Household deity
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A household deity is a deity or spirit that protects the home, looking after the entire household or certain key members. It has been a common belief in paganism as well as in folklore across many parts of the world.
Early-20th-century Slavic cult image of a Domovoy, the household deity, progenitor of the kin, in Slavic paganism
Shrine of the household deities lares in Pompeii, showing the offering altar and a niche for votive images
Lares
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Lares were guardian deities in ancient Roman religion. Their origin is uncertain; they may have been hero-ancestors, guardians of the hearth, fields, boundaries, or fruitfulness, or an amalgam of these.
Lar holding a cornucopia from Axatiana (now Lora del Rio) in Roman Spain, early first century AD (National Archaeological Museum of Spain)
Fresco in Pompeii depicting two lares with rhyton and situla, genius offering at an altar, flute-player, servant with vase and servant pushing a pig to the altar; below: altar with fruits and eggs between two snakes (agathodaimones)
Bronze statuette of a dancing Lar holding a rhyton and patera, probably from Campania, 1st century AD (Gäubodenmuseum, Straubing)
Inscription to the Lares Viales, the Lares of the roads