Di Penates

penātēs, di, in Roman religion, ‘the gods dwelling in the store cupboard’ (penus, ‘provisions’), who had their images in the atrium of every Roman house and were regarded together with the lares as protectors of the house. There were also state penates (penates publici, protectors of Rome); their cult was attached to the temple of Vesta. According to Virgil, Aeneas had brought these to Italy from Troy. For Virgil, not only Rome and Troy had their penates but even Carthage, the city of a hated enemy; similarly in the fourth Georgic the bees, the most human-like of the animal creation, ‘have their penates and their fixed abode’. The worship of the domestic penates and lares centred on the family meal: a portion was set aside and thrown on the flames of the hearth for the gods, and the table always held a salt cellar and small offerings of first-fruits for them. A member of the family, returning after an absence, would greet the penates as living members of the household, the traveller's stick perhaps hung up beside their images. Generally speaking, every notable event of family life involved a prayer to the lares and penates.

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Topics in Roman mythology
Important Gods:
Jupiter	Minerva
Mars	Mercury
Quirinus	Vulcan
Vesta	Ceres
Juno	Venus
Fortuna	Lares
Topics
Roman Kingdom
Religion in ancient Rome
Flamens
Roman, Greek, and Etruscan mythologies compared
Other minor Roman deities:
Penates	Lemures
Genius	Manes
Terminus
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In Roman mythology, the Di Penates or briefly Penates were originally patron gods (really geniuses) of the storeroom, later becoming household gods guarding the entire household. They were related to the Lares, Genii and Lemures. Penates are referred to in Propertius (iv.i).

They can also be associated with the ascendancy of a Roman family, penates being the spirits of the ancestors. Roman houses used to have a little shrine at the entrance dedicated to the goddess Vesta (goddess of the home). In this shrine little statues of the penates were kept.

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