Salve Favoni

A good post that reminds us of how the course of our relationship with the Lares can go. The Do ut des[/i] nature of Roman prayers can take on many aspects. Implied in any contract is that if one party does not live up to their end of the bargain that the other party has some means of recourse to force the issue or punish . That works both ways.

When I was a small child, visiting my nonna, often I'd see her images stood on their head, their faces turned to the wall as though they were small children being punished. And in fact they were. If she didn't get what she wanted, she'd punish her Lares through tormenting their images. There is some mention of that in Plautus too

Rudens 449-50: "May the gods damn any pimp who after this day offers a single victim to Venus, or presents her with a single grain of incense. Today, like a fool, with the gods angry with me, I sacrificed six lambs, and still could not make Venus propitious. Since I could not appease her, I immediately left in anger. I refuse to have the sacrificial meat cut off. [I didn?t want to offer it since the haruspex said it wasn?t good; I didn?t think the goddess deserved it.] In this way I cleverly got the better of that greedy Venus. Since she was not willing enough to have what was enough to offer, I put a stop to it! That?s the way I am, that?s the way I ought to act. I?ll guarantee that all the other gods and goddesses will be more contented and less greedy after this, after they hear how a pimp outsmarted that Venus! That haruspex is a fine one to tell me, not worth two cents! He said that all the entrails foretold misfortune for me and that all the gods were angry with me. Hah, I should trust anything divine or human to a fellow like that?"

Another example is found in Tacitus. When the crowds in Rome first heard of the death of Germanicus, they stormed the temples, pulled the images of the Gods from their seats and dragged them in to the street. There the people kicked the images and threw dust on them in order to express their anger at the Gods for not better protecting them by protecting Germanicus. Other expressions of this idea of threatening the Gods with mistreatment if They didn't do as asked is found in defixiones. It may seem a little strange to modern practitioners, but it also shows the kind of personal relationship that the Romans had with the Gods, at least the minor gods and Di inferi. Mistreating images was viewed as an attack on the numen of a deity, that is, the presence or power sent from a deity to infuse an image. When one dedicated an image they would ask the deity send such a numen to dwell in it. As such, this kind of mistreatment was not direct on the deity Himself or Herself, but only His or Her numen. And with that sometimes there is an expression that if the deity didn't do as asked, the worshiper might make their devotions to some other deity. Or take a look at this gem from Plautus where the threat is to embarass the godess if She does not do as asked.

Aulularia 445-6: "May Laverna love me, she who watches over thieves. If you do not order those thieves to return to me my things, I shall make a row before your temple."