PENATES, Roman gods of the store-room, properly di penates (Lat. genus). This was, in old times, beside the atrium, the room which served as kitchen, parlour, and bedroom in one; but in later times was in the back part of the house. In private cult they were associated with Vesta (q.v.), if indeed Vesta is not to be accounted one of them (see Servius on Virgil, Aen. xi. 211), and the lares (q.v.). A little offering of food was made at each meal on such occasions as birthdays, marriages, and safe returns from journeys, the images were crowned and offer ings made to them of cakes, honey, wine, incense, and sometimes a pig (see ROMAN RELIGION). As each family had its own penates, so the State, as a collection of families, had its public penates. The other towns of Latium had their public penates as well as Rome. The sanctuary of the whole Latin league was at Lavinium. To the penates at Lavinium the Roman priests brought yearly offerings, and the Roman consuls, praetors, and dictators sacrificed both when they entered on and when they laid down their office. To them, too, the generals sacrificed before departing for their province. Alba Longa had also its ancient penates, and the Romans maintained the worship on the Alban mount long after the destruction of Alba Longa. The penates had a temple of their own at Rome. It was on the Velia near the Forum, perhaps on the site of the church of SS. Cosma e Damiano (see P. B. Whitehead in Amer. *Mum. Archae. xxxi.
p. I et seq., 1927). In this and many other temples the penates were represented by two images of youths seated holding spears.
The origin and nature of the penates publici was a subject of much discussion to the Romans themselves. They were traced to the mysterious worship of Samothrace; Dardanus, it was said, took the penates from Samothrace to Troy, and after the destruction of Troy, Aeneas brought them to Italy and estab lished them at Lavinium. From Lavinium Ascanius carried the worship to Alba Longa, and from Alba Longa it was brought to Rome. Others said they were the great gods to whom we owe breath, body, and reason, viz., Jupiter representing the middle ether, Juno the lowest air and the earth, and Minerva the highest ether, to whom some added Mercury as the god of speech (Servius, on Aen. ii. 296; Macrobius, Sat. iii. 4, 8; Arnobius, Adv. Nat. iii. 40). Others identified them with Apollo and Nep tune. The so-called Etruscan penates were said to be Ceres, Pales, and Fortuna, to whom others added Genius lovialis (Servius on Aen. ii. 325; Arnob. loc. cit.). Martianus Capella places the penates in the first of his 16 celestial regions. • See G. Wissowa, Gesammelte Abhandlungen, p. 95 et. seq. (Hermes, xxii. p. 29 et seq.) ; and in Roscher's Lexikon (s.v.) ; R. Thulin, Die Gutter des Martianus Capella.