1 Earliest Rome

4- R E L I G I O U S P L A C E S
and hears voices of all kinds, as he holds converse with the gods and addresses Acheron in
deepest Avernus.- 1
Here then too the venerable Latinus himself came to seek counsel; and
after duly sacrificing a hundred sheep laden with wool, he lay couched on their hides and
outspread fleeces. 4
Suddenly from deep in the grove a voice came: 'Seek not to join your
daughter in marriage to a man of the Latin race, o my son, and trust not in the wedding
that is to hand. Strangers will come to wed our daughters and carry their name into the
stars by union with us. The descendants of this line shall behold the whole world turning
obediently beneath their feet - wherever the sun looks down upon in its course.''
102
1. Larinus, king of the Latins. Many apparently conflicting myths surround his name. For
Virgil, he was son of the god Faunus - a deity connected with woods and the divine
sounds heard in them, often (though not here) identified with the god Pan.
2. Oenotria was an ancient name for the 'toe' of Italy.
3. Avernus is a name given to the underworld, and Acheron to one of its rivers (here stand­
ing for the powers of that world). See 3.7 n. 5-
4. The practice described is similar to the custom of incubation at Greek oracles: the
enquirer went to sleep at the otacle, often wrapped in the skin of a sacrificed animal, and
received the answer to their enquiry in a dream. This used to be thought to be a tradition
unknown in early Italy and so introduced into the narrative by Virgil for particular liter­
ary effect, in conscious imitation of Greek practice. Recent studies, however, have sug­
gested a 'native' Italian practice of incubation; see Vol. 1,13 n.32.
5. This amounts to a warning that Latinus should betroth his daughter to a foreigner (that
is, Aeneas), not to the Italian prince Turnus who had been seeking her hand. For oracu­
lar voices mysteriously coming from woods, see Cicero, On Divination 1.101.
4.12 Religion of the home: the household shrine
The Roman house itself was the centre of family and private religion. In richer
# and middle-ranking houses a common feature was a shrine of the household
gods - now conventionally known as a lararium (from the Lares, see 2.2a),
although there is no evidence that this was the standard ancient term.
Commonly found in rhe central court (atrium) of a house, or sometimes in the
kitchen, these shrines contained paintings or statuettes of household gods and
other deities; they might also include (in a wealthier house) commemorations
of the family's ancestors. We assume - although there is little firm evidence for
this - that these shrines would have formed the focus of family rituals and
sacrifice conducted by the head of the household (paterfamilias).
This lararium from the small atrium in the House of the Vettii (one of the
richest houses of Pompeii) is one of the most elaborate, highly coloured (and,
no doubt, expensive) shrines in the town. (Total height 3-70 m., height of
niche 1.30 m., width 0.50 m.)
See further: Vol. 1, 48-51; Orr (1978)*; for Pompeian material, Boyce
(1937); Ward-Perkins and Claridge (1976) cat. nos. 210, 220, 222-6*; for
material from the Italian colony on Delos, Bulard (1926); and, for commemoration
of ancestors, Reynolds (1971) 142-4.