The ceremonies and sacrifices in temples were few compared to the frequent occasions for private and family worship. No meal was eaten without offering a portion of food and drink to the gods, and statuettes and symbols of divinities were kept in various rooms of the house and near the house-door. The rude bust of Hermes on a pillar (Case 1, middle shelf) is of the same type as the much larger pillars which in Athens were placed near house-doors, in schools, and in the market-place (fig. 6). It was the mutilation of these images which caused such consternation immediately before the sailing of Nikias on the disastrous Sicilian expedition in 415 B.C. [Illustration: FIG 9. LAR] An interesting terracotta relief in Case 4 represents two warriors clasping hands (fig. 7). Perhaps it may be regarded as a votive offering made to commemorate a treaty or an alliance, either of which with the Greeks and also the Romans was an agreement made in the sight of the gods and accompanied by sacrifices. Readers of the Anabasis will remember the treaty made by the Greeks and the Persians after Cyrus’s death (II, ii, 8, 9), when the sword-blades and spear-heads were dipped in the blood of the victims caught in a shield, and the leaders on both sides gave their right hands as a pledge of fidelity. The superstitious and fearful aspect of ancient religion is represented by the grotesque faces called apotropaia, “turners away,” which were thought to avert misfortune. They were worn especially by children, and large ones of various materials were often fastened up in workshops and houses. A number of small examples in glass are in Case C in the Third Room (fig. 8). Perhaps the first divinities we think of when we turn to the native Roman religion are the Lares, the guardians of house and field. The Lar was represented as a youth holding a horn of plenty and a patera, a shallow bowl used in sacrificing (fig. 9). Two of these figures stood side by side near the hearth in the principal room of the early Roman house, but at a later period they were placed in a little shrine usually adjoining the atrium. A statuette of rather careless workmanship stands on the middle shelf in Case 1 and a much better example in Case J in the Eighth Room. A fine statuette of the Imperial period represents a priest with his toga drawn up over his head in preparation for sacrificing, in accordance with the custom which Virgil mentions in the Aeneid: “Veil thine hair with a purple garment for covering, that no hostile face at thy divine worship may meet thee amid the holy fires and make void the omens” (III, vv. 405ff. Mackail) (Case J in the Eighth Room, fig. 10). A life-size statue of a camillus, a boy assistant at religious rites, is in this room (fig. 11). The office of camillus was an honorable one bestowed upon the young sons of distinguished families. [Illustration: FIG. 10. ROMAN PRIEST]