Larvae

Larvae

In Roman mythology, the larvae or lemures (singular "lemur") were the spectres or spirits of the dead; they were the malignant version of the "lares". Some Roman writers describe "lemures" as the common name for all the spirits of the dead, and divide them into two classes: the "lares", or the benevolent souls of the family, which haunted and guarded the "domus" or household, and the "larvae", or the restless and fearful souls of wicked men. But the more common idea was that the Lemures and Larvae were the same. They were said to wander about at night and to torment and frighten the living.

On May 9, 11, and 13, the "Lemuralia" or "Lemuria", the feast of the Lemures, occurred, when black beans were offered to the Larvae in the hopes of propitiating them; loud noises were also used to frighten them away.

Lemurs were so named by Linnaeus for their big eyes, nocturnal habits and unearthly noises they make at night. Some species of lemur were identified by their calls before scientists had seen individuals.

ingular

The singular form of "larvae" is "larva" in both Latin and English. The singular of "lemures" is "lemur" in both languages; ["OED", "Lemur"] Dungeons & Dragons and some other fantasy worlds have adopted the back formation "lemure" as the singular, following English singularization rules and therefore presumably pronounced as "demure", "immure", etc.


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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Larvae — {{Larvae}} Totengeister des römischen Volksglaubens, die man sich meist als Knochenmänner vorstellte …   Who's who in der antiken Mythologie

  • larvae — plural of LARVA (Cf. larva) (q.v.) …   Etymology dictionary

  • larvae —    In Roman lore, evil spirits that harm and frighten the living. Larvae, also known as lemurs, are demonic ghosts of the dead who, because of their misdeeds in life, are punished in the afterlife by being sentenced to exile and eternal wandering …   Encyclopedia of Demons and Demonology

  • Larvae — En la mitología romana, las larvae (en español, «larvas») o lemures (en español, «lémures», en singular, «lémur»)[1] eran los espectros o espíritus de la muerte; eran la versión maligna de los lares. Algunos autores romanos describen a los… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Larvae — Die Larvae (sg. larva, meist aber im Plural verwendet) oder Lemures (sg. lemur, meist aber im Plural verwendet) waren in der römischen Religion die Geister von Verstorbenen. Die Unterscheidung zwischen lemures und larvae ist unklar,… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Larvae — Lémure Pour les articles homonymes, voir Lemur. Les lémures sont des spectres malfaisants issus des croyances de l antiquité romaine. Il ne faut pas les confondre avec les larves (larvae en latin) qui étaient des génies malfaisants. Antiquité… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Larvae —    From Roman mythology, spirits who afflicted people with incurable illnesses. The afflicted person must purge every wrong doing from their life before they died, or the Larvae would chase them in the lower world. They are the spirits of evil… …   The writer's dictionary of science fiction, fantasy, horror and mythology

  • larvae —   Naio.    ♦ Dragonfly larvae, ōlopelope, pua alohelohe, lohelohe, lohaloha …   English-Hawaiian dictionary

  • Larvae — Larva Lar va (l[aum]r v[.a]), n.; pl. L. {Larv[ae]} (l[aum]r v[ae]), E. {Larvas} (l[aum]r v[.a]z). [L. larva ghost, specter, mask.] 1. (Zo[ o]l.) Any young insect from the time that it hatches from the egg until it becomes a pupa, or chrysalis.… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • larvae — plural of larva …   Dictionary of ichthyology

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