the household gods of the Romans, both in regard to a private family and to the state, as
the great family of citizens : hence we shall have to distinguish between private and public
Penates. The name is unquestionably connected with penus, they being the
gods who were worshipped, and whose images were kept in the central part of the house, or the
penetralia, and who thus protected the whole household. (Isidor. Orig. 8.11; Fest. s. vv. Penetralia, Penus.) The
Greeks, when speaking of the Roman Penates, called them ad Horat. Epod. 2.43; Plaut.
Mler. 5.1. 5; Aulul. 2.8. 16; Mere. 5.1. 5.) Now considering that
Jupiter and Juno were regarded as the protectors and the promoters of happiness, peace, and
concord in the family, and that Jupiter is not only called a deus
penetralis (Fest. s. v. Herceus), but that sacrifices were offered
to him on the hearth along with the Lares, there can be little doubt but that Jupiter and Juno
too were worshipped as Penates. Vesta also is reckoned among the Penates (Arnob, 3.40; Macrob. l.c. ; Isid. Orig. 8.11). This statement of a great antiquarian might have deterred any one from
entering upon any further investigation; but some have nevertheless ventured upon the wide
field of speculation, and conjectured that the Penates were Neptune and Apollo, because these
divinities had surrounded Troy with walls. According to this view the Penates were the sacred
relics that were believed to have been brought from Troy to Italy (Arnob. 3.40; Macrob. l.c.) According to an Etruscan opinion the Penates were four in number, or
divided into four classes, viz. Jupiter and his suite, Neptune and his train, and the gods of
the uper and lower worlds; but this opinion is certainly based upon a view of the Penates
which is different from that entertained by the Romans. Others again believed that the Penates
were those divinities who were the representatives of the vital principle in man and nature,
that is, Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, to whom Tarquinius built a common temple on the Capitol;
and as Tarquinius was believed to have been initiated in the Samothracian mysteries, the
Penates were identified with the great gods of Sanmothrace. This was accounted for by the
supposition that the Trojan Penates who had been brought to Italy, had been introduced at Troy
from Samothrace. (l.c.) But all these opinions and conjectures are
of little value. The public Penates of the city of Rome had a chapel somewhere about the
centre of the city, in a place called sub felia. They were represented as
two youths with lances in their hands, and similar images of them existed in many other
sanctuaries. (De L. L. 5.144;
As the public Lares were worshipped in the central part of the city or country, and at the
public hearth, so the private Penates had their place at the hearth of every house; but not
only the hearth was sacred to them, but the table also. On the hearth a perpetual fire was
kept up in their honour, and the table always contained the salt-cellar and the firstlings of
fruit for these divinities. (Plit. Sympos. 7.4; Arnob. 2.67; De Fin. 2.7.) Every meal that was taken in the house thus resembled a
sacrifice offered to the Penates, beginning with a purification and ending with a libation
which was poured either on the table or upon the hearth. After every absence from the hearth,
the Penates were saluted like the living inhabitants of the house; and whoever went abroad
prayed to the Penates and Lares for a happy return, and when he came back to his house, he
hung up his armour, staff, and the like by the side of their images (Terent. Phorm. 2.1. 81; Plaut. Stick. 4.1. 29; Die Relig. der Röm. vol. i. p.
71, &c.; Klausen, Aeneas und die Pcnaten, p. 620, &c)