Was ist fröhlicher als der Glaube an einen Hausgott!
What is gayer than believing in a household god? [Kaiser/Wilkins]
Is there anything as blithe as believing in one's own household god? [Hofmann]
Commentary
Presumably because household gods are human-sized, both particular and tribal, specifically attentive, and overall so far from the absolute. They are also found at home, rather than on a pilgrimage. It isn't necessary to follow a way to find them.
But isn't the true way just as much the path between one room of the family home and another as it is the path between the town square and the sacred shrine? Don't those household gods take on a serious look sometime, and not the bathetic seriousness of a dog or a cat, but surprising seriousness? They're saying, 'I may be small, but even I come from the infinite.'
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