The gate of the year

Funerary urn in marble, dating to about 90-110 A.D., now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
The inscription shows a dedication by the owner, M. Domitius Primigenius, to the gods Manes (dis manibus). In the Roman world, with the name of Manes were indicated the divinized dead, taken collectively as an undifferentiated unity. Only later, in the Imperial age, the Manes acquired a more individualistic connotation, and became to signify the deceased individuals.

[Image: http://library.artstor.org/library/]




World of the Dead

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Funerary urn in marble, dating to about 90-110 A.D., now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The inscription shows a dedication by the owner, M. Domitius Primigenius, to the gods Manes (dis manibus). In the Roman world, with the name of Manes were indicated the divinized dead, taken collectively as an undifferentiated unity. Only later, in the Imperial age, the Manes acquired a more individualistic connotation, and became to signify the deceased individuals. [Image: http://library.artstor.org/library/]