Geniscus (/ɡɛˈniːs.kʊs/) is a deity who appears in a sermon of Saint Eligius along with Neptune, Orcus, Minerva and Diana. These are all, the Christian homilist says, "demons" who should not be believed in or invoked.Vita Eligii 9 (c. 700–724), MGH SRM 4: 705–706, as cited by Bernadotte Filotas, Pagan Survivals, Superstitions and Popular Cultures in Early Medieval Pastoral Literature (Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2005), p. 78. English translation by Jo Ann McNamara of Dado of Rouen's Life of St. Eligius of Noyon in Medieval Hagiography: An Anthology (Routledge, 2001), pp. 137–168, with reference to Geniscus p. 157 online. See also Mythology in the Low Countries. The warning implies cult activity for these deities in the northern parts of Merovingian Gaul into the 7th century.Filotas, Pagan Survivals, p. 79.
Geniscus may be a form of reference to the Genius, the Roman tutelary deity; in Gaul, the Genius is often hooded (Genius Cucullatus) and appears either singly or in a group of three.Filotas, Pagan Survivals, p. 79.
In another sermon in the same period, the Geniscus appears in the company of witches (striae) and other entities in whom "rustics" believe:Filotas, Pagan Survivals, p. 79.
19th century
The 19th-century fascination for folklore, antiquarianism, the supernatural, and lost religions drew attention to even the obscure Geniscus. The Irish folklorist Thomas Crofton Croker accepted a derivation of geniscus from Latin genius and in his chapter on elves declared the geniscus "a real Elf, or spirit of light." Croker further connected geniscus to the geniciales feminaeThomas Crofton Croker, Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland (London, 1828), p. 127 online. named by Hincmar, a 9th-century archbishop of Reims, who identified the geniciales as lamiae.Hincmar, De divortio Lotharii ("On Lothar's divorce"), XV Interrogatio, MGH Concilia 4 Supplementum, 205, as cited by Filotas, Pagan Survivals, p. 305. In compiling his 1628 Glossarium, Du Cange made note of the geniciales feminae, and although he appears to have associated them with words pertaining to generation and genitalia, he makes no explicit connection to Geniscus; see entry on geniciales feminae online. During the same period Jacob Grimm classed the geniciales among the "daemonic elvish beings, who appeared in woman's shape and did men kindnesses," and who participated in elf-dance: "To christian zealots all dancing appeared sinful and heathenish, and sure enough it often was derived from pagan rites, like other harmless pleasures and customs of the common people, who would not easily part with their diversion at great festivals." Grimm connects these dances to bonfires.Jacob Grimm Teutonic Mythology (London, 1883), vol. 3, p. 1056 online.
Geniscus is mentioned in the 1876 historical fiction Dante and Beatrice from 1282 to 1290: A Romance by Elizabeth Kerr Coulson, writing under the pseudonym Roxburghe Lothian. Coulson recounts at length the Christian prohibitions that a friar called The Hermit must enforce, then segues into practices deemed tolerable:
Whether she used the Vita of St. Eligius directly or another source such as Croker, Coulson preserves the collocation of Geniscus with Minerva and Orcus (here OuragusThis is a rather learned allusion on the part of the author, as Uragus is a form given by Festus as the original from which Orcus derived; see Actes del IXè Simposi de la Secció Catalana de la SEEC St. Feliu de Guíxols, 13–16 d'abril de 1988: Treballs en honor de Virgilio Bejarano (Barcelona, 1991), p. 186 online.). She either innovates or draws on traditions pertaining to the cult of the Genii by making Geniscus the "helper" of Orcus.
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