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Lares
Roman Households and Crossroads
Danger Level: 1/10
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Abilities
Home ProtectionFamily BlessingTravel Guidance
Lore & Legend
Gods of the Cupboard and the Crossroads
Lares are Roman household and neighborhood gods, not monsters. The lararium received daily offerings; Lares Compitales watched the compita. Plautus, Cato, and countless inscriptions treat them as protective kin-spirits. Augustan religion publicized the Lares Augusti.
Danger 1 is correct: they harm the neglected household, not the passerby as a beast would.
Primary Sources
“The household Lar speaks in Plautus's Aulularia as the guardian of the family store; inscriptions and lararia show daily cult at the hearth and the crossroads.”