640 THE NATURE OF ROMAN MYTHOLOGY
ent philosophical, religious, and literary sources, most of them Greek. The na-
tive Italian ideas of the Underworld and its spirits originated in the simple re-
ligion of the early agricultural communities. The spirits of dead ancestors were
propitiated at the festival of the Parentalia that took place from February 13 to
21 (which in the old Roman calendar was the last month of the year). During
this period, no one got married, the temples were closed, and offerings were
made to the spirits by the head of the family as a guarantee of their friendliness
to the family in the ensuing year. The Parentalia was a family celebration. Its
gods were simply "gods of the ancestors" (divi parentum), without names and
without mythology.
The festival of the Lemuria was celebrated in May. The head of the family
would propitiate the Lémures, spirits who could do great harm to the house-
hold. The ceremony was conducted by night with a magic ritual—the paterfa-
milias was barefoot, his fingers and thumb forming an "O," his hands ritually
washed before he threw behind him black beans for the Lémures to pick up,
while uttering nine times a formula intended to drive the spirits from the house.
Ovid identifies the Lémures with the Manes, who were synonymous with
the dead. Each person has his or her Manes, and epitaphs conventionally began
with Dis Manibus Sacrum, "sacred to the divine Manes of.. .," followed by the
person's name.
The Manes, the Parentalia, and the Lemuria, which involve no mythology
or legend, are far removed from Vergil's elaborate Underworld, which was de-
rived mostly from Greek sources. From the Etruscans the Romans learned to
propitiate the dead by offering human blood spilled on the earth. This is the ori-
gin of the gladiatorial games, which were first celebrated at Rome in 264 B.c. at
the funeral games for Decimus Junius Brutus. The Etruscans shared with the
Greeks many Underworld divinities, such as Charon and Persephone, and added
some of their own, such as the demon Tuculcha. The Underworld itself in Ro-
man literature is commonly called Orcus (sometimes personalized as a god) and
its ruler was Dis Pater, whose name (Dis = dives, "wealth") is the equivalent of
the Greek Pluto. The worship of Dis Pater was established at Rome in 249, al-
though he was certainly known there long before. He and Proserpine shared a
cult at an underground altar in the Campus Martius, whose precinct was called
Tarentum (the etymology of the name is still unexplained), and its cult was as-
sociated with the festival of the Secular Games.
The burial goddess, Libitina, was Italian; but her name, origin, and associ-
ations have never been satisfactorily explained. Her name was used by the later
poets as synonymous with Death, and undertakers were known as libitinarii.LARES AND GENIUS
The Lares were divinities often linked with the Penates. The origin and ety-
mology of their name are unknown. Although they have been identified