ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. - 159 
in company with a Bacchante dancing on a row of skins to the music o 
the reed flute. | 
2. Frora, goddess of flowers (pl. 26, jig. 9a), is always represented with 
a ite of flowers or with a wreath of flowers in her hands (pl. 19, figs. 
6, 7.) 
3. Vertumnus (pl. 15, fig. 18) was honored as the god who, by the 
renewal of the year, brought back the fruits and blessings of which he was 
the harbinger. He is represented leaning against a stump, and holds a 
shepherd’s crook and a sickle or garden knife, and in the skin suspended 
from his neck appear flowers and fruits. He wears a crown of fir cones. 
4, Pomona, his wife, goddess of orchards (jig. 19), carries in one hand 
the fruit of a tree, in the other a flower stalk, while a basket filled with 
flowers hangs on a limb near by. 
F.. The Lares. 
~ The Lares were patron gods of the house, the family, and even the com- 
munity, city, or kingdom. Sometimes they were regarded as specific 
deities, though frequently other gods exercised the office of the Lares. 
Accordingly their representations varied (pl. 16, jigs. 7, 8, 9). The domestic 
Lares appeared as youths dressed in dogs’ skins and wearing a hat. They 
carried staves and were attended by a dog, the emblem of vigilance and 
fidelity. | 
In the later ages of Rome certain distinguished individuals received a 
species of worship. Among these we mention only Antinous (pl. 27, jig. 
16). He was a handsome young man and the friend of the emperor 
Hadrian. During a voyage to Egypt he was drowned in the Nile, and the 
emperor erected a temple and ordained an annual feast to his memory, and 
placed his image among the constellations. After that his statues were 
common. 
The Roman views of the condition of the soul after death corresponded 
mainly with those of the Greeks ; though, of course, certain national pecu- 
liarities gave the whole subject a slight variation. There was no essential 
difference in the modes of worship. The Romans, it is true, had more 
temples than the Greeks, the city alone containing in its later days 424. 
The worship consisted mainly of prayer, sacrifices, and feasts. Prophesy- 
ing or divination also entered into the list of their religious customs and 
regulations. In addition to the sacrifices which we have already alluded 
to, we mention the Suovetaurilza, a sacrificial festival celebrated every fifth 
year in the Campus Martius (pl. 30, fig. 7), at the completion of the census, 
when, as an offering of atonement and purification, a hog, a sheep, and a 
bull, were publicly immolated. Before the sacrifice, the victims were led 
around the whole assembly, so that all might enjoy a share in the expiation. 
Besides this, the Romans had public sacrifices before and after expeditions 
of war (pl. 29, jig. 28), at which the bull was led to the altar in a solemn 
procession, followed by a long train of warriors. The vessels and instru- 
ments employed in making the offerings were mostly like those of the 
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