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Why is a dog placed beside the Lares that men
call by the special name of praestites, and why are the
Lares themselves clad in dog-skins?1
Is it because ‘those that stand before’ are termed
[p. 85]
praestites, and, also because it is fitting that those who
stand before a house should be its guardians, terrifying to strangers, but gentle and mild to the inmates,
even as a dog is?
Or is the truth rather, as some Romans affirm, that,
just as the philosophic school of Chrysippus2 think
that evil spirits stalk about whom the gods use as
executioners and avengers upon unholy and unjust
men, even so the Lares are spirits of punishment
like the Furies and supervisors of mens lives and
houses? Wherefore they are clothed in the skins of
dogs and have a dog as their attendant, in the belief
that they are skilful in tracking down and following
up evil-doers.
Plutarch. Moralia. with an English Translation by. Frank Cole Babbitt. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1936. 4.
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