Religion in ancient Rome
Marcus Aurelius (head covered) sacrificing at the Temple of Jupiter
Practices and beliefs
libation · sacrifice · votum · temples · festivals  · ludi · funerals · auspice Imperial cult · mystery religions
Priesthoods
Pontifex · Augur · Vestal · Flamen Fetial · Epulones · Arval Brethren
Deities
List of Roman deities Twelve major gods Capitoline Triad · Aventine Triad underworld gods · indigitamenta Deified emperors: Divus Julius  · Divus Augustus
Related topics
Roman mythology Glossary of ancient Roman religion Religion in ancient Greece Etruscan religion Gallo-Roman religion Decline of Hellenistic polytheism
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Numen ("an influence perceptible by mind but not by senses",^{[citation needed]} pl. numina) is a Latin term for a potential, guiding the course of events in a particular place or in the whole world, used in Roman philosophical and religious thought. The many names for Italic gods may obscure this sense of a numinous presence in all the seemingly mundane actions of the natural world.^[1]

The word was also used in the imperial cult of ancient Rome, to refer to the guardian-spirit,^{[citation needed]} 'godhead' or divine power of a living emperor—in other words, a means of worshiping a living emperor without literally calling him a god.

The word numen is also used by sociologists to refer to the idea of magical power residing in an object, particularly when writing about ideas in the western tradition. When used in this sense, numen is nearly synonymous with mana. However, some authors reserve use of mana for ideas about magic from Polynesia and southeast Asia.

Due to its use as a central term in Roman religion, Numen is the name of an academic journal on history of religions.

Significance[link]

Ancient Roman cult[link]

According to Georges Dumézil:

The literal meaning is simply "a nod," or more accurately, for it is a passive formation, "that which is produced by nodding", just as flamen is "that which is produced by blowing," i.e., a gust of wind. It came to mean "the product or expression of power"--not, be it noted, power itself.^[2]

Thus, numen is not personified (although it can be a personal attribute) and should be distinguished from deus (god).^[3]

Imperial cult[link]

The cult of Augustus was promoted by Tiberius, who dedicated the Ara Numinis Augusti.^[4] In this context, a distinction can be made between the terms numen and genius.^[5]

Christian religion[link]

The phrase "numen eris caeloque redux mirabere regna" appears on line 129 of the poem Metrum in Genesin,^[6] attributed to Hilary of Arles.^[7]

Usage[link]

Cicero uses the term to signify the "active power" of a Roman god.^[8] Virgil uses the plural form of numen in the Aeneid: magna numina precari,^[9] translated as "prayed to the great gods"^[10]. By simulacra numinum the historian Tacitus refers to the "statues of the active powers"^[11]. Pliny the younger speaks of the numen historiae to mean the divine power of history.^[12] Lucretius uses the expression numen mentis,^[13] or "bidding of the mind".^[14].

The expression Numen inest appears in Ovid's Fasti (III, 296) and has been translated as 'There is a spirit here'.^[15] Its interpretation, and in particular the exact sense of numen has been discussed extensively in the literature.^[16]

In modern times, the term (referring to the Christian God) has been used in various expressions:

• Innocue vivito, numen adest (Live blameless; God is here.) was the motto of Linnaeus,^[17] taken from Ovid's Ars Amatoria (I, 640).
• Nil sine numine is the state motto of Colorado. Its origin could be the phrase "...non haec sine numine devum eveniunt", from Virgil's Aeneid (II, 777).
• Numen lumen (God is the light) is the motto of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.^[18]

More recently, the term numen appears three times (142.23, 162.13, 282.21) in Joyce's Finnegans Wake.^[19]

Analogies to numina in other societies:[link]

• ashe in Yoruba mythology
• Kami in Japanese Shinto
• mana in Polynesian mythology
• maban in Australian Aboriginal mythology
• manetuwak in Lenape mythology
• shekhinah in Semitic mythology
• sila, inua in Inuit mythology
• teotl in Aztec mythology
• wod in Anglo-Saxon mythology

See also[link]

• Animism
• Lares
• Penates
• Sacred (comparative religion)

Notes[link]

References[link]

1. Fishwick, Duncan (1990). The Imperial Cult in the Latin West. Brill. 

1. Rudolf Otto (October 2004). The Idea of the Holy: An Inquiry Into the Non Rational Factor in the Idea of the Divine 1926. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4179-7875-5. http://books.google.com/books?id=70DNx6VNS74C. Retrieved 9 April 2012. 

External links[link]

• Roman religion