![]() She notes that ‘by their very nature the lares were the easiest gods to share with a slave or a freedman’. She discusses the history, development and expression of the worship of the lares and especially its contribution to social cohesion as it spread out from individual households to the neighbourhood ( vicus) being celebrated in the Compitalia (the festival at the compitum-the street corner of the subtitle), providing local community leaders with a sense of being valued, in spite of their often low social status. ![]() This careful study by F., Professor of Classics at Princeton, does not challenge this basic understanding indeed, she herself uses the words ‘affection and reverence’, backed up by reference to ‘numerous ancient authors’. The lares may not have ranked high in the pantheon’s pecking order, but were regarded with affection and reverence, benign deities who, in return for a small shrine and regular little acts of devotion, would see you right, especially at the key stages in your life cycle. Most who enjoyed a classical education will remember the lares as the household gods of the Roman world, closely associated with the penates (ancestral gods) and the genius (the protective spirit of place or person). ![]()
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