A household deity is a deity or spirit that protects the home, looking after the entire household or certain key members. It has been a common belief in paganism as well as in folklore across many parts of the world.
Household deities fit into two types; firstly, a specific deity typically a goddess often referred to as a hearth goddess or domestic goddess who is associated with the home and hearth, such as the ancient Greek Hestia.
The second type of household deity is not one singular deity but a type or species of animism, which usually has lesser powers than major deities. This type was common in the religions of antiquity, such as the lares of ancient Roman religion, the gashin of Korean shamanism, and cofgodas of Anglo-Saxon paganism. These survived Christianisation as fairy-like creatures existing in folklore, such as the Anglo-Scottish brownie and Slavic domovoy.
Household deities were usually worshipped not in temples but in the home, where they would be represented by small idolatry (such as the teraphim of the Bible, often translated as "household gods" in Genesis 31:19 for example), , paintings, or reliefs. They could also be found on domestic objects, such as cosmetic articles in the case of Tawaret. The more prosperous houses might have a small shrine to the household god(s); the lararium served this purpose in the case of the Romans. The gods would be treated as members of the family and invited to join in meals or be given sacrifice and libation.
Types
In ancient and modern religions, a
god would preside over the home.
Certain species, or types, of household deities existed. An example of this was the Roman Lares.
Many European cultures retained house spirits into the modern period. Some examples of these include:
Although the cosmic status of household deities was not as lofty as that of the Twelve Olympians or the Aesir, they were also jealous of their dignity and also had to be appeased with shrines and offerings, however humble.[For example, reserving a seat at the hearth for the brownie, and offering him milk and honeycomb.] Because of their immediacy, they had arguably more influence on the day-to-day affairs of men than the remote gods did. Vestiges of their worship persisted long after Christianity and other major religions extirpated nearly every trace of the major pagan pantheons. Elements of the practice can be seen even today, with Christian accretions, where statues to various saints (such as St. Francis) protect gardens and grottos. Even the found on older churches could be viewed as guardians partitioning a sacred space.
For centuries, Christianity fought a mop-up war against these lingering minor pagan deities, but they proved tenacious. For example, Martin Luther's Tischreden have numerous quite serious references to dealing with .[See Brüder Grimm, Wörterbuch, s.v. "kobold", "poltergeist", etc.][ "Luther glaubt nicht mehr an katholische Wunder, aber er glaubt noch an Teufelswesen. Seine Tischreden sind voll kurioser Geschichtchen von Satanskünsten, Kobolden und Hexen." ("Erstes Buch".) ]
"Luther no longer believes in Catholic miracles, but he still believes in diabolical entities. His Table Talks are full of curious tales of satanic arts, kobolds, and witches." Eventually, rationalism and the Industrial Revolution threatened to erase most of these minor deities until the advent of romantic nationalism rehabilitated them and embellished them into objects of literary curiosity in the 19th century. Since the 20th century, this literature has been mined for characters for role-playing games, video games, and other fantasy , not infrequently invested with invented traits and hierarchies somewhat different from their mythological and folkloric roots.
Origins in animism and ancestor worship
Shinto as an exemplar of development
The general dynamics of the origin and development of household deities over a considerable span may be traced and exemplified by the historically attested origins and current practices of the
Shinto belief system in Japan. As the
Japanology Lafcadio Hearn put it:
Drawing the picture with broader strokes, he continues:
Furthermore,
Many Japanese houses still have a shrine ( kamidana, kami shelf) where offerings are made to ancestral kami, as well as to other kami.
Cultural evolution and survival
Edward Burnett Tylor, one of the main founders of the discipline of cultural anthropology, spoke of
survivals, vestiges of earlier evolutionary stages in a culture's development. He also coined the term
animism. Tylor disagreed with
Herbert Spencer, another founder of anthropology, as well as of sociology, about the innateness of the human tendency towards animistic explanations, but both agreed that ancestor worship was the root of religion and that domestic deities were survivals from such an early stage.
[ "Herbert Spencer as an Anthropologist", Journal of Libertarian Studies, V:2, 1981.]
Animism and totemism
In contradistinction to both
Herbert Spencer and Edward Burnett Tylor, who defended theories of animistic origins of ancestor worship, Émile Durkheim saw its genesis in
. This distinction is somewhat academic since totemism may be regarded as a particularized manifestation of animism, and a synthesis of the two positions was attempted by
Sigmund Freud. In Freud's
Totem and Taboo, both totem and taboo are outward expressions or manifestations of the same psychological tendency, a concept which is complementary to, or which rather reconciles, the apparent conflict. Freud preferred to emphasize the psychoanalytic implications of the reification of metaphysical forces but with particular emphasis on its familial nature. This emphasis underscores, rather than weakens, the ancestral component.
[SF.]
Domestic deities and ancestor worship
Jacob Grimm (1835)
European folklorist
Jacob Grimm did not hesitate to equate the Roman
Lares Familiares to the brownie.
[ JG, Chapter 17, p 12. ] He explains in some detail in his
Deutsche Mythologie:
Thomas Keightley (1870)
To underscore the equivalence of brownie, kobold, and goblin, consider the words of the English historian and folklorist Thomas Keightley:
MacMichael (1907)
MacMichael elaborated his views on the folkloric belief complex as follows:
New International Encyclopaedia
Demonstrating that this evolution and functional equivalence has generally come to be accepted and that their nature is indeed that proposed by Grimm, one may refer to the early twentieth century
New International Encyclopaedia:
and also
Origin of ancestor worship in animism
Hearn (1878)
William Edward Hearn, a noted classicist and jurist, traced the origin of domestic deities from the earliest stages as an expression of animism, a belief system thought to have existed also in the
Neolithic and the forerunner of Indo-European religion. In his analysis of the Indo-European household, in Chapter II, "The House Spirit", Section 1, he states:
In Section 2, he proceeds to elaborate:
George Henderson (1911)
George Henderson elaborated on the presumed origin of ancestor worship in
animism:
List
Domestic or hearth goddesses from various mythologies include:
African
European
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Agathodaemon in Ancient Greek religion
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Aitvaras in Lithuanian mythology
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Berehynia (originally a river spirit, since 1991, has become a hearth goddess in Ukrainian Romantic nationalism)
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Brighid, a goddess in Ancient Celtic religion
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Brownie or Urisk in Scottish folklore
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Welsh folklore in Welsh folklore
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Cofgodas in Anglo-Saxon paganism
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Domovoy in Slavic paganism
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Frigg, a goddess in Old Norse religion
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Gabija, a goddess in Baltic paganism
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Haltija, or Haldjas in Finnish paganism, Finnish folklore, and Estonian folklore.
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Heinzelmännchen in German folklore
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Hestia, a goddess in Greek paganism
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Hob, Lubber fiend, and Puck in English folklore
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Húsvættir, Norse
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Jack o' the bowl in Swiss folklore
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Kikimora in Slavic paganism
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Kobold in German folklore
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Lares in Ancient Roman religion
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Lutin in French folklore
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Matka Gabia, a goddess in Slavic paganism
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Monaciello, Monachiccio, Mamucca, Lu Laùru, Aguriellu, or Mazapegol in Italian folklore
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Di Penates, in Ancient Roman religion
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Safa, in Ossetian mythology
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Tomte, or Nisse in Scandinavian folklore
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Trasgu in Spanish folklore and Portuguese folklore
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Vesta, a goddess of Traditional Roman religion, both state and domestic
West Asian
East Asian
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Anito in prehispanic Filipino culture.
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All gashin, the most prominent being Teoju, Seongju, Jowang, or Samshin in Korean folk religion
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Imoinu (Emoinu), a household hearth goddess in Meitei mythology and Sanamahism of Manipur
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Kamui Fuchi, a goddess in the Ainu people folklore in Japan
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Leimarel Sidabi, a household mother goddess in Meitei mythology and Sanamahism of Manipur
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Menshen, divine guardians of doors and gates in Chinese folk religion
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Ông Táo, kitchen god in Vietnamese folk religion
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Ông Địa, is the god of the earth and patron of the land on which the houses are built in Vietnamese folk religion
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Sanamahi, the most predominant god in Meitei mythology and Sanamahism of Manipur
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Tu Di Gong (earth deity), in Chinese folk religion
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Yumjao Leima (Yumjao Leima), a household mother goddess in Meitei mythology and Sanamahism of Manipur
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Kitchen God (kitchen god), in Chinese folk religion
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Zashiki-warashi, in Japanese folklore
North American
See also
Bibliography
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SF Sigmund Freud. Totem und Tabu: Einige Übereinstimmungen im Seelenleben der Wilden und der Neurotiker. 1913. (English translation , 1918.) Third essay, "Animism, Magic and the Omnipotence of Thought".
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JG Jacob Grimm. Deutsche Mythologie ( Teutonic Mythology). Göttingen, 1835, 3rd ed., 1854, 2 vols. English translation available online at http://www.northvegr.org/lore/grimmst/017_12.php
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DWB Grimm, Jacob, and Wilhelm Grimm. Deutsches Wörterbuch (German Dictionary). Available online in German at http://germazope.uni-trier.de/Projects/DWB .
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WEH Hearn, William Edward. 1878. London: Longman, Green & Co. The Aryan Household, Its Structure and Its Development: An Introduction to Comparative Jurisprudence. "Chapter II: The House Spirit"
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LH Lafcadio Hearn. Japan, an Attempt at Interpretation. The Macmillan Company, New York, 1904. Available online at
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GH Henderson, George. "The Finding of the Soul", in Survivals in Belief Among the Celts, I.2. 1911. Available online at Survivals in Belief Among the Celts: I. The Finding of the Soul (part 2).
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HH Heinrich Heine. Zur Geschichte der Religion und Philosophie in Deutschland ("Concerning the History of Religion and Philosophy in Germany".) Available online at [4] .
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TK Keightley, Thomas. The Fairy Mythology: Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various Countries. 1870. Available online at The Fairy Mythology: Germany: Kobolds.
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JHM MacMichael, J. Holden. "The Evil Eye and the Solar Emblem", in The Antiquary, XLIII, Jan-Dec 1907, p 426. Edward Walford et al., eds. London: 1907. ... Available online at Google Books.
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NIE The New International Encyclopaedia, Coit et al., eds. Dodd, Mead & Co., 1911. Available online at Japan, An Attempt at Interpretation Index.
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