GENIUS

(Lat. gig no, I produce.) According to the belief of the old Italian races, especially the Etruscans, the genius was a spiritual agency of very indeterminate character, which seems to have been appropriated not only to every human family and individual as a companion, but to every god, and even to places and things. This conception was altogether foreign to Grecian mythology, although in later times it became mingled in that of Rome with the Grecian notions respecting demons. {See D^MON.) As, for instance, in the idea of a double genius, good and bad. Censorious {De Die Natali) says, " The genius is that god under whose protection every mortal is born and lives." Hence the worship of the genius was closely connected with all domestic ceremonies and feelings: the marriage bed was lectus genial is; the day of the genius, genial is dies, sacred to mirth and relaxation; the genius accompanied human fortunes in their vici itudes (Vultu mutabilis, alb us et atcr — Hor.); and death was typified by the figure of a genius with a lamp reversed. The genii of places were usually represented and worshipped under the figure of snakes. Whether there is any connection between the Italic genius and the djinn of oriental nations {see Genii) is a doubtful point. GF; NS. In Ancient History, a clan or sect, forming a subdivision of the Roman people next in order to the curia or tribe. The members and houses {familicv) composing one of these clans were not nece arily united by ties of blood, but were originally brought together by a political distribution of the citizens, and bound by religious rites, and a common name, derived probably from some ancient hero. This common name, which distinguished the gentiles or members of the same clan, was the second of the three borne by a Roman citizen, and was specially termed the nomen. It is supposed that each of the curies originally contained ten gentes, and that each of these was represented in the senate by one of its members. (See Vico, Scienxa Nuova; Niebuhr's History oj Ixonie.. 2d ed. p. 387.) 489 GENTLES. [s. 502]