Genii

Genii, among the ancient Romans, were protecting spirits, who were supposed to accompany every created thing from its origin to its final decay, like a second spiritual self. They belonged not only to men, but to all things animate and inanimate, and more especially to places, and were regarded as effluences of the Divinity, and worshipped with divine honours. Not only had every individual his genius, but likewise the whole people. The statue of the national genius was placed in the vicinity of the Roman forum, and is often seen on the coins of Hadrian and Trajan. The genius of an individual was represented by the Romans as a figure in a toga, having the head veiled, and the cornucopia or patera in the hands; while local genii appear under the figure of serpents eating fruit set before them. Quite different are the genii whose Arabic name, Djinn or Jinn, was translated by the Latin term genius, for want of a better word, or from the casual similarity of the sounds. See DEMONOLOGY, and FAMILIAR.