a protecting spirit, analogous to the guardian angels invoked by the Church of Rome. The
belief in such spirits existed both in Greece and at Rome. The Greeks called them Op. et Dies,
235) speaks of Op. et Dies,
107; comp. Phaedr. p. 107), that daemons are assigned to men at the moment of their birth, that
thenceforward they accompany men through life, and that after death they conduct their souls
to Hades. Pindar, in several passages, speaks of a dii genitales of the Romans.
(Ol. 8.16, 13.101, Pyth. 4.167; comp. Aeschyl. Sept. 639.) The daemons are further described as the ministers and
companions of the gods, who carry the prayers of men to the gods, and the gifts of the gods to
men (Plat. Sympos. p. 202 ; Appul. de Deo Socrat.
7), and accordingly float in immense numbers in the space between heaven and earth. The
daemons, however, who were exclusively the ministers of the gods, seem to have constituted a
distinct class; thus, the Corybantes, Dactyls, and Cabeiri are called the ministering daemons
of the great gods (s. v.
ad Lycophr. 538);
Hadreus, the daemon of Demeter (Etym. Magn. s. v.
De Deo Socratis,
and Plutarch, De Genio Socratis, and De Defectu
Oraculorum. Later writers apply the term De Mort. Pereg. 36; Dorville,
ad Chariton. 1.4.)
The Romans seem to have received their theory concerning the genii from the Etruscans,
though gen-itus,
de Civ. Dei, 7.13). The genii of the Romans are
frequently confounded with the Manes, Lares, and Penates (Censorin. 3 ); and they have indeed
one great feature in common, viz. that of protecting mortals; but there seems to be this
essential difference, that the genii are the powers which produce life (dii
genifales), and accompany man through it as his second or spiritual self, whereas the
other powers do not begin to exercise their influence till life, the work of the genii, has
commenced. The genii were further not confined to man, but every living being, animal as well
as mall, and every place, had its genius. (Paul. Diac. p. 71; Serv. ad Virg.
Georg. 1.302.) Every human being at his birth obtains (sortitur) a
genius. Horace (vultu mutabilis, whence we may infer either that he conceived the genius
as friendly towards one person, and as hostile towards another, or that he manifested himself
to the same person in different ways at different times, i. e. sometimes as a good, and
sometimes as an evil genius. The latter supposition is confirmed by the statement of Servius
(Epist. 110; sanctus et sanctissimus deus, especially on his
birthday, with libations of wine, incense, and garlands of flowers. (Epist. 114;
lectus genialis. On other merry occasions, also, sacrifices were offered to
the genius, and to indulge in merriment was not unfrequently expressed by genio indulgere, genium curare or placare. The whole body of the Roman people had its
own genius, who is often seen represented on coins of Hadrian and Trajan. (Arnob. 2.67 ; majores hostiae caesae quinque,
ad Aen. 5.95), every place had its genius, and he adds, that such a local
genius, when he made himself visible, appeared in the form of a serpent, that is, the symbol
of renovation or of new life. The genii are usually represented in works of art as winged
beings, and on Roman monuments a genius commonly appears as a youth dressed in the toga, with
a patera or cornucopia in his hands, and his head covered; the genius of a place appears in
the form of a serpent eating fruit placed before him. (Hartung, Die Belig. der
Röm. i. p. 32, &c. ; Schömann, de Diis Manibus, Laribus,
et Geniis, Greifswald, 1840.)