Lares (mythology)

I century Bronze Lar (M. A. N., Madrid).

The lares were guardian deities in ancient Roman religion. Their origin is uncertain, and they may have been hero-ancestors, guardians of the home, fields, borders, or fertility, or an amalgamation of all of these. They were children of Lara (or Larunda), one of the naiads, and the god Mercury (some sources mention Jupiter) whose origin is found in the Etruscan cults of family gods.

The Lares were believed to watch, protect, and influence all that occurred within the confines of their location or function. The statues of the domestic Lares were placed on the tables during family meals; his presence, worship and blessing seem to have been necessary at any important family event.

Roman authors sometimes identify or combine them with ancestor-deities, domestic penates, and the hearth. Because of these associations, the Lares are sometimes classified as household gods, but some had much broader domains. The roads, maritime routes, agriculture, livestock, towns, cities, the State and the army were under the protection of their respective Lar or Lares. Those who protected the local neighborhoods (vici) were housed in the crossroads sanctuaries (Compitales), which served as the center of religious, social and political life for their local communities, mostly commoners. Among the officials of his cult were freedmen and slaves, excluded from most administrative and religious positions because of their status or because of their property.

Compared to the main deities of Rome, the lares were limited in scope and power, but archaeological and literary evidence attests to their central role in Roman identity and religious life. By analogy, a Roman returning home could be described as a return ad Larem (to the lar; this expression survives in Spanish as "to return to the Lares" or "by these parts"). Despite official bans on non-Christian cults from the late IV century d. C., unofficial cults of the Lares persisted at least until the early V century AD. c.

Ancient Rome had two aspects: on the one hand, public or state cults and, on the other, private or domestic cults. Within this second aspect is the worship of the so-called dii familiaris or gods of the family. Among these are the genii locorum or lares loci, whose primary function was to watch over the territory where the family home was located. So much so, that before private property was regulated by law, the lare gods were in charge of preventing strangers from entering foreign lands through, according to popular belief, the threat of diseases that could be fatal..

Roman families had a great veneration for the Lares, which they represented in the form of small statues. These were placed both inside and outside the house on small altars called lararia (sg. lararium), where offerings were made or prayers were offered. In the house (sg. domus), the lararium was usually located in the atrium, as close as possible to the main door. In the case of apartments (pl. insulae), the lararium was placed near the kitchen, although there could be several in the same house and it was not uncommon for them to be found. in the bedrooms. What was important, however, is that they were not in little-traveled or hidden places, so that they would not be ignored or forgotten.

In early Roman times each house had at least one statuette, later some confusion arose between these and those of the manes, souls of dead ancestors.

Origins and development

The Etruscan neighbors of archaic Rome practiced domestic, ancestral or family cults very similar to those offered by the Romans after their Lares. The word itself seems to derive from the Etruscan lar, lars or larth, meaning "lord". Ancient Greek and Roman writers offer "heroes" and "daimones" as translations of "Lares"; the early Roman dramatist Plautus (circa 254-184 BC) employs a Lar Familiaris as guardian of the treasury on behalf of a family, as a plot equivalent to the Greek dramatist Menander's use of a heroon (as an ancestral hero's shrine). Weinstock proposes an older equivalence between lar and Greek hero, based on his gloss of a Latin dedication IV century B.C. C. to the Roman hero-ancestor Aeneas as Lare (Lar).

No physical images of pre-Late Republican lares survive, but literary references (such as Plautus's singular Lar, mentioned above) suggest that worship could be offered to a single lar, and sometimes to many more; in the case of the dark Lares Grundules, perhaps 30. By early imperial times, they had become paired divinities, probably under the influence of Greek religion – in particular, the heroic twin Dioscuri – and the iconography of the semi-divine founding twins of Rome, Romulus and Remus. The Lares are depicted as two small, youthful, lively male figures, dressed in short, tight-fitting, rustic tunics made of dog skin, according to Plutarch. They adopt a dancer's pose, standing on tiptoe or lightly balancing on one leg. One arm raises a drinking horn (rhyton) high, as if offering a toast or libation; the other carries a shallow libation dish (pátera). The sanctuaries of Compitales from the same period show lares figures of the same type. Painted shrine-images of Lares in pairs show them in mirror-like poses to the left and right of a central figure, understood to be an ancestral genius.

Bronze Lar holding a riton and a patera, 1st century AD. (Capital Museum)

Historical evolution

Bronze of a Lar, 0-200 A.D., ca 7,7 cm Galorromano Museum, Tongeren (B)

Although the cult of the lares has disappeared, some vestiges can still be observed in certain apparently Christian customs or traditions.

While Christianity was persecuted and even punished with death, there was a clear distinction between it and the pagan world. With the Edict of Milan, promulgated by Constantine I in 313 AD. C., Christianity was admitted among the legal religions with a tolerant vision towards paganism and other forms of choice of conscience. But, from Theodosius I the Great began an open attack against the old religion, still deeply rooted among the people. Forced to profess a single official religion, many people continued with their previous practices, but giving them a "Christian" tinge. In this way, the larario maintained its position close to the entrance door, but containing an image of Jesus, a saint or even the Virgin. The urban homes were changed by the patron saints, the personal home or genius by the guardian angel and so on. It is an interesting example of how two different cultures interact when they relate to each other or one of them displaces the other.

Types of lares

• Compital lares: from the crossroads.
• Lares domestici: from home.
• Family Lares: family.
• Lares permarini: from the sea.
• Rural Lares: from the land.
• Lares viales: from travelers or who presided over the roads.
• Urban Lares: city protectors.
• Personal Lares or Personal Protectors: He cared for a person from birth.