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 tc 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 Kerne with the Grecian notions respecting demons. (See D.e.mon.) As, for instance,in the idea of a double genius, good and bail. t'eiisorinus {De Die Natali) says, "The genius is that god under whose protection every mortal is born ami 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 ater — 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 connexion between the Italic genius and the djinn of oriental nations (see Genii) is a doubtful point. [s. 506]