41. We can, if it is thought proper, speak briefly of the Lares also, whom the mass think to be the gods of streets and ways, because the Greeks name streets lauræ. In different parts of his writings, Nigidius speaks of them now as the guardians of houses and dwellings; now as the Curetes, who are said to have once concealed, by the clashing of cymbals,823    Æribus. Cf. Lucretius, ii. 633–636. the infantile cries of Jupiter; now the five Digiti Samothracii, who, the Greeks tell us, were named Idæi Dactyli. Varro, with like hesitation, says at one time that they are the Manes,824    The ms. reads manas, corrected as above by all edd. except Hild., who reads Manias. and therefore the mother of the Lares was named Mania; at another time, again, he maintains that they are gods of the air, and are termed heroes; at another, following the opinion of the ancients, he says that the Lares are ghosts, as it were a kind of tutelary demon, spirits of dead825    The ms. reads effunctorum; LB. et funct., from the correction of Stewechius; Gelenius, with most of the other edd., def. men.

XLI. Possumus, si videtur, summatim aliquid et de Laribus dicere, quos arbitratur vulgus vicorum atque itinerum deos esse, ex eo quod Graeci vicos cognominant lauras. In diversis Nigidius scriptis modo tectorum domuumque custodes, modo Curetas illos, qui occultasse perhibentur Jovis aeribus aliquando 0999A vagitum, modo Digitos samothracios, quos quinque indicant Graeci Idaeos dactylos nuncupari. Varro similiter haesitans, nunc esse illos manes, et ideo Maniam matrem esse cognominatam Larum: nunc aerios rursus deos, et heroas pronuntiat appellari: nunc antiquorum sententias sequens larvas esse dicit Lares, quasi quosdam genios, defunctorum animas mortuorum.