Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/255

Rh GENET YLLT9. Sec; Leo AUatius, DeGeorgiis^ No. 55 ; Wharton in Appendix to Cave, Hist. Lit. p. 141 ; Boivin, Academie des Belles Lettres, vol. ii. p. 716 ; Ham- berger, Nachrichten von den vornehmsten Schrift- stellern^ vol. iv. p. 712, &c.) [W. P.] GENE'SIUS (rev^o-tos), that is, « the father," a surname of Poseidon, under which he had a sanctuary near Lerna, on the sea-coast. (Pans, ii. 38. § 4.) The name is identical in meaning with Genethlius (yeveOAios), under which the same god had a sanctuary at Sparta. (Paus. iii. 15. § 7.) [L. S.] GENE'SIUS, JOSE'PHUS, or JOSE'PHUS BYZANTI'NUS, a Byzantine writer who lived in the middle of the tenth century, is the author of a Greek history, which he wrote by order of the emperor Constantine (VII.) Porphyrogenitus. This history, which is divided into four books, and is entitled BaaiXeiwu Bi§ia A, begins with the year 813, and contains the reigns of Leo V., the Armenian, Michael II., the Stammerer, Theophi- lus, Michael III., and Basil I., the Macedonian, who died in 886. The work of Genesius is short, and altogether a poor compilation, or extract ; but as it contains the events of a period of Byzantine history, of which we have but scanty information, it is nevertheless of importance. A MS. of this work was discovered at Leipzig in the sixteenth centur)', and attracted the attention of scholars. Godfrey Olearius translated it into Latin, but death prevented him from publishing his trans- lation. It has been said that there was an edition of Genesius of 1570, published at Venice, but this is a mistake. The first edition was published at Venice by the editors of the Venetian Collection of the Byzantines, in 1733, in fol., under the title "Josephi Genesii de Rebus Constantinopolitanis, &c., Libri IV.," with a Latin translation by Bergler. The editors perused the Leipzig MS. mentioned above, but they mutilated and misun- derstood the text. The best ediilon is by Lach- piann in the Bonn edition of the Byzantines, 1 834, 8vo. Joannes Scylitza is the only earlier writer who mentions the name of Genesius. Fabricius shows that it is a mistake to suppose that Josephus Genesius and Josephus Byzantinus were two differ- ent persons. (Fabric. Bild. Graec. vol. vii. p. 529 ; Cave, Hist. Lit. vol. ii. p. 97 ; Bamberger, Na- chrichtcn von den vornehmsten Schri/tstellcrn, vol. iii. p. 686.) [W.P.] GENETAEUS (revrjTalos)^ a surname of Zeus, which he derived from Cape Genetus on the Eux- ine, where he was worshipped as cu^eivos, i. e. " the hospitable," and where he had a sanctuary. (Apollon. Rhod. ii. 378, 1009 ; Val. Flacc. v. 148 ; Strab. xii. p. 548.) [L. S.] GENE'THLIUS {r€v46ios), of Patrae, in Palestine, a Greek rhetorician, who lived between the reigns of the emperors Philippus and Constan- tine. He was a pupil of Mucianus and Agapetus, and taught rhetoric at Athens, where he died at the early age of twenty-eight. He was an enemy and a rival of his countryman Callinicus. Suidas (s. v. reveOKios), tc whom we are indebted for this information, enumerates a variety of works which Genethlius wrote, declamations, panegyrics, and commentaries on Demosthenes ; but not a trace of them has come down to us. (Comp. Eudoc. p. 100 ; Hesych. Miles, s. v. TepedXios.) [L. S.] GENETYLLLS (rei^eruAAis), the protectress of births, occurs both as a surname of Aphrodite VOL. II. GENIUS. 241 (Aristoph. Nub. 52, with the Schol.), and as a distinct divinity and a companion of Aphrodite. (Suidas.) Genetyllis was also considered as a sur- name of Artemis, to whom women sacrificed dogs. (Hesych. s. v. rej/ervAts ; Aristoph. Li/s. 2.) We also find the plural, TevervWides, or revi/a'tSes, as a class of divinities presiding over generation and birth, and as companions of Aphrodite Colias. (Aristoph. T/iesmoph. 1 30 ; Paus. i. 1. M ; Alciph. iii. 2 ; comp. Bentley ad Hor. Carm. Saec. 16.) [L. S.] GE'NITRIX, that is, "the mother,"* is used by Ovid {Met. xiv. 536) as a surname of Cybele, in the place of mater,, or magna mater, but it is better known, in the religious history of Rome, as a sur- name of Venus, to whom J. Caesar dedicated a temple at Rome, as the mother of the Juha gens. (Suet. Caes. 61, 78, 84; Serv. ad Aen. i. 724.) In like manner, Elissa (Dido), the founder of Car- thage, is called Genitrix. (Sil. Ital. i. 81.) [L. S.] GE'NIUS, a protecting spirit, analogous to the guardian angels invoked by the Church of Rome. The belief in such spirits existed both in Greece and at Rome. The Greeks called them Sa/^oi/es, daemons, and appear to have believed in them from the earliest times, though Homer does not mention them. Hesiod (Op. et Dies, 235) speaks of Sai/jiovcs, and says that they were 30,000 in number, and that they dwelled on earth unseen by mortals, as the ministers of Zeus, and as the guar- dians of men and of justice. He further conceives them to be the souls of the righteous men who lived in the golden age of the world. {Op. et Dies, 107 ; comp. Diog. Laert. vii. 79) The Greek philosophers took up this idea, and developed a complete theory of daemons. Thus we read in Plato {F/iaedr. p. 107), that daemons are assigned to men at the moment of their birth, that thence- forward they accompany men through life, and that after death they conduct their souls to Hades. Pindar, in several passages, speaks of a yevedKios SaifjLwv, that is, the spirit watching over the fate of man from the hour of his birth, which appears to be the same as the dii genitales of the Romans. {01. viii. 16, xiii. 101, Pi/th. iv. 167; comp. Aeschyl. Sept. 639.) The daemons are further described as the ministers and companions of the gods, who carry the prayers of men to the gods, and tlie gifts of the gods to men (Plat. Sympos. p. 202 ; Appul. de Deo Socrat. 7), and accordingly float in immense numbers in the space between heaven and earth. The daemons, however, who were exclu- sively the ministers of the gods, seem to have con- stituted a distinct class ; thus, the Corybantes, Dactyls, and Cabeiri are called the ministering daemons of the great gods (Strab. x. p. 472) ; Gigon, Tychon, and Orthages are the daemons of Aphrodite (Hesych. s. v. rr/j/aJf ; Tzetz. ad Ly- cophr. 538); Hadreus, the daemon of Demeter (Etyra. Magn. s. v. 'Adpevs), and Acratus, the dae- mon of Dionysus. (Pans. i,2. § 4.) It should, how- ever, be observed that all daemons were divided into two great classes, viz. good and evil daemons. The works which contain most information on this interesting subject are Appuleius, De Deo Socratis, and Plutarch, De Gcnio Socraiis, and De De/ecfu Oraculorum. Later writers apply the term dalfxoves also to the souls of the departed. (Lucian, De Mort. Pereg. 36 ; Dorville, ad Chariton, i. 4.) The Romans seem to have received their theory concerning the genii from the Etmscans, thougix K