LARES. The ancient Roman name for the deified souls of the dead was lases (Inscriptiones Latinae liberae rei publicae 4), a term for which the only possible comparison is Lasa, the Etruscan name for a nymph. An old theory according to which the lares (singular, lar) were originally guardians of fields, roads, and other areas (Wissowa, 1912, pp. 166–174) is not convincing. A fragment of the Proceedings of the Arval Brotherhood (Inscriptiones Latinae selectae 9522) and a fourth- to third-century BCE dedication to the lar Aeneas indicate that the "mother of the lares" was a chthonic deity and that common ancestors were believed to be lares. Therefore the theory (Samter, 1901) that the lares were deified souls of ancestors is preferable.

The argument concerning whether lares originated outside the house (Wissowa) or inside (Samter) is probably a false problem, because the spirits of dead protected Romans everywhere. The ancient tradition is unanimous in...