View source for Lares

{{Lewis
|lshtext=<b>Lăres</b>: (old form ‡ Lăses, Inscr. Fratr. Arval.; cf. Varr. L. L. 6, § 2 Müll.), um and ĭum (Larum, Varr. L. L. 5, § 49 Müll.; Cic. Rep. 5, 5, 7; id. N. D. 3, 25, 63; id. Leg. 2, 8, 19; Inscr. Orell. 961:<br /><b>I</b> Larium, Liv. 40, 52), m. old Lat. [[Lases]]; Etrusc. Laran, Lalan; [[root]] las-; cf. [[lascivus]], tutelar deities, [[Lares]], belonging orig. to the [[Etruscan]] [[religion]], and worshipped [[especially]] as the presiders [[over]] and protectors of a [[particular]] [[locality]] (cf. Otfr. Müll. Etrusc. 2, p. 90 sq.): praestites, the tutelar deities of an [[entire]] [[city]], Ov. F. 5, 129 sq.: [[mille]] [[Lares]] geniumque ducis, qui tradidit illos, [[urbs]] habet, id. ib. 5, 145: Puteolanae civitatis, Inscr. Orell. 1670: civitatum, Inscr. ap. Grut. p. 10, 2: vicorum, Arn. 3, 41: rurales, Inscr. ap. Grut. p. 251: compitales, of [[cross]] - roads, Suet. Aug. 31; called also [[Lares]] compitalicii, Philarg. ad Verg. G. 2, 381: viales, worshipped by the [[road]]-[[side]], Plaut. Merc. 5, 2, 24: permarini, tutelar deities of the [[sea]], Liv. 40, 52: caelipotentes, Inscr. ap. Tert. de Spect. 5.—Sing.: Lari viali, Inscr. Orell. 1762; 1894: eundem esse Genium et Larem, multi veteres memoriae prodiderunt, Censor. 3, 2.—<br /><b>II</b> Most [[commonly]] the [[Lares]] (as familiares or domestici), the tutelar deities of a [[house]], [[household]] gods, [[domestic]] [[Lares]] (whose images stood on the [[hearth]] in a [[little]] [[shrine]], [[aedes]], or in a [[small]] [[chapel]], [[lararium]]); as the tutelar deities of [[each]] [[particular]] [[dwelling]], also in sing.: Lar, Laris, m.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>(a)</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In plur.: rem divinam facere Laribus familiaribus, Plaut. Rud. 5, 1, 17: sanctis Penatium deorum Larumque familiarium sedibus, Cic. Rep. 5, 5, 7; id. Quint. 27 fin.: ad aedem Larum, id. N. D. 3, 25, 63: immolet aequis porcum Laribus, Hor. S. 2, 3, 164: Laribus tuum Miscet [[numen]], id. C. 4, 5, 34. —<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>(b)</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In sing.: ego Lar [[sum]] [[familiaris]], ex hac [[familia]], Plaut. Aul. prol. 2: haec imponuntur in foco nostro dari, id. ib. 2, 8, 16: familiae Lar [[pater]], [[alium]] Larem persequi, id. Merc. 5, 1, 5 sq.—<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>B</b> Meton., a [[hearth]], [[dwelling]], [[home]] ([[class]].; [[usually]] in sing.): larem [[corona]] [[nostrum]] decorari [[volo]], Plaut. Trin. 1, 2, 1: relinquent larem familiarem suum? Cic. Verr. 2, 3, 11, § 27: ad suum larem familiarem redire, id. ib. 2, 3, 54, § 125: nobis larem familiarem [[nusquam]] ullum esse? Sall. C. 20: [[paternus]], Hor. Ep. 2, 2, 51: [[patrius]], id. S. 1, 2, 56; cf.: [[avitus]] [[apto]] Cum lare [[fundus]], id. C. 1, 12, 43: [[gaudens]] lare [[certo]], id. Ep. 1, 7, 58: parvo sub lare, id. C. 3, 29, 14: [[conductus]], Mart. 11, 82, 2: deserere larem, to [[abandon]] one's [[home]], Ov. F. 1, 478: pelli lare, to be driven from a [[place]], id. ib. 6, 362: [[alumnus]] laris Antenorei, i. e. of the [[city]] of [[Padua]], Mart. 1, 77, 2: ob eam rem [[tibi]] Lare commercioque [[interdico]], Vet. Formul. ap. Paul. Sent. 3, 4, 7.—<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>(b)</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In plur., Ov. R. Am. 302: jussa [[pars]] mutare lares, Hor. C. S. 39.—Poet., of a [[bird]]'s [[nest]]: [[avis]] in ramo tecta laremque parat, Ov. F. 3, 242: cum rapit Halcyones miserae fetumque laremque, Val. Fl. 4, 45.<br /><b>Lăres</b>: ĭum, f.,<br /><b>I</b> a [[city]] in Numidia, Sall. J. 90 Kritz N. cr.
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{{Gaffiot
|gf=(1) <b>Lăres</b>,¹⁶ v. [[Lar]] 1.<br />(2) <b>Lăres</b>, ĭum, pl., ville de Numidie : Sall. J. 90, 2.
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{{Georges
|georg=(1) Larēs<sup>1</sup>, Plur. v. [[Lar]], w. s.<br />'''(2)''' Larēs<sup>2</sup>, Akk. [[Lares]] (Laris), Abl. Laribus, f. (Λάρης, Ptol.), eine [[alte]], im jugurthin. Kriege [[noch]] bedeutende [[Stadt]] in Numidien, [[noch]] j. Larbuss od. Lorbus, Sall. Iug. 90, 2. Itin. Anton. 26, 3.
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{{LaEn
|lnetxt=Lares Laris N M :: [[Lares]], [[household gods]], [[deified spirits of the place]]
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{{wkpen
|wketx=Lares (archaic Lasēs, singular Lar) were guardian deities in ancient Roman religion. Their origin is uncertain; they may have been hero-ancestors, guardians of the hearth, fields, boundaries, or fruitfulness, or an amalgam of these.

Lares were believed to observe, protect, and influence all that happened within the boundaries of their location or function. The statues of domestic Lares were placed at the table during family meals; their presence, cult, and blessing seem to have been required at all important family events.

Roman writers sometimes identify or conflate them with ancestor-deities, domestic Penates, and the hearth.

Because of these associations, Lares are sometimes categorised as household gods, but some had much broader domains. Roadways, seaways, agriculture, livestock, towns, cities, the state, and its military were all under the protection of their particular Lar or Lares. Those who protected local neighbourhoods (vici) were housed in the crossroad shrines (Compitalia), which served as a focus for the religious, social, and political lives of their local, overwhelmingly plebeian communities. Their cult officials included freedmen and slaves, otherwise excluded by status or property qualifications from most administrative and religious offices.

Compared to Rome's major deities, Lares had limited scope and potency, but archaeological and literary evidence attests to their central role in Roman identity and religious life. By analogy, a homeward-bound Roman could be described as returning ad Larem (to the Lar). Despite official bans on non-Christian cults from the late fourth century AD onwards, unofficial cults to Lares persisted until at least the early fifth century AD.
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