Some think Laban’s Teraphim to be such, and that Rachel, having observed how her Father did divine by them, and fearing, by consulting with them, he might know which way Jacob went, and follow after and murder him; to prevent so fatal a Catastrophe, she took away his Oracles.
Those sacred Images might, at first, be made in honour of departed Relatives, or illustrious Persons; but by degrees degenerated into religious Adoration. Thus the Manes of the Dead were worship’d by them under the Figure of their Teraphim, in some place of the House, and probably where they had deposited the Remains of their Ancestors, as some think.
The Lares were also called Penates: To these they paid religious Homage with Sacrifices; so the Roman Satirist says, and calls these images his dear little House-Gods; and then observes, that they were crown’d with Garlands of Flowers in Summer, and in Winter with Shaving of Horns colour’d. To these Waxen-Gods the Romans addrest themselves with Offerings of Frankincense and Cakes[[372]]....
Oh parvi nostrique Lares quos thure minuto
Hic nostrum placabo, Jovem Laribusque paternis
Thura dabo, atque omnes violæ jactabo colores
Cuncta nitent——
Juvenal. Sat. ix. v. 137. & Sat. xii. v. 89.
They were supposed to be the Spirits of such, who had lived well on the Earth, and in consequence of it, were happy; so on the other hand, those who lived ill here, did after Death wander up and down in Horror, and were supposed, by the Vulgar, to be Hobgoblins, call’d Lemures, i. e. restless Ghosts of departed Spirits, who return to the Earth to terrify the Living.