Also called Mater Larum (identified).
The tale
Mania was named by Varro as the mother of the Lares, a being connected with the Manes. At the Compitalia woollen effigies, called maniae, were hung at doors and crossroads, which Macrobius explains as substitutes for the lives once offered. Festus says maniae were also ugly masks and figures used to frighten children. She thus stands between goddess and nursery bogey.
When they are met
- Compitalia, late December or early January
- Parentalia, 13 to 21 February
Staying on their good side
- A small woollen doll hung at the door
- Grain
- Salt
Honouring them, or keeping safe
- Hang a woollen figure at the door at the new year, as Romans did.
- Tell children kinder stories than a bogey.
- Honour the dead so she has no reason to come.
What their tales teach
- Protection of the household
- Keeping the dead at peace
Symbols
- woollen doll
- mask
She overlaps with the goddess Larunda or Mater Larum in some sources.
Sources
- Varro, De Lingua Latina 9.61
- Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.7.34-35
- Festus, De Verborum Significatu
More Roman folklore
- Genius Loci The guardian spirit of a place
- Lemures The hungry ghosts of May
- Striges The screech-owls of the night
- The Sibyl of Cumae The prophetess of the hundred-mouthed cave
- Fauns The goat-legged spirits of the woods
- The Versipellis The werewolf by the tombs
- Larvae Malevolent ghosts of the restless dead
- Lamia (in Roman sources) Child-devouring witch of Roman tales