Mania

in Etruria was also mother of Lares, and of the Manes. The poppy was a common offering to the Lares, and sacred to Venus. They were also “children of Mercury”’ (see Hermes and Mercury) the god of the stone. In Rome the Sacellum Larum or “ Lar shrine” adjoined the Compitum on the Via Sacra; and the Lar images stood in every important street and market place, just as in India to-day. They were cla ed as Lares-Viales (in roadways), Lares-Comp i tales (in meeting places), Lares Rurales (in fields), and Lares Urbani (in towns), everywhere connected with the Penates. The Lares Familiares were household gods connected with the Lemures (see Lamia), or good ghosts, as distinguished from Larve or evil spectres. The name of the Penates is usually derived from Penes (Penitus “within ”), or might come from Penis: but, like Lar, it may have a Turanian origin (Pan “spirit”: see Penates). Lalara (“the babbler”) was popularly said to have borne the Lares to Zeus, who deprived her of speech (Ovid’s Fasti, ii, 600). 468