lectisternium

(lek-ti-stér’ni-um), n.; pl. lecti- sternia (-i). [L., ¢ lectus, a bed, + sternere, spread out: see litter and stratum.] In cla ical antiq., a sacrifice in the nature of a feast, at which the Greeks and Romans placed images of the gods reclining on couches around tables furnished with viands, as if they were about to partake of them.