The Dancing Lares and the Serpent in the GardenThe most pervasive gods in ancient Rome had no traditional mythology attached to them, nor was their worship organised by elites. Throughout the Roman world, neighbourhood street corners, farm boundaries, and household hearths featured small shrines to the beloved lares, a pair of cheerful little dancing gods. These shrines were maintained primarily by ordinary Romans, and often by slaves and freedmen, to whom the lares cult provided a unique public