The lararium was a shrine to the guardian spirits of the Roman household. Family members performed daily rituals at this shrine to guarantee the protection of these domestic spirits, the most significant of which were the lares.
These spirits
were depicted as two young men in dancing postures, holding drinking horns.
They were most frequently represented by small bronze statuettes, as shown at
right, or as painted images, as shown below. The other significant guardian
spirit was the genius, who was a fertility spirit responsible for
ensuring that the family line (gens) would continue. Each genius
stood for the paterfamilias, whose birthday was the feast day of the
genius. In the lararium painting below, the genius is depicted
wearing the toga praetexta, bordered in purple, the garment of
high-ranking Roman magistrates.
