Cicero said that Callaicus had the peculiar habit of performing the libations (the pouring of a liquid as an offering to a god or spirit or in memory of the dead) for the dead in December instead of February as was customary. Plutarch explored a number of possible explanations for this peculiarity: (1) since the dead were honoured at the end of the day, it may be reasonable to do so at the end of the year; (2) it might not be fitting to honour the dead at the beginning of the sowing, a time of new life; (3) December was dedicated to Saturn, who was a god of the underworld; or, (4) that "Brutus deemed it proper to bestow upon the dead first-fruits" of the revelries of the festival of the Saturnalia. Plutarch also wondered whether "this statement, that Brutus alone sacrificed to the dead in this month" was wrong. "For it is in December that they make offerings to Larentia and bring libations to her sepulchre." Larentia was a mythical woman who was connected to the Lares, the spirits of ancestors who were guardian deities of the family, neighbourhoods, roadways, seaways, agriculture, livestock, towns, cities, and the state.