I have decided to reinstate my Lararium*, my old one was desecrated by a burglar who smashed the statues of the gods and goddesses and scrawled pro-Christian slogans on the wall in excrement. Since then I have not had a lararium and just made my prayers facing an open window but I am re-starting my OU Classical Studies programme and I feel the need to have a proper lararium for daily ceremonies again. The old statuettes were purchased at various roman sites around the country, York, Chester, Lincoln, Hadrians Wall, Bath etc. and were between 3" and 4" in height, cast in a bronze patinated base metal and fairly inexpensive. I have been looking around the web and I can only find larger resin statues for which I have neither the room nor the money. Does anyone know of a source for Jupiter, Juno, Neptune, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Vulcan et al in smallish metallic form?

*for those who don't know, a lararium is a small shrine, usually representing a temple, where the household gods (the lares and penates) are kept along with salt, flour and incense for offerings.

If I can chime in, I'd love to get hold of an image or statue of Nemesis if anyone knows where I can get hold of one!

I'm really sorry your last shrine was desecrated like that - especially by so-called Christians.

I'm sorry too BB, that is a really terrible thing to happen.

I don't know about little metal statues - my ones are plaster and I can't remember where Vert got them for me

Oh, might have been goddessgift.net but they don't really do male deities.

I'll have a wee look though at other places.

Thank you, I am absolutely sure that the burglar in question was not a Christian...his only god was heroin. I merely mentioned it as it amuses me to see how someone living such a non-christian lifestyle can have his delicate sensibilities bruised by finding a pagan shrine.

Anyway lest I should rant on about social issues, the Gods and Goddesses need to be restored to their rightful position in my household!

Just when I thought there were no more surprises in this world!
Sorry, I have no clue, but I wish you well in your quest.

This may be an odd suggestion, but have you considered sculpting your own?

Any decent craft shop should be able to provide you with plasticine and a rubber moulding kit. Sculpt the figure in the plasticine and once you're content with it, make a rubber mould and use it to cast a plaster version, or have a look at companies who'll cast it in metal for you.

It's not an odd suggestion, I used to sculpt 28mm figures for a well known "Evil Empire" type games company. Its like anything that you do for a living, you end up finding excuses to do something else

Roman goddesses

You can find some here but they aren't that small. The only other places I can think of to look are museum websites.

That's a good link Flaxen - I quite like their copy of the Brigantia statue.

Badger Bob, I am so sorry to hear what happened - it must have been devastating - an attack in the most personal kind of way. I know it was a heroin addict and therefore feral and undeserving of the title of 'human being', however it's still terrible.

I agree with the idea of checking out the museum online shops. Always a good idea and usually pretty affordable too!

Badger Bob - agree with the comments of the others about what happened. I'd hate that to happen to my altars. OK, so I don't keep images on my Heathen altar as I've never found any I like, but we have a nice Pan and Aphrodite on the Greek one. A bit larger than you want, though.

Caerleon didn't have anything of that type the last time I was there, or I'd offer to call by there to buy something. I resorted to postcards (a rather chubby British Mercury IIRC!). Ditto Cirencester and the British Museum (which goes in for the more expensive).

If you find anything decent, can you let us know?

Gallo-romeins museum set of 5 statues

Badger Bob,

Thinking about your predicament I suddenly remembered this site that I found some months ago. It is the shop of the Gallo-Romeins museum in Tongeren, Belgium (my other home town ). It produces really reasonably prices statues based on finds in the local area. This set of 5 is pretty good value-you can buy them singly for €6.50.

Unfortunately, the museum is closed at the moment as they are in the process of moving to a new site. You may still be able to order though. Just check the cost of post and packaging-it may be cheaper to buy the ones you want separately.

Hope it's useful-let me know if you need help with translation.

Thanks Flaxen, that looks interesting. In fact I might have to pay a visit to the museum itself next year...