Household Shrine to the Gods and Ancestors Two protector deities (lares), each holding a container for liquid, flank an ancestor-spirit (which the Romans called the “genius”), his head covered as a sign of reverence, who holds a box for incense and bowl for offerings. At the bottom a snake, symbol of fertility and prosperity, approaches an altar. This elaborate shrine in the entryway of the house of two wealthy freedmen in Pompeii was a symbol of their prosperity and upward mobility, but even poor families had a designated space for protective lares figures.

(House of the Vettii, Pompeii, Italy/Werner Forman Archive/Bridgeman Images)