Lares et Penates
21 May 2008 - 17 אייר 5768 by Huw
I was watching Rome Iiii last night, entitled An Owl in a Thornbush, when I noticed for the first time the lararium in the house of Lucius Vorenus. Here’s the upper part,
And the lower part.
Since, at least for this episode, the household altar plays a very important role (several other events happen in shrines in the series) I got all religion-geeky and did some research.
A lararium is a household shrine found in most all Roman houses, no matter what the class of the occupants.
Here’s a rather famous one, from Pompeii, on flickr, (and a modern re-presentation of it) and here are a lot more on Google. I also like this very large one on the wiki. There are also other modern ones from the group Nova Roma, of which yer host is a member.
The primary focus of the household shine were the Lares and the Penates, both of these are partronal deities of the household. The Lares are also a class of beings that cover all sorts and conditions of events. The wiki lists nine types of Lares:
Lares Compitales — crossroads
Lares Domestici — the house
Lares Familiares — family
Lares Patrii (of the fathers)
Lares Permarini — the sea
Lares Praestitis — the state
Lares Privati (personal)
Lares Rurales — land
Lares Viales — travellers
Collectively, the Lares et Penates represented the protection of the family, the family’s wealth, property and honour, as well as the spirits of the ancestors (”Lares Patrii” and “Familiares”). These being are portrayed in “shorthand” form as three human forms over a snake. You can see this collective image on any picture of a Lararium. Additionally, the household shrine was used to pray to all the usual roman deities - these might be represented by statues in wealthier houses or by paintings on the wall.
In Rome, the Lararium is put to all of these uses. And it is the focus for daily morning and evening rites.
And the family shrine contained:
Tools used at the lararium
Acerra - Container for incense.
Salinum - Container for salt.
Gutus - Container for milk or wine.
Patera - Offering dish.
Incense - An offering to the gods.
Turibulum - Incense burner.
Lucerna - Sacred lamp.
And what struck me, through all of this research, was the clear parallel with the Shinto Kamidana or “Godshelf”, although the Shinto, like the Muslims, use written script - words - to represent the presence of the sacred.
Both of these traditions make a marked parallel with the icon corner of the Orthodox. The link became clear to me when I included the Shinto shrine as well: although Orthodox do not consider the saints in their corners to be “deities” as such, from the outside looking in, they are - like the Roman Lares and the Kami - minor deities or demigods. Although these saints are not “ancestors” like the Lares or the Ancestor shrines of the Shinto, the saints are spiritual ancestors. Although the Orthodox do not pray to their ancestors, as such, I know many who have, in their icon corners, some pictures of their departed and, indeed, the tradition of icons arises from the Greco-Roman tradition of funerary portraits. In some Orthodox traditions (Serbian, etc) one saint is the family guardian or protector - just as the Penates. Other traditions have one saint as protector of each member of the family.
The use of the shrine, itself, is nearly identical, especially when the daily rites are compared to the daily prayers of Christians.
All this goes back the beauty of Lucius Vorenus’ lararium.
I think I’ll try and work some of this design - especially the fresco on the base - into any new construction in my icon corner.
I found your site by a google search for lares, penates and shinto. As I seem to remember it, the Ainu word “shi(n)” can mean “real” and the Ainu “to” can mean “thing.” Don’t know if that’s the same in regular Japanese, but it seems to mean that Shinto is the “real thing.”
I responded to a question about the meaning of “republic” on Answers.com, and remember that “res publica” means, “(the)
public thing.”
In the Germanic world, a “thing” can mean a legislative and judicial assembly, and Cosa Nostra is “our thing.”
Hi Jerry - Welcome!
I do rather like this “thing” series you’ve hit on.
I seem to remember that the “To” in “shinto” is related to “tao” in Chinese. Don’t know how that fits into your “thing” pattern, but it has something to do with “way of the gods”. The parallel there for me is that one of the early names of the CHristian religion was “the way” (”Tao”). The parallel holds in Chinese translations of the NT: where the English calls Jesus “the word” (a poor translation of the Greek “logos”) the Chinese calls Jesus “the Tao”.