Numen

Etymologically, the word means "a nod of the head", here referring to a deity as it were "nodding", or making its will or its presence known. According to H. J. Rose:

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.^[8]

Thus, numen (divinity) is not personified (although it can be a personal attribute) and should be distinguished from deus (god).^[9] According to the classicist Kurt Latte, the term numen is first attested in the works of Accius and Gaius Lucilius, which date to the second half of the 2nd-century BCE. It is, however, unattested in earlier writings, such as the works of Plautus, Ennius, or Cato the Elder, and it is also absent from ancient religious texts. On this basis, Latte proposed that—due to the influence of Stoic philosophy—the term may have emerged as a translation of Ancient Greek δύναμις ("dúnamis"). However, the classicist Tamás Nótári argues that the lack of proper attestation in the works of Ennius and Cato is perhaps attributable to the incomplete state of their surviving writings and it also the comedic plays of Plautus were inherently incongruent with esoteric religious concepts. Moreover, as noted by Latte himself, it is impossible to explains why the specific word numen would be generated to translate the Greek term.^[10]

Numen was also used in the imperial cult of ancient Rome, to refer to the guardian-spirit, 'godhead' or divine power of a living emperor—in other words, a means of worshiping a living emperor without literally calling him a god.^[9]

The cult of Augustus was promoted by Tiberius, who dedicated the Ara Numinis Augusti.^[11] In this context, a distinction can be made between the terms numen and genius.^[12]

The expression Numen inest appears in Ovid's Fasti (III, 296) and has been translated as "There is a spirit here".^[13] Its interpretation, and in particular the exact sense of numen has been discussed extensively in the literature.^[14] The supposition that a numinous presence in the natural world supposed in the earliest layers of Italic religion, as it were an "animistic" element left over in historical Roman religion and especially in the etymology of Latin theonyms, has often been popularly implied, but was criticized as "mostly a scholarly fiction" by McGeough (2004).^[15] Furthermore, it is high-unlikely that the numen represents any 'original' aspect of Roman or Italic religion untainted by Hellenic influence.^[16]

Until the time of Augustus (r. 27 BCE – 14 CE), the term was never used to refer to any particular god.^[17] In fact, according to the classicist Ittai Gradel, given that the gender of the word was neuter, it simply could not have been personified.^[18] Instead, the term denoted some abstract concept possessed by a deity. For instance, the 1st-century CE Roman poet Horace recounts a myth wherein Jupiter forms a layer of ice over snow utilizing his "puro numine" ("unimpeded or unmixed numen").^[17] Cicero, a 2nd-century BCE Roman statesman, states that human virtue ("virtus ... humana") many "come nearer to the power of the gods" whilst "founding new cities" or "saving those already founded."^[19] Fenechlu suggests that this passage implies that, just as virtus was an essential characteristic of a Roman man, numen was vital for the divine.^[20] Numen was not reserved exclusively for deities; it was also available to humans—the Roman Senate, and later, the emperor themselves, were sometimes described as holding numen.^[21] Moreover, Cicero ascribes numen to the Roman people collectively, stating in a publication oration that he "will always exhibit vis-à-vis the Roman people the same piety ("pietate") that the most respectable men show to the gods" ("qua sanctissimi homines pietate erga deos immortales esse soleant, eadem me") and that their "power ("numen") will be as venerable and sacred as the one of the immortal gods" ("semper fore numenque vestrum aeque mihi grave et sanctum ac deorum immortalium in omni vita futurum").^[22][23]

Cicero utilizes the phrase "divino numine" to translate Ancient Greek "θεῶν ἰότητι" ("theôn iótēti"), a passage from the Odyssey meaning "will of the gods."^[23][24] Like Cicero, the 1st-century BCE Roman author Varro also relates the term numen to a Homeric context, though Varro claims that Homer utilized the word in connection with Jupiter, whereas the Greek passage reference by Cicero is used to describe all gods and never specifically Jupiter.^[25] Elsewhere in his writings, Cicero equates the term numen with "cōnsilium" ("plan") and "voluntās" ("will"), writing "cum cognitum habeas quod sit summi rectoris ac domini numen, quod consilium, quae voluntas" ("Because you already know what is the will of the supreme ruler and master, what is his intention, what is his wish").^[26] Other Ciceronian writings, however, appear to utilize the term to mean "power:" Cicero writes "Magna vis est cum in deorum immortalium numine tum vero in ipsa re publica" ("Great might is to be found, on the one hand, in the power of the immortal gods, and on the other hand, in the state itself").^[26] In certain passages, both the translation as "power" and as "will" seem appropriate, such as "deorum enim numini parere omnia" ("All things yield to the will/power of the gods").^[27][28]

Varro writes that it was the general wisdom of his day that the term numen signified the imperium ("power") of the divine, and that it derived from "nutus" ("nod, command, will"), in reference to the power of a deity whose nod could command reality.^[23][29] According to the classicist Carmen Fenechlu, the particular choice of the term imperium, which refers more specifically to judicial or political authority, as opposed to the term potestas, which denotes more generic power, implies that Varro had intended to convey that the superiority and "special nature" of the numen.^[25] Cicero provides a passage wherein he directly compares the potestas of the Quirites with the numen of the gods, writing "deinde vos, Quirites, quorum potestas proxime ad deorum immortalium numen accedit, oro atque obsecro" ("Then I beg and implore you, citizens, whose might comes very near to the power of the immortal gods.").^[20] Within this passage, the term potestas is associated with the mortal humans, whereas the term numen is specifically connected with the divine, perhaps reflecting the aforementioned equation of numen with imperium, and the consequent implication that the numen represented a sort of higher authority.^[20] Furthermore, Cicero directly associates the power of the numen with the political institutions of Rome, writing "Magna vis est, magnum numen unum et idem sentientis senatus" ("Great is the force, great is the divine power ("numen") of the senate whose members hold one and the same opinion.").^[30][31]

The phrase "numen eris caeloque redux mirabere regna" appears on line 129 of the poem Metrum in Genesin,^[32] attributed to Hilary of Arles.^[33]

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