noun · masculinethird declension
mānēs1
mānēs m pl (genitive mānium)
Classical[ˈmaː.neːs]Ecclesiastical[ˈmaː.nes]
Meaning
- souls or spirits of the dead, shades, ghosts
Id cinerem aut mānīs crēdis cūrāre sepultōs?
“Do you [really] believe that [any of] this matters to ashes, or spirits entombed?” (Anna questions Dido’s devotion to her deceased husband; it may be a general statement about all spirits, or understood specifically about the dead Sychaeus. Some editors capitalize “Manis.” Commentary by T.E. Page [1967], pg. 348: “The poet uses the three words cinerem, Manes, sepultos to emphasise the idea of something which being destroyed, dead, and buried is utterly incapable of concern in what goes on among the living.”)29 BCE – 19 BCE, Vergilius, Aeneis 4.34 - the spirit of a specific dead person
- remains, the ashes or corpse of a dead person
- Hades, the netherworld
Latīnē defined in Latin in our graded readers
animae mortuōrummānēs -ium (m) — in Epistulae, ch. 14
animae mortuōrum apud īnferōsmānēs -ium (m pl) — in Metamorphoses I, ch. 4
Declension
| form | singular | plural |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | — | mānēs |
| genitive | — | mānium |
| dative | — | mānibus |
| accusative | — | mānēs mānīs |
| ablative | — | mānibus |
| vocative | — | mānēs |
Mānes, ĭum (
I. fem., Inscr. ap. Fea, Var. di Notiz. p. 174; Inscr. Grut. 786, 5), m. manus, good; v. mane, with or without di.
I. The deified souls of the departed, the ghosts or shades of the dead, the gods of the Lower World, infernal deities, manes (as benevolent spirits, opp. to larvae and lemures, malevolent spirits):
deorum manium jura sancta sunto, Cic. Leg. 2, 9, 22: Manibus divis mactatus, Lucr. 6, 759: Manibu' divis Inferias mittunt, id. 3, 52; Cic. Pis. 7, 16: sacrae (res) sunt quae Dis superis consecratae sunt: religiosae, quae Diis manibus relictae sunt, Gai. Inst. 2, 4.—B. Esp., the departed spirit, ghost, shade of a person:
nec patris Anchisae cinerem manesve revelli, Verg. A. 4, 427: conjugis, id. ib. 6, 119; 3, 303: manes Virginiae, Liv. 3, 58, 11; 21, 10, 3: camilli, Juv. 2, 154; Sen. Contr. 3, 16, 21: Galbae, Suet. Oth. 7. —In sing.: nomine Manem deum nuncupant, App. de Deo Socr. 15, p. 50, 19.—II. Transf.
A. The Lower World, infernal regions (poet.):
Manesque profundi, Verg. G. 1, 243: haec Manes veniet mihi fama sub imos, id. A. 4, 387: esse aliquos Manes et subterranea regna, Juv. 3, 149. And in apposition: fabulae Manes, Hor. C. 1, 4, 16. —B. Punishments inflicted in the Lower World (poet.):
quisque suos patimur Manes, Verg. A. 6, 743 (Manes id est supplicia, Serv.); so Stat. Th. 8, 84; Aus. Ephem. 57. —C. A corpse (post-Aug.):
accipiet manes parvula testa meos, Prop. 2, 13, 32 (3, 5, 16); Liv. 31, 30: ea causa est, ut pleraeque alitum e manibus hominum oculos potissimum appetant, Plin. 11, 37, 55, § 148; 16, 44, 85, § 234.Charlton Lewis's shorter dictionary for students: the same scholarship in plain, modern definitions.
mānēs ium, m
a departed spirit, ghost, shade: patris Anchisae, V.: Verginiae, L. inde (i. e. ex fossā) Manes elicere, H.: quisque suos patimur Manīs, i. e. each his own character as formed in life, V.—With di, the deified souls of the departed, shades of the dead, gods of the Lower World, infernal deities, manes (as benevolent spirits): deorum manium iura: ab dis manibus Furiae.—The Lower World, infernal regions: profundi, V.: Esse aliquos Manīs, Iu.: fabulae Manes, H.—A corpse, remains: nudatos manes, L.: accipiet manes testa meos, ashes, Pr.
Origins
Substantive use of the masculine plural of Old Latin mānis (“good”), so originally "the good ones". For the sense development, compare Northern Kurdish meçêtir, yên ji me çêtir (“jinn, ghost, lit. "the ones better than us"”)
Descendants
- Englishmanes
- Frenchmânes
- GermanManen
- Italianmani
- Spanishmanes