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Lemures
The Mortal Realm (wandering)
Danger Level: 5/10
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Abilities
IntangibilityFear InducementHaunting Presence
Lore & Legend
Unquiet Dead in May
Ovid's Fasti describes Lemuria: the householder rises at midnight, casts black beans, and nine times bids the lemures depart. They are restless shades, often contrasted with the honored di Manes. The rite is domestic apotropaia, not a bestiary hunt.
Later Christian writers moralize them as demons. Ovid still knows a calendar job.
Primary Sources
“When midnight has come... the heir of the house rises, and casting black beans he says nine times: 'These I send; with these beans I redeem me and mine.'”