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Question 51. Why is a dog set before the Lares, whom
they properly call Praestites, while the Lares themselves
are covered with dogs' skins?
Solution. Is it that Praestites are they that preside, and
it is fit that presidents should be keepers, and should be
frightful to strangers (as dogs are) but mild and gentle to
those of the family? Or is it rather what some Romans
assert, that—as some philosophers who follow Chrysippus
are of the opinion that evil spirits wander up and down,
which the Gods do use as public executioners of unholy
and wicked men—so the Lares are a certain sort of furious
and revengeful daemons, that are observers of men's lives
and families, and are here clothed with dogs' skins and
have a dog sitting by them, as being sagacious to hunt upon
the foot and to prosecute wicked men?
Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 2.
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