Lares Familiares - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Lares Familiares ("Family Guardians" in Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

) were household tutelary deities of ancient Roman religion

Religion in ancient Rome

Religion in ancient Rome encompassed the religious beliefs and cult practices regarded by the Romans as indigenous and central to their identity as a people, as well as the various and many cults imported from other peoples brought under Roman rule. Romans thus offered cult to innumerable deities...

. The singular form is Lar Familiaris.

The Lar Familiaris was a domestic guardian spirit who cared for the welfare and prosperity of a household

Household

The household is "the basic residential unit in which economic production, consumption, inheritance, child rearing, and shelter are organized and carried out"; [the household] "may or may not be synonymous with family"....

. A household's lararium, a shrine to the Lar Familiaris, usually stood near the hearth

Hearth

In common historic and modern usage, a hearth is a brick- or stone-lined fireplace or oven often used for cooking and/or heating. For centuries, the hearth was considered an integral part of a home, often its central or most important feature...

or in a corner of the atrium

Atrium (architecture)

In modern architecture, an atrium is a large open space, often several stories high and having a glazed roof and/or large windows, often situated within a larger multistory building and often located immediately beyond the main entrance doors...

. A lararium often had the appearance of a cupboard or a niche containing a small statue, a niche painted on a wall, or a small freestanding shrine

Shrine

A shrine is a holy or sacred place, which is dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, daemon or similar figure of awe and respect, at which they are venerated or worshipped. Shrines often contain idols, relics, or other such objects associated with the figure being venerated....

. Sometimes the Genius

Genius (mythology)

In ancient Roman religion, the genius was the individual instance of a general divine nature that is present in every individual person, place or thing.-Nature of the genius:...

of the head of the household, pictured as a bearded or crested snake, or as a man with the fold of his toga covering his head, is depicted with the Lar.

References to domestic religious practice often pair the Lares together with the Penates. Penates, although also domestic guardian spirits, were more specifically protectors of the master of the household and his immediate family

Family

In human context, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children...

. The Lar Familiaris, on the other hand, protected all household members, free or slave

Slavery

Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...

, and was associated with a particular place, thus did not accompany a family who moved. Tradition holds that a family's Lar would generously help those who honored him by devotional

Devotional song

A devotional song is a hymn which accompanies religious observances and rituals.Each major religion has its own tradition with devotional hymns. In the West, the devotional has been a part of the liturgy in Roman Catholicism, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Russian Orthodox Church, and others, since...

s and sacrifice

Sacrifice

Sacrifice is the offering of food, objects or the lives of animals or people to God or the gods as an act of propitiation or worship.While sacrifice often implies ritual killing, the term offering can be used for bloodless sacrifices of cereal food or artifacts...

s. But the Lar would turn his back (interestingly, this is physically possible with a statue) to those who would not offer him thanks or neglected him.

A story about these spirits occurs in the Aulularia
Aulularia
Aulularia is a Latin play by the early Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus. The title has been translated as The Pot of Gold, and the plot revolves around a literal pot of gold that the miserly protagonist, Euclio, guards zealously...

of Plautus

Plautus

Titus Maccius Plautus , commonly known as "Plautus", was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest surviving intact works in Latin literature. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by the innovator of Latin literature, Livius Andronicus...

(Lines 1-36). In the tale, a grandfather begs his Lar to hide the family

Family

In human context, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children...

gold

Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

, so the Lar buries it in the hearth

Hearth

. When the grandfather dies, the Lar did not show the son where the gold was hidden because the son had never remembered to honor the Lar. The Lar kept the gold hidden until Euclio, the man's grandson, had a daughter who was ready for marriage

Marriage

Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

, yet hadn't enough money for a dowry

Dowry

A dowry is the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings forth to the marriage. It contrasts with bride price, which is paid to the bride's parents, and dower, which is property settled on the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage. The same culture may simultaneously practice both...

. Euclio, a dreadful miser, also neglected the Lar. But his daughter was of a more pious disposition, and had become pregnant by a man whose name she did not know. So the spirit sets in motion a complicated chain of events whereby Euclio finds the gold, but ultimately sees the error of his miserly ways and bestows it on his daughter for a dowry. Plautus describes the Lar Familiaris as a young, slender figure clad in high boots, short tunic

Tunic

A tunic is any of several types of clothing for the body, of various lengths reaching from the shoulders to somewhere between the hips and the ankles...

, and a belted undergarment. Garlands adorn his head, and he is lithe, graceful and nimble.

See also