LEMURES, what do you know about them?

LEMURES, in Roman mythology, LEMURES (singular LEMUR) were SHADES OF RESTLESS or MALIGNANT DEAD, and are cognate, with an extended sense of LARVAE (singular LARVA =
MASK), as disturbing or frightening.

LEMURES is the MORE COMMON LITERARY TERM but even this it is rare. LEMURE is used by the Augustian Poets HORACE and OVID, the latter in his Fasti, the six book calendar poem on Roman holidays and religion customs.

LEMURES represent the WANDERING and VENGEFUL SPIRITS of those not afforded proper burial, funeral rites, or affectionate cult by the living. They are not attested by tomb or inscriptions.

OVID interprets them as VAGRANT,  WITHOUT SATIATION and potentially VENGEFUL.
He interprets them as ancestral gods or spirits of the UNDERWORLD.
ST. AUGUSTINE describes both the LEMURES and the LARVAE as EVIL and RESTLESS SPIRITS that TORMENT and TERRIFY the living.

LEMURES were FORMLESS associated with DARKNESS and its dread. In Republican and Imperial ROME, May 9, 11, and 13 were dedicated to THEIR PLACATION in the HOUSEHOLD
PRACTICES of LEMURALIA or LEMURIA.
The head of the household (pater families) would rise AT MIDNIGHT and CAST BLACK BEANS
behind him with adverted gaze; the LEMURES WERE PRESUMED TO FEAST ON THEM.

The LEMURES THEMSELVES were both FEARSOME and FEARFUL : any malevolent spirit dissatisfied with the offering of the pater families could be force to leave the place by the loud banging
of bronze pots.