LEMURIE (Lemuria). - On the 9th, 11th, and 13th days of May in the Roman calendar fell the festival of the Lemuria, that is, of the Lemures, the souls of the dead, generally confused with the « larvae » (v.), which likewise had a character hostile to the world of the living (« Lemures larvae nocturnae et terrificationes imaginum et bestiarum », Nonius Marcellus, Compendiosa doctr., p. 135; cf. Porphyry, Ad Hor. ep., 2, 2, 209).
According to Ovid (Fasti, V, 419-92), this festival of the dead was older than the analogous one in February, the Feralia (v.) on the 21st of the same month; and this is perhaps quite rightly so, since the bizarre ceremony performed by the paterfamilias on the first night of the Lemuria (v. sotto) is archaic in character, in sharp contrast with the more serene character of the Feralia. In this regard it should also be observed that, whereas the former festival is marked in the calendars with N (= nefastus), the latter is indicated with F (= fastus; or also FP = fastus principio, Mommsen), which reveals two distinctly different points of view (and therefore two periods) with regard to the dead.
At midnight during the Lemuria, the paterfamilias rises and, barefoot and with his hands washed, puts black beans into his mouth; then, without turning around, he throws them over his shoulders, saying: « With these beans I redeem myself and my own »; he washes himself again, strikes a bronze vessel, and, having repeated nine times « Manes exite paterni », completes the ceremony. During the three days of the Lemuria the temples were closed and marriages were not celebrated.