Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 16, 1905.djvu/343

 The European Sky -God. 295

tomb." But if the Manes before birth become genii, conversely the genii after death become Manes, who are further identified with the Lares or Larvae. According to Arnobius,^ "Varro declares at one time that the Lares are Manes, and that consequently the mother of the Lares was named Mania, at another that they are the so-called gods of the air and heroes; or again, following ancient authorities, he says that the Lares are Larvae, being as it were the genii of the departed ^ or souls of the dead." This identification of the genius with the Lar, i.e. with the Lar familiaris, who appears to have been the forefather of the family^ buried under the hearth,* is indeed fairly well attested. Censorinus^ in- forms us that Granius Flaccus, a contemporary of Caesar, and many other writers held the genius and the Lar to be one and the same. Ausonius ^ speaks of " the genius of our homes, to wit the Lar sprung from Larunda." And Ovid "^ describes December, the month of the Laren- talia, as " welcome to the geniir Lastly, Servius ^ quotes

^Arnob. adv. nat. 3. 41.

-The MSS. have "quasi quosdam genios efifunctorum animas mortuorum." We should perhaps read " quasi quosdam genios defunctorum [animas mortu- orum]," the last two words being a gloss. For other emendations see Oehler ad loc.

^ Plaut. mere. 834 familiai Lar pater, cp. Laberius ap. Non. 119, 27 Merc, genius generis nostri parens.

^ Serv. in Verg. Ae7i. 5. 64 etiam domi suae sepeliebantur : unde orta est consuetudo, ut dii penates colantur in domibus, ib. 6. 152 apud maiores. . . omnes in suis domibus sepeliebantur. unde [ortum est, ut lares colerentur in domibus, unde] etiam umbras larvas vocamus, Isid. 07-igg. 15. 11. i prius autem quisque in domo sua sepeliebatur. See Class. Rev. xi. 32 ff. These statements are confirmed by the myths concerning the birth of Romulus (Plut. vit. Rom. 2), Servius TuUius (Plin. nat. hist. 36. 204), and Caeculus (Serv. in Verg. Aen. 7. 678). Servius TuUius in particular was called the son of the Lar familiaris (Plin. loc. cit.).

^ Censorin. de die nat. 3. 3. " Auson. technop. de deis 9.

" Ov. fast. 3. 58.

Appul. de deo Socr. 688 f.
 * Serv. in Verg. Aen. 3. 63. The quotation is probably a paraphrase of