LARI (Lares). - Lar in the singular, Lares in the plural, with or without specific epithets, are divinities of the most ancient Roman religion: they appear, in fact, in the Carmen Arvale, in ancient formulas of collective invocation, and in other documents of an archaic nature. They played a particularly important role in private worship, especially domestic worship. The Lar familiaris, predominantly in the singular, is in a sense the god of the household or family: in his honour, on every kalendae, nonae, and idus, the domestic hearth is crowned; every item of food fallen from the table is sacred to the Lar or to the L.; hence, in metonymical usage, the L. simply signify “the house.” There has been much discussion as to whether the L. should be regarded as the deified ancestors of the family or merely as gods of the ground on which the house stands. Besides the L. of the house, there are also the Lares compitales, worshipped, in the countryside, at the points where various estates meet, and in the city, at crossroads, the meeting points of urban districts (vici). Both in the house and in the rompita, slaves or freedmen attend to the worship of the L. On the occasion of the festival called Compitalia, worship is also offered to the Mater Larum. In public worship, the cult of the Lares praestites is found from ancient times; they are depicted as two twins dressed in dogskins, with a dog at their feet: their festival fell on 1 May, and their sanc-
tuary was on the Via Sacra. The Lares viales, permarii, militares, etc., should also be mentioned; they were evidently invested with specific protective functions.