lararium

[luh-rair-ee-uhm]

noun

plural

lararia 

1. (in an ancient Roman home) a shrine for the Lares.

Word History and Origins

Origin of lararium¹

1700–10; < Late Latin larārium; Lares, -ary

Example Sentences

“Every house had a lararium of some kind,” said Ingrid Rowland, a professor at the University of Notre Dame and the author of “From Pompeii: The Afterlife of a Roman Town.”

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The shrine, known as a lararium, is embedded in the wall of a house and is flanked by images of Roman gods central to household rituals.

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But, she added, “only the wealthiest people could have afforded a lararium inside a special chamber with a raised pool and sumptuous decorations.”

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Appropriately opening from the family picture gallery of the Tablinum, was the Lararium, a private chapel for the worship of such members of the family—Livia and many others—as were deified after death.

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In other days, before 'higher education, club-culture, and female rights' had abolished home life, domestic sanctity, and fireside lararium, all good women held Clytemnestra the infamous archetype of feminine depravity, but the doctrine of 'equality' lowers the old high standard, and the new code reads: 'She had as good a right to �gisthus as Agamemnon to Chryseis.'

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