Lares facts for kids

Lares (pl.) were ancient Roman deities who protected the house and the family - household gods. See also Genius, Larvae, Di Penates, Manes.

Lares are presumed sons of Mercury and Lara, and deeply venerated by ancient Romans through small statues, usually put in higher places of the house, far from the floor, or even on the roof. In the early Roman times, in every house there was at least one little statue. Later, a sort of confusion connected their figure with those of Manes, deities of Hades (and the most virtuous dead persons of the family). Finally the confusion included the Penates (other minor deities) as well.

Related pages

• Turan, the Etruscan love goddess

Images for kids

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  Lar holding a cornucopia from Axatiana (now Lora del Rio) in Roman Spain, early first century AD (National Archaeological Museum of Spain)

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  Fresco in Pompeii depicting two lares with rhyton and situla, genius offering at an altar, flute-player, servant with vase and servant pushing a pig to the altar; below: altar with fruits and eggs between two snakes ("agathodaimones")

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  Bronze Lar holding a rhyton and patera, first century AD (Capitoline Museum)

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  Inscription to the Lares Viales, the Lares of the roads

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  Figurine of a Lar, 1 B.C.-200 A.D., ca 7.7 cm tall Gallo-Roman museum, Tongeren

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  Lararium with painted figures at the House of the Vettii, Pompeii: Two Lares, each holding a rhyton, flank an ancestor-genius holding a libation bowl and incense box, his head covered as if for sacrifice. The snake, associated with the land's fertility and thus prosperity, approaches a low, laden altar. The shrine's tympanum shows a patera, ox-skull and sacrificial knife.

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  A fresco from a building near Pompeii, a rare depiction of Roman men in togae praetextae with dark red borders. It dates from the early Imperial Era and probably shows an event during Compitalia

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  Compitalia; the image of a Lar is carried in procession. Drawing from a fragment of bas-relief in the former Lateran Museum

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  Household lararium in Pompeii

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  Gallo-Roman Lar from the Muri collection, Imperial period (Historical Museum of Bern)

See also

In Spanish: Lares (mitología) para niños