Di inferi

The di inferi or dii inferi (Latin, "the gods below")^[1] were a shadowy collective of ancient Roman deities associated with death and the underworld.^[2] The epithet inferi is also given to the mysterious Manes,^[3] a collective of ancestral spirits. The most likely origin of the word Manes is from manus or manis (more often in Latin as its antonym immanis), meaning "good" or "kindly," which was a euphemistic way to speak of the inferi so as to avert their potential to harm or cause fear.^[4]

^ Varro, De lingua latina 6.13.
^ Entry on "Death," in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome (Oxford University Press, 2010), p. 366.
^ Tacitus, Annales 13.14: inferos Silanorum manes.
^ Robert Schilling, "The Manes," Roman and European Mythologies (University of Chicago Press, 1992, from the French edition of 1981), p. 133.

[1] Varro, De lingua latina 6.13.

[2] Entry on "Death," in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome (Oxford University Press, 2010), p. 366.

[3] Tacitus, Annales 13.14: inferos Silanorum manes.

[4] Robert Schilling, "The Manes," Roman and European Mythologies (University of Chicago Press, 1992, from the French edition of 1981), p. 133.

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