Lares, household deities of the Romans; originally deified ancestors of the families whose family life they protected, and images of whom were kept in some shrine in the house near the hearth. Besides these domestic lares, there were public lares, who were protectors of the whole community. Both classes were objects of worship.
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Lardner, Nathaniel * Larissa