The most pervasive gods in ancient Rome had no traditional mythology attached to them, nor was their worship organized by elites. Throughout the Roman world, neighborhood street corners, farm boundaries, and household hearths featured small shrines to the beloved lares, a pair of cheerful little dancing gods. These shrines were maintained primarily by ordinary Romans, and often by slaves and freedmen, to whom the lares cult provided a unique public leadership role. In this comprehensive and richly illustrated book, the first to focus on the lares, Harriet Flower offers a strikingly original account of these gods and a new way of understanding the lived experience of everyday Roman religion. Weaving together a wide range of evidence, Flower sets forth a new interpretation of the much-disputed nature of the lares. She makes the case that they are not spirits of the dead, as many have argued, but rather benevolent protectors--gods of place, especially the household and the neighborhood, and of travel. She examines the rituals honoring the lares, their cult sites, and their iconography, as well as the meaning of the snakes often depicted alongside lares in paintings of gardens.
She also looks at Compitalia, a popular midwinter neighborhood festival in honor of the lares, and describes how its politics played a key role in Rome's increasing violence in the 60s and 50s BC, as well as in the efforts of Augustus to reach out to ordinary people living in the city's local neighborhoods. A reconsideration of seemingly humble gods that were central to the religious world of the Romans, this is also the first major account of the full range of lares worship in the homes, neighborhoods, and temples of ancient Rome.
By:
Harriet I. Flower,
Harriet I. Flower
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 254mm,
Width: 178mm,
Weight: 964g
ISBN: 9780691175003
ISBN 10: 0691175004
Pages: 440
Publication Date: 04 December 2017
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
General/trade
,
Primary
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Preface ix I Lar(es) / Genius and Juno / Snake(s) 1 i Varro Hesitates . . . 6 ii Origins and Early Evidence 18 iii A Lar Introduces Himself 31 iv Single Lar, Twin Lares 36 v Monthly Rituals at the Hearth 40 vi Kitchen Gods 46 vii A Genius Pours a Libation 53 viii Serpent(s) in a Garden 63 ix A Painted Landscape of Local Gods 71 II Shrines for Lares in Rome 76 x The Three Asses of the Bride 78 xi Temple: Aedes 86 xii Sanctuary: Ara / Fanum / Sacellum / Pomerium 104 xiii Crossroads Shrine: Compitum 116 xiv Lots of Small Shrines: Compita and Sacella 137 xv Pompeii: A Case Study 145 xvi Sacred Spaces and Lares Who Live in Them 157 III Celebrating Lares 160 xvii Compitalia: Who Is My Neighbor? 162 xviii Delos: A Case Study 175 xix Local Networks: Vicatim 192 xx Officers and Associations: (Vico)magistri, Ministri, Collegia 206 xxi Magistri and Ministri in Italy 226 xxii Politics at Compitalia 234 xxiii Religion and Politics at the Crossroads 250 IV Augustus and Lares Augusti 255 xxiv Augustus and Rome before 7 BC 258 xxv The Reform of 7 BC 271 xxvi Lares Augusti 284 xxvii Genius Augusti? 299 xxviii Who Gets the Bull? 311 xxix Ara Pacis Augustae: Who Gets the Pig? 320 xxx August Gods in the Vici 329 xxxi The New Age of Augustus: Time and History 336 xxxii Augustus and Lares Augusti 346 Epilogue 348 Appendix 1 References to Lares by Roman Authors: A List 353 Appendix 2 Lares in the Calendar at Rome 357 Appendix 3 Augustan Time Patterns 359 Bibliography 361 Index 387 Image Credits 391
Harriet I. Flower is professor of classics at Princeton University. She is the author of Roman Republics (Princeton), The Art of Forgetting: Disgrace and Oblivion in Roman Political Culture, and Ancestor Masks and Aristocratic Power in Roman Culture. She is also the editor of The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic.
Reviews for The Dancing Lares and the Serpent in the Garden: Religion at the Roman Street Corner
Winner of a 2018 Charles Goodwin Award of Merit, Society for Classical Studies Detailed, absorbing and beautifully illustrated . . . this is a book that demands, and deserves, serious engagement. ---T. P. Wiseman, Times Literary Supplement In The Dancing Lares and the Serpent in the Garden: Religion at the Roman Street Corner, Harriet I. Flower displays a formidable grasp of historical detail and a taste for scholarly disputes. Her book is superbly produced and richly illustrated in color with maps and photographs. ---Marina Warner, New York Review of Books Not only will this be an indispensable starting pointfor anyone working on any topic connected with the lares, it also constitutes a valuable model for one highly effective way to study religion in a world without 'religion'. ---James B. Rives, Bryn Mawr Classical Review Flower has accomplished a great feat by encapsulating in one invaluable text the many facets of the Lares cults and their relationship with Romans as joyous guardians intended for the benefit of all Roman people. ---Candace R. Macintosh, Classical Review Flower's meticulous investigation of the Roman lares is a formidable undertaking that reveals these gods as the unsung epicentre of Roman religion. . . . Ultimately, then, what emerges from F.'s study is a deeper appreciation of the calculated religious significance of the Augustan brand. ---Heidi Wendt, Journal of Roman Studies Engagingly written and accessible, this book will appeal to a wide range of scholars and students interested in the nexus of religion, social class, and politics and definitely should be read by all who have an interest in Roman religion. ---Lora J. Holland, Religious Studies Review
