The dead, according to the early Roman belief, were gathered to a group of spirits called Di Manes. The idea of the Genius or the divine double accompanying every individual during his lifetime arose in the period of the Republic. The Genius lived with the individual as long as he lived. At death he lost his individuality and was gathered to the Di Manes. Under Greek influence the idea of individuality developed. The idea arose that the Genius lived after death. Di Manes became individualized protecting spirits instead of an individualized group. During the lifetime of man his Genius was divine, after his death the Genius continued to live as one of the Manes. During lifetime the Genius received divine honours, after death his Manes received offerings as a God. The Manes came down to earth and influenced the living members of the families among whom they had lived. They required propitiation.
Numenius of Apamea, writing in the second century, speaks of two souls in man. The one is rational and the other is irrational. The great Alexandrian theologian Origen (a.d. 185–254) speaks of the twofold psychic division of man. He says with others that man is endowed with a soul and a spirit. He then explains the relation between the soul and the spirit, which exactly resembles that between a man's soul and his Fravashi in the Avestan texts. The Fravashi of a man serves as an ideal, which the soul has to endeavour to realize. The soul has to strive after, imitate and emulate its Fravashi and ultimately become one with it after death. The texts speak of the souls of the dead that are the Fravashis of the righteous.[1] Origen's teachings help us to understand the final identity of the soul and the Fravashi. The spirit, he says, is like unto a master or director of the soul during lifetime. It applauds or accuses the soul for its good or bad deed, and reminds it of its duty. If the soul behaves according to the dictates of the spirit, it ultimately becomes the spirit, but if it revolts from the spirit, it remains divided from the spirit, when the bodily life of the individual ends. The soul, he says, is the spirit in the process of redemption. It has therefore to put off its nature as soul and become spiritual.
What are the Fravashis. A class of higher intelligences playing a most prominent part in the Mazdayasnian pantheon, and receiving sacrifices and adoration from the world of human-
- ↑ Ys. 16. 7; 26. 7, 11; 71. 23; Yt. 22. 39.
