Lemures

The lemures /ˈlɛmjəriːz/ were shades or spirits of the restless or malignant dead in Roman religion,^[1] and are probably cognate with an extended sense of larvae /ˈlɑːrviː/ (from Latin larva, 'mask') as disturbing or frightening.^{[citation needed]}^{[clarification needed]} Lemures is the more common literary term but even this is rare: it is used by the Augustan poets Horace and Ovid, the latter in his Fasti, the six-book calendar poem on Roman holidays and religious customs.^[2]

The word lemures can be traced to the PIE stem *lem-, which also appears in the name of the Greek monster Lamia.^[3]

^ Cirlot, J. E. (1971). A Dictionary of Symbols (2nd ed.). Dorset Press. p. 181. ISBN 9781566490542.
^ Horace, Epistles 2.2.209; Ovid, Fasti 2.500-539.
^ Polomé, Edgar C.; Adams, Douglas Q. (1997). "Spirit". In Mallory, J. P.; Adams, Douglas Q. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. Taylor & Francis. p. 538.