Mania
- In the Roman religion, the mother of the Lares, Varr. L. L. 9, § 61 Müll.; Macr. S. 1, 7, 34 sq.; Arn. 3, 124; Mart. Cap. 2, § 164.—
- II A bugbear, bugaboo for children, Arn. 6 fin.; cf.: Maniae turpes deformesque personae, Paul. ex Fest. p. 144 Müll.
an ancient and formidable Italian, probably Etruscan, divinity of the lower world, is called the mother of the Manes or Lares. (Varro, de Ling. Lat. 9.61; Arnob. ad v. Gent. 3.41; Macr. 1.7.) The festival of the Compitalia was celebrated as a propitiation to Mania in common with the Lares, and, according to an ancient oracle that heads should be offered on behalf of heads, boys are said to have been sacrificed on behalf of the families to which they belonged. The consul Junius Brutus afterwards abolished the human sacrifices, and substituted garlick and the heads of poppies for them. Images of Mania were hung up at the house doors, with a view to avert all dangers. (Macrob. l.c.) As regards her being the mother of the Manes or Lares, the idea seems to have been, that the souls of the departed on their arrival in the lower world became her children, and either there dwelt with her or ascended into the upper world as beneficent spirits. (Müller, Die Etrusk. 3.4.) In later times the plural Maniae occurs as the designation of terrible, ugly, and deformed spectres, with which nurses used to frighten children. (Paul. Diac. p. 128; Festus, p. 129, ed. Müller.) [L.S]
(Μανία).
1. A Phrygian, as the name implies (Mach. apud Athen. xiii. p. 578b), was the wife of Zenis, a Greek of Dardanus, and satrap, under Pharnabazus, of the Midland Aeolis. After the death of Zenis, Mania prevailed on Pharnabazus to allow her to retain the satrapy which her husband had held. Invested with the government, she strictly fulfilled her promise that the tribute should be paid as regularly as before, and she not only kept in obedience the cities entrusted to her, but also added to them by conquest the maritime towns of Larissa, Hamaxitus, and Colonae, which she took with the Greek mercenaries whom she maintained liberally in her service. She continued to conciliate the favour of Pharnabazus by frequent presents, as well as by splendid and agreeable entertainments, whenever he came into her satrapy. The valuable assistance, too, which she rendered him both by arms and counsel, he fully appreciated; and she seems to have been at the height of her prosperity, when she was murdered by her son-in-law Meidias, shortly before the arrival of Dercyllidas in Asia, in B. C. 399. (Xen. Hell. iii. 50. §§ 10-14; Polyaen. 8.54.)
2. An Athenian hetaera, a great favourite of Demetrius Poliorcetes. Mania was only her nickname. (Mach. apud Athen. xiii. pp. 578, 579.) [E.E]
See Lares.