Expertlatin
Lares presided over major life changes, including birth, death, disease, the freeing of slaves, and a young person's passage from childhood to adulthood. The Penates, in their original form, ensured that the household contained enough food to support the family and therefore preserve its existence.
- Who were the Penates?
- What significance did the Lares and Penates have in ancient Rome?
- What were Lares?
- Where were Lares and Penates kept?
Who were the Penates?
Penates, formally Di Penates, household gods of the Romans and other Latin peoples. In the narrow sense, they were gods of the penus (“household provision”), but by extension their protection reached the entire household.
What significance did the Lares and Penates have in ancient Rome?
A classicist could tell you that Lares and Penates were Roman gods once worshipped as guardians of the household, and an avid Walpolian might be able to tell you that his or her favorite author (Horace Walpole) is credited with first domesticating the phrase to refer to a person's possessions.
What were Lares?
Lar, plural Lares, in Roman religion, any of numerous tutelary deities. They were originally gods of the cultivated fields, worshipped by each household at the crossroads where its allotment joined those of others.
Where were Lares and Penates kept?
His image, habited in a toga, stood between the two Penates, in the lararium or shrine of the Lares, beside the household hearth, which in early days was in the atrium; the group as a whole was also commonly called either the Lares or the Penates.
