Plautus (Aulularia) represents a Lar as using the following words:—
"I am the family Lar
Of this house whence you see me coming out.
'Tis many years now that I keep and guard
This family; both father and grandsire
Of him that has it now, I aye protected."
Beneath the threshold of the Assyrian palaces at Nineveh were found images of a foul and ugly appearance (teraphim), some having a lynx's head and human body, others a lion's body and human head. Sentences were also inscribed on the threshold, and the winged bulls and figures were placed on each side of the portal. The intention was, doubtless, the prevention of the entrance of evil deities, and the protection of the household.[24]
The Chinese, Hindoos, and natives of Ashanti, believe in the existence of similar deities. The Bhûtas of Hindostan are a species of malevolent spirit, which are worshipped as tutelary deities. Every house and each family has its particular Bhûta, which is often represented by a shapeless stone. Daily sacrifices are offered to it, in order to propitiate its evil disposition, and incline it to defend the house from the machinations of neighbouring Bhûtas. The native of Ashanti offers also daily sacrifices to his tutelary deity, which, under the form of a stone painted red, is placed upon a platform within his hut.
There are several remnants of this ancient superstition still in vogue in England. The common practice of nailing a horse-shoe behind the door, to terrify witches and prevent the entrance of evil spirits, is familiar to most persons. Formerly it was the custom to nail the horse-shoe to the threshold. Aubrey writes, in his Miscellanies: "Most houses of the west end of London have the horse-shoe on the threshold." In Monmouth Street, in 1797, many horse-shoes were to be seen fastened to the threshold. In 1813, Sir Henry Ellis counted seventeen horse-shoes in this position in that street, but in 1841 the number had diminished to five or six.
In some parts of England, naturally perforated stones are suspended behind the doors, with the same intention;[25] in others, jugs, of singular and often frightful form, are built into the walls of the cottages—an interesting approximation to the Assyrian teraphim; and in Glamorganshire the walls of the houses are whitewashed, in order to terrify wandering spirits,—a mode of prevention which we should like to see more generally adopted, as it would doubtless prove of some effect in impeding the access of those roaming spirits of evil with which we have to contend most at the present day—cholera and fever.
According to Durandus, the dedication-crosses of the Roman Catholic churches were adopted under the influence of a feeling in every respect analogous to this ancient superstition. He writes that the crosses were used, "first, as a terror to evil spirits, that they, having been driven forth thence, may be terrified when they see the sign of the cross, and may not presume to enter therein again. Secondly, as a mark of triumph, for crosses be the banners of Christ, and the signs of his triumph.... Thirdly, that such as look on them may call to mind the passion of Christ, by which He hath consecrated his church; and their belief in his passion."[26]
But the influence of mythology on Christianity did not terminate with the mere natural results of previous education, habits, &c. The church, under and subsequent to the reign of Constantine, reposing in the protection of the civil power, and not content with the natural veneration due to those early Christians who had struggled for the cross, and fallen martyrs or distinguished themselves by their long and protracted sufferings, insensibly, perhaps, at the first, and influenced by the same amiable feelings which led the pagan to deify his benefactors, indulged a degree of reverence to the memory of those holy men, which soon ripened into superstitious observances, and ultimately to their canonization and invocation. The Fathers of that period—Athanasius, Nazianzen, Chrysostom, &c.—encouraged the belief; and a rage was developed for the search of the remains and resting-places of the holy dead, to whom prayers were offered; and, in its encouragement of invocation of the dead, visions, miracles, prophetic dreams, relics, &c., the Roman church at this time rivalled the omens, divinations, oracles, and hero-worship of one of the later phases of mythology.