Larunda
or LARA, a daughter of Almon, was a nymph who denounced to Juno that there was some connexion between Jupiter and Juturna; hence her name is connected with
λαλεῖν. Jupiter punished her by depriving her of her tongue, and condemning her to be conducted into the lower world by Mercury ;but on the way thither Mercury fell in love with her, and afterwards she gave birth to two Lares. (
Ov. Fast. 2.599, &c.; Auson.
Monosyll. de Diis, 9.) Hartung (
Die Relig. der Röm. ii. p. 204) infers from Lactantius (1.20) that Larunda is identical with Muta and Tacita.
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