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- Dictionarylem·u·res/ˈlemyəˌrēz/
plural
- 1. (in ancient Roman belief) the restless spirits of the dead, which were considered frightening or troublesome and had to be appeased with household rituals.
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Spirits of the restless dead in Roman religion
The lemures were shades or spirits of the restless or malignant dead in Roman religion, and are probably cognate with an extended sense of larvae as disturbing or frightening. Lemures is the more common literary term but even this is rare: it is used by the Augustan poets Horace and Ovid, the latter in his Fasti, the six-book calendar poem on Roman holidays and religious customs. Wikipedia