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Message:: [QUOTE="Jochen1, post: 6312821, member: 103829"]Dear Friends of Ancient mythology! Most of my contributions deal with Greek mythology. Now here I have a typical Roman theme: the Lares! Everytime if you talk about the Lares this coin must be shown at any case: The Coin:Lucius Caesius, gens CaesiaAR - Denarius, 3.87g, 21mmRome, 112/111 BCObv.: Heroic bust of the youthful Apollo Vesovius l., diademed and with drapery on l.shoulder, seen from behind, hurling thunderboltRev.: The Lares Praestites seated 3/4 r., nude to hips, then covered with dog's skin, wearing hats and boots, between them a dog, stg. r.; both holding staff in l. hand, the right one has r. hand on the dog's head.in upper field head of Vulcanus l. and his Tongsin left field LA ligate, in right field RE ligate (LA-RE!)in ex. L.CAESIRef.: Crawford 298/1; Sydenham 564; RSC Caesia 1nice VF, broad flan[ATTACH=full]1250046[/ATTACH] The Lares together with the Penates and Manes belong to the Roman guardian spirits. As goddess eventually Ceres is counting to this group too.The name Lares is said to originate from the Etruscean 'larth', meaning ruler or king. But that is not sure. Referring to the myth their parents were the nymph Acca Larentina and the god Mercurius. There are various Lares depending on the place they were protecting: Lares compitales were protecting crossroads,Lares permarini are the guardians of ships and sailors,Lares praestites were protecting a city andLares Hostili, Volusani and so on were protecting the named owner of a place. The Lares familiares (before the Augustean reform only in Singularis!) originally were all deities which were worshipped at the hearth, so beside the Lares the Penates too and Ceres. The hearth was regarded by the Romans as centre of the family and it was the place of veneration. Their cult included the slaves and the unfree people too; the vilicus* was allowed to sacrifice independently at the compitum* or the hearth. At the Kalendes, Ides, Nones or other festivals the vilica* garlanded the hearth and prayed to the Lares. The Lar familiaris was saluted everytime if one get home or leave it, he was given presents daily. The major festival were the Compitalia on December 22 after the end of the field work and the Laralia on May 1st. They were introduced by Servius Tullius, renewed by Tarquinius Superbus and Iunius Brutus. At the crossroads stood chapels which as much openings as estates came together. The Lares Praestites had a temple on the Campus Martius and a sanctuary at top of the Via Sacra. The statues therein look like the depiction on the coin (Ovid fast. V, 129ff.). Another was said to be on the Palatine. At the end of the Republic the celebration of the Compitalia became discredited. When Augustus was rearranging the city each vicus* got a compitum Larum as sacral centre. But now they changed into the centre of the Imperial Cult: Between two Lares now always stood the Genius of the Emperor. The Lar familiaris was substituted by two Lares familiares with the Genius of the Pater familias between them. Background:A yet unsolved problem is the origin of the Lares. There are two suggestions: 1) The originate from the Roman Ancestry Cult or 2) they were Guardian Spirits of localities (Wissowa). In ancient times it was assumed that the Lares were identical with the Manes. That demonstrates that even in ancient times there were no reliable knowledge. The suggestion that the Lar familiaris like the Greek 'heros archegetes' is the deified ancestor of the family and therefore has his place at the hearth has the problem that the way of the Lares from the hearth to the compitum is difficult to explain whereas the other direction from the compitum to the hearth is thinkable if they were interpreted as guardians who confined the whole fundus*. The idea that the Lares are connected to the Underworld - so Mania should have been the mater larum, who has been a grimace figure and cognate with the Manes (the accompanying dogs are related to the Underworld too, see Hekate!) - can not be followed because the Lares never had any weird, they were worshipped at daylight and stayed at the fundus even if the family moved to the city. So today Wissowa's point of view is valid. The dogs then should be seen as concept of vigilance friendly to friends but hostile against strangers. The PenatesThe Penates (Lat. dii penates) were worshipped in the house too especially at the hearth. Their name is not derived directly from 'penus' = inventory for the usage of the pater familias, but can't be separated in respect of content. So they were responsible for supply, food and drinks. The Penates were old Roman deities, they belong to the cives Romani and to the pater familias. When Aeneas was escaping from Troy he took the Penates (not the Lares!) from Troy to Lavinium from where they couldn't be moved to Alba Longa or Rome. Already Timaios knows Penates in Lavinium (as herold's staffs made from iron and ore as well Trojan pottery). The Roman magistrates with imperium were sacrifying from ancient times on in Lavinium at the assumption of their office. Later the Penates got their own sanctuary consecrated on December 14 in the regio of Velia (look at Monumentum Ancyranum) with the pictures of two youthful men, wearing military clothes and holding spears as they were found in regia (participation of the Saliers) or in front of the harbour of Samothrace. Beside Jupiter they were oath gods by which f.e. contracts were sworn. The ManesThe Manes were the spirits of the deceased ancestors. Their name is still unexplained. It is popular today to derive it from 'manare', to vanish, or from 'manus', good. But this surely is wrong. Originally it was used adjectivical f.e. like 'ab dis manibus'. Referring to conceptions of the late ancient times the deceased at first became 'lemures', then as good spirits 'lares' or as bad spirits 'larvae'. The uncertain spirits became Manes. But often they are equated with Lemures or Larvae. The term Manes as 'the small, the thin' matches well the Larvae which etymological are related to Greek chloros and mean 'the pale'. So they name the indeterminated spirits different from the di parentes. From Numa Pompilius on the pontifex took care for their worship at the festivals of Lemuriae and Feralia where they got feralia*; being diregarded they sent bad dreams. They were invoked at the sacrifacing death of Curtius, together with Tellus at the devotion* of the Decii and Carthage. The funeral place was dedicated to Dis Manibus later abbreviated as DM. Later on the term Manes was used for the death spirit of a single dead person, for the corpse and finally for the afterlife and its punishment as it is seen in Carminum Liber I, IV of Horaz: Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernasregumque turris. O beate Sesti,vitae summa brevis spem nos vetat incohare longam.Iam te premet nox fabulaeque Manes. (The pale death with equal pace is knocking at the huts of the poorand the castles of the rich. O blessful Sestius,the short sum of live forbids us to entertain long hope.Yet night will press you and the Manes of the tale.) Some explanations:*compitum: crossroad*devotion: sacrificing themself to obligate the gods*feralia: festival for the dead on February 21; donations for the dead too*fundus: estate*vicus: quarter*vilica: caretaker, fem.*vilicus: caretaker, male (often slaves or freed slaves) Pics:(1) Depicted is the Lararium of the Casa dei Vettii in Pompeji. We see the genius of the family in the shape of a youth in the midth who - between two Lares - is offering a libation. Beneath, the same genius in the shape of a snake. The depicted Lares are Lares familiares. They regularly are very youthful - sometimes still with a bulla - and are depicted often dancing.[ATTACH=full]1250047[/ATTACH] (2) The second pic shows Penates as I have known it before I came to school! Penaten cream is a well-known German skin cream since 1904. Please mention the dog![ATTACH=full]1250048[/ATTACH] Sources:(1) Der kleine Pauly(2) Benjamin Hederich, Gründliche griechische Mythologie(3) Karl Kerenyi, Die Mythologie der Griechen(4) NumisWiki <a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp" rel="nofollow">http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp</a> Best regards[/QUOTE]

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