figure (family genius) or two figures (genius and juno) who may or may not be at an altar. In the foreground is one or two serpents crawling toward the genius through a meadow motif. Campania and Calabria preserved an ancient practice of keeping a propitious house snake, here linked with the genius.{{Cite book|first=David Gerald|last=Orr|title=Roman Domestic Religion: The Archaeology of Roman Popular Art|editor-first=Ray Broadus|editor-last=Browne|work=Rituals and Ceremonies in Popular Culture|location=Bowling Green, Ohio|publisher=Bowling Green University Popular Press|year=1980|pages=88–103}}

File:Vindobona Hoher Markt-92.JPG, found at Vindobona, the Roman military camp in Pannonia (2nd century AD)]]

The English term is borrowed from Latin genius, "household guardian spirit"; earlier, "innate male power of a race or clan", deriving from the Indo-European root *g̑enh₁-, "give birth, produce", which is also reflected in Latin gignō, "give birth", and gēns, gentis, "tribe, people".

{{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

}}

{{cite web

| url= http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3Dgens

| title= gens

| date= 1879

| last= Lewis

| first= Charlton T.

| author-link= Charlton T. Lewis

| last2= Short

| first2= Charles

| author-link2= Charles Short

| work= A Latin Dictionary

| publisher= Perseus Digital Library

| access-date= 8 March 2019

}}

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.Plautus, Captivi 2.2. 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".Horace, Epistles, II, 2, 187-189.

File:Genius Domitian Musei Capitolini MC1130.jpg]]

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.{{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}} 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 by L. Attius Macro (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 legion, cohors, ala and centuria in Britain, as well as to the praetorium of every castra and even to the vexillae.{{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}} 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".{{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}}

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 (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.{{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. The concept, however, continued in representation and speech under different names or with accepted modifications.

The genius of a corporate social body is often a cameo theme on ancient coins: a denarius from Spain, 76–75 BC, featuring a bust of the GPR (Genius Populi Romani, "Genius of the Roman People") on the obverse;{{cite web|title=Bust of Genius Populi Romani, Illustration of Boston 42.527|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/image?img=1997.03.0155|publisher=Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University|location=Medford|year=1998|access-date=2 July 2009}} an aureus of Siscia in Croatia, 270–275 AD, featuring a standing image of the GENIUS ILLVR (Genius Exercitus Illyriciani,{{cite book|page=1379|title=Lexicon Universae Rei Numariae Veterum et Praecipue Graecorum ac Romanorum|editor-first=Christopher|editor-last=Rasche|publisher=Libraria Gleditschia|year=1785|volume=2 Part 1}} "Genius of the Illyrian Army") on the reverse;{{cite web|title=Genius, wearing modius on head, holding a wreath; military standard at right, Illustration of Boston 66.426|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/image?lookup=1997.03.1402|publisher=Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University|location=Medford|year=1998|access-date=2 July 2009}} an aureus of Rome, 134–138 AD, with an image of a youth holding a cornucopia and patera (sacrificial dish) and the inscription GENIOPR, genio populi Romani, "to the genius of the Roman people", on the reverse.{{cite web|title=Reverse: Genius standing: Illustration of Boston 1974.521|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/image?lookup=1997.03.0642|publisher=Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University|location=Medford|year=1998|access-date=12 July 2009}}

{{Gallery

|title=

|width=

|lines=

|File:Lararium Pompeji Detail.JPG|Scene from lararium, Pompeii

|File:August Pio-Clementino Inv259.jpg|Genius of Augustus

|File:Antonius Pius Column Base.JPG|Genius of Antoninus Pius

|File:Winged genius Boscoreale Louvre P23.jpg|Unknown Roman genius near Pompeii, 1st century BC

|File:Pompei - House of Iulius Polybius - Lararium.jpg|Lararium with small, central ancestral genius figure flanked by Lares, above a serpent-genius representing fertility. House of Iulius Polybius, Pompeii.

|File:Vettii.jpg|Ancestral genius (upper centre) flanked by Lares, with serpent below. Lararium, House of the Vettii Pompeii.

|File:Pompeii - Casa del Centenario - MAN.jpg|Bacchus clad with grapes, and a serpentine Agathodaimon ("good divinity"), genius of the soil around Vesuvius

}}

File:Meister des Rosenromans 001.jpg|Genius of love, Meister des Rosenromans, {{circa|1420–1430}}

File:Firenze.Palvecchio.500.Michelangelo2.JPG|Genius of victory, Michelangelo, 1532–34

File:Fontana del genio.jpg|Genius of Palermo, Ignazio Marabitti, {{circa|1778}}

File:Genius of Liberty Dumont July Column.jpg|Genius of liberty, Augustin Dumont, 1840

File:Vigée-Lebrun, Marie Louise Elisabeth - The Genius of Alexander.jpg|Genius of Alexander, Marie Louise Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, 1814

File:Mausoleo del Marqués del Duero 03.jpg|Genius of war, Elías Martín, 19th century

File:Paris Arc de Triomphe 03.jpg|Genius of the resistance, Antoine Etex, 1833–36

File:DemGeniusBeethovens.jpg|Genius of Beethoven

File:Adolphe Yvon - Genius of America.jpg|Genius of America, Adolphe Yvon, 1858

File:Kreuzbergdenkmal - Prinzessin Charlotte - Mutter Erde fec.jpg|Genius of the Peace of Paris, Chr. Dan. Rauch

File:Genius sculpture by Carl Milles 2009 Stockholm (1).jpg|Genius, Carl Milles, 1932–40

File:Genius van de schilderkunst.jpg|alt=Genius of painting by Geo Verbanck, 1912, Monument in honour of the Van Eyck brothers - backside, Ghent, Belgium|Genius of painting, Geo Verbanck, 1912, monument in honour of the Van Eyck brothers – backside, Ghent, Belgium

{{div col|colwidth=30em}}

• Daemon
• Di Penates
• Holy Guardian Angel
• Jinn
• Kami
• Qareen
• Religion in ancient Rome
• Tutelary deity
• Wisdom
• Yidam

{{div col end}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book|title=Grecian and Roman mythology|url=https://archive.org/details/grecianandroman02dwiggoog|first=Mary Ann|last=Dwight|chapter=Genii and Inferior Deities|location=New York|year=1860|publisher=A.S. Barnes & Burr|isbn=0-524-02016-7}}
• {{cite book|title=Roman Ideas of Deity in the Last Century before the Christian Era - Lectures Delivered in Oxford for the Common University Fund|first=W. Warde |last=Fowler|publisher=Holyoake Press|year=2007|isbn= 978-1-4067-6774-2|chapter=Lecture I: Sketch of the Course: Domestic Deities

}}

{{Commons category|Genius}}

• {{cite encyclopedia |title=Genius |url=http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/1349.html |first=Leonhard |last=Schmitz |encyclopedia=Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology |editor-first=William |editor-last=Smith |volume=2 |pages=241–242 |orig-year=1867 |year=2005 |publisher=Little, Brown & Company, The Ancient Library |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090623003106/http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/1349.html |archive-date=23 June 2009}}
• {{cite encyclopedia|title=Genius, Genii (Roman mythology)|url=http://www.fromoldbooks.org/Brewer-DictionaryOfPhraseAndFable/g/genius-genii.html|encyclopedia=Dictionary of Phrase and Fable|editor-first=E. Cobham|editor-last=Brewer|orig-year=1894|year=2009|publisher=fromoldbooks.org|access-date=3 July 2009}}
• {{cite web|title=Genius|url=http://www.mythindex.com/roman-mythology/G/Genius.html|publisher=mythindex.com|date=2007–2008|access-date=3 July 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090424214709/http://www.mythindex.com/roman-mythology/G/Genius.html|archive-date=24 April 2009|url-status=dead}}

{{Roman religion}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Ancient Roman religion

Category:Roman deities

Category:Tutelary deities