Lar

(plural: Lares) Roman Ancient Roman spirits of the dead. A guardian spirit who in its earliest The Trojan hero Laocoön (center) and his two sons struggle against the giant serpents sent by the Greeks in this Roman marble sculpture, a copy of a Greek original from the second century B.C. (Photograph by Jean- Christophe Benoist. Used under a Creative Commons license.) Lar 85 form seems to have watched over the places where roads met. Over time, the Lares became associated with the home and each household had its own Lar Familiaris. A home featured a shrine to its Lar, which stood near the hearth, the center of family life, and included a statue of this spirit. Families trusted their Lares to provide for their posterity. Eventually, cities, too, had their own watchful spirits. The Lares are closely related to the Penates, spirits of the storeroom, and the goddess Vesta, the Roman goddess of the hearth. Aeneas, the Trojan hero who settled in Italy, was sometimes known as Lars Aeneas, a title that meant honored ancestor.