LARVAE. - Among the Romans these were the souls of those who had died in sin and who, in their ceaseless wandering, exercised a malevolent action in the world of the living, where they pursued and terrified men, almost taking possession of them (Larvati, cf. Plautus, Aul., 10, 4, 15; Paulus Festus, 106); there were in fact lustrations to free individuals from the obsession of the l. (cf. Servius, ad Aen., VI, 229). They also performed a similar function of torment in the kingdom of the shades (Pliny, Praef., 31, and Seneca, Apocol., 9).

The Larvae, sometimes confused with the Lares (Varro, in Arnobius, III, 41), with the Manes (cf. Festus, 114), but above all with the Lemures (Augustine, De civitate Dei, IX, 11), were generally represented as skeletons or spectres with faces contorted into horrible grimaces, and, according to Festus (loc. cit.), with them «nurses frighten children».

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: Koch, s. v. in Pauly-Wissowa, XII, coll. 878-80; E. Tabeling, Mater Larum, Francoforte sul Meno 1932, p. 23 seg.

Cesare D'Onofrio

@incollection{ec7_larve_larvae, author = {D'Onofrio, Cesare}, title = {Larve (Larvae)}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VII}, pages = {922--923}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/larve-larvae} }

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