Geniscus

The late-antique Geniscus may be a form of the Roman Genius, pictured here in a 1st-century BC wall painting

Geniscus (/ɡɛˈniːs.kʊs/) is a deity who appears in a sermon of Saint Eligius along with Neptune, Orcus, Minerva and Diana. These are all, the Christian homilist says, "demons" who should not be believed in or invoked.[1] The warning implies cult activity for these deities in the northern parts of Merovingian Gaul into the 7th century.[2]

Geniscus may be a form of reference to the Genius, the Roman tutelary deity; in Gaul, the Genius is often hooded (Genius Cucullatus) and appears either singly or in a group of three.[3]

In another sermon in the same period, the Geniscus appears in the company of witches (striae) and other entities in whom "rustics" believe:[4]

There are some country people (rustici homines) who have a belief in certain women, because it is commonly said that they must be witches and able to harm infants and cattle, and the Dusiolus or Aquatiquus[5] or Geniscus must too.[6]

  1. ^ Vita Eligii 9 (c. 700–724), MGH SRM 4: 705–706, as cited by Bernadotte Filotas, Pagan Survivals, Superstitions and Popular Cultures in Early Medieval Pastoral Literature (Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2005), p. 78. English translation by Jo Ann McNamara of Dado of Rouen's Life of St. Eligius of Noyon in Medieval Hagiography: An Anthology (Routledge, 2001), pp. 137–168, with reference to Geniscus p. 157 online. See also Mythology in the Low Countries.
  2. ^ Filotas, Pagan Survivals, p. 79.
  3. ^ Filotas, Pagan Survivals, p. 79.
  4. ^ Filotas, Pagan Survivals, p. 79.
  5. ^ Aquatiquus from aqua, the "Watery One."
  6. ^ Sunt aliqui rustici homines, qui credunt aliquas mulieres, quod vulgum dicitur strias esse debeant, et ad infantes vel pecora nocere possint, vel Dusiolus vel Aquatiquus, vel Geniscus debeant as quoted by Du Cange in his 1678 Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis (Niort: Favre, 1883–1887), vol. 4, online.

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