Gods Of The Family
Genius:
The Genius was the creative force that evolved the individual. Genius
was with the individual from birth to death and formed the personality
and tutored the child through life. If it was a boy, Genius was its tutor.
If it was a girl, Juno was its teacher. Genius and Juno did not work alone.
Nundina took care of the child’s purification. Vaticanus made the
child come to life and make its first sound. Educa and Potina taught the
child how to eat. Cuba kept the child quiet when it was time for the child
to sleep in its cradle. Abeona and Adeona taught the art of walking. Sentinus
awakened the child’s intellect
On the day of the child’s birth, wine and flowers were offered to
Genius, who was in essence, the child’s double, the child’s
spirit source.
The Penates: The Penates oversaw the preservation
of food and drink. The Penates were always a pair. Their altar was shared
with Vesta on the hearth and they were placed among several statues that
would be there. For instance, they would be combined with Vulcan on the
hearth in the house of a blacksmith, with Mercury in the house of a merchant,
and with other gods depending on what the focus of the household was.
The Lar: The Lar were protectors of the household
and were often placed at the entrance of a farmhouse or home and sometimes
they shared the hearth with the Penates and Vesta. There was only one
Lar per family, unlike the pair that the Penates were. The Lar symbolized
the house. He was invoked on all important events in the house, including
weddings, departures for a journey and funerals. The Lar was depicted
as a dancing youth with no beard, pouring wine.
Arachne: She was a mythical woman who was a spinner
and weaver. She challenged Minerva, Roman goddess of handicrafts, and
won a contest between them. Minerva was angry and turned Arachne into
a spider so that now she could only weave webs. Spiders are considered
dream weavers in many cultures. The web of the spider was meant to catch
the good and let the bad pass through without entanglement in human affairs.
This was for dreamtime and in real life. Dreamcatchers come from this
legend, hung over beds to catch good dreams. In the Pacific Islands, it
was believed that Areop-Enap, a spider, existed at beginning of time with
only the sea. Then Areop-Enap wove a web of everything in the world as
the creation. Ghana's religion hosts a character named Anansi, the spider
who was a trickster of humans and gods.