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In ancient Roman religion, the Manes (, , ) or Di Manes are chthonic deities sometimes thought to represent souls of deceased loved ones. They were associated with the Lares, Lemures, Genii, and Di Penates as deities ( di) that pertained to domestic, local, and personal cult. They belonged broadly to the category of di inferi, "those who dwell below", the undifferentiated collective of divine dead. The Manes were honored during the Parentalia and Feralia in February.
The theologian St. Augustine, writing about the subject a few centuries after most of the Latin pagan references to such spirits, differentiated Manes from other types of Roman spirits:
Latin spells of antiquity were often addressed to the Manes.
Roman tombstones often included the letters D.M., which stood for Dis Manibus, literally "to the Manes", (2025). 9781477320204, University of Texas Press. ISBN 9781477320204 or figuratively, "to the spirits of the dead", an abbreviation that continued to appear even in Christian inscriptions.
The Manes were offered blood sacrifices. The gladiator, originally held at funerals, may have been instituted in the honor of the Manes. According to Cicero, the Manes could be called forth from the caves near Lake Avernus.
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