LARS, larz, Roman tutelary deities. Lars is an Anglicized plural, derived from the Latin, Lar, singular of Lares (pron. la-tar). Lares occurs on old Italian monuments beside Lares, an older form of the same word. At tempts have been made to identify Lares or its singular Lar with an Etruscan word, Lar. Larth, Larthi or Larthia, common on sepul chral inscriptions, equivalent to the English °lord* or or 'hero"; and pos sibly akin to another Tyrrhenian word Lam, name of the Etruscan god of war. But this attempt has not met with general favor. In Dollinger's opinion the Lars were deified an cestors, or souls of men, personifying the vital powers, and so assure the duration of a family, over whom their protection was supposed to extend. Wissowa, on the contrary, holds the Lars to have been originally protecting spirits of lots of arable land, above which rose shrines at those spots (compita) where the paths bounding such lands met those of another's holding. Wissowa rejects therefore the older idea of deified progenitors. Holding, as he does, that the Lars were originally gods of the cultivated fields, thence he derived them, claim ing that from such agrarian status they later appeared within the Roman home.
Some, looking upon the Lars as earthly beings, discern a distinction thus between them and 'the Manes on one hand, and between them and the Penates on another. Such as perceive this distinction regard the Manes as infernal spirits; and say the Romans regarded the Pen ates as heavenly. Yet all authorities agree that Manes, Penates and Lars were regarded as guardian spirits by those who worshipped them.
From very early times a distinction existed between private and public Lars. The Lars domestici (private Lares of the home) were worshipped by the Roman household, and by the family alone. One of those household gods. the Lars familiaris, who accompanied the fam ily whenever the residence was changed, was conceived of as the very centre of the house hold cultus. One view regards the Lares do mestici as souls of virtuous ancestors, who (ac cording to the Roman idea) were set free from the realm of shadows by Acherontic rites; exalted into deities; which thereupon became protectors over their progeny, as household gods.
• The Lars publici (public lars), enjoyed a • wider sphere worship, and received particular names from the place over which their influ ence was supposed by the Romans to extend.
• Among these may be mentioned (1) Lares compitales, originally two in number, the mythic • sons of Mercurius and Lara (or Larunda), guardian spirits of the cross-roads, where their • shrines were erected, and in whose honor an • annual festival, the Compitatio or the Laralia was held, the celebration itself falling in the • month of December, a short time after the observance of the Saturnalia. It was not alone the cross-roads, but also the whole neighboring district, town and country, which felt and ac • knowledged the divinity and the power of the Lares compitales of their respective local ities. (2) Lares Urbani, presided over cities. (3) Lares prastites originally tutelaries of the public common; finally guardians of the state. On the Via Sacra near the Palatine Hill, they had a temple and an altar. On coins they ap pear as the figure of a young man, wearing a chlamys, holding a spear, seated with a dog, symbol of vigilance. (4) Lares viales, of the roads, protecting genii of travelers. (5) Lares permarini, of• the sea. (6) Lares rustici, of the country. (7) Lares hostilii, who guarded the state from enemies. The Lares grundules, too, should not be omitted Their worship was connected with that of the white Sow of Alba Longa and its 30 young. Opposed to the Lares, who were peaceful, happy spirits of the dead, were the Larva, bearing a name which betrays its connection with the Latin word Lar - just as the parallel word form "arvum* or betrays its affinity with the Latin word "arare.* These Larva, unlike the Lars, were uncanny and disquieting apparitions, ns were likewise those ghost-like spectres, which the Roman knew as Lemures.