Also called Di Penates, Penates Publici.
Their story
The Penates took their name from the penus, the household store of food, and were honoured with the Lares at the family hearth. A portion of each meal was thrown into the fire or placed before them, and a salt cellar kept on the table was sacred. The state also had Penates, said to have been carried by Aeneas from burning Troy and kept in Lavinium and in the temple of Vesta. Moving house meant taking the Penates too.
Best times to give to them
- At family meals
- Kalends, Nones and Ides of each month
- Saturnalia, from 17 December
What they like being given
- A pinch of salt
- A morsel from the family meal
- Grain
- Incense
How to honour them
- Set aside a small portion of each meal for them.
- Keep the kitchen cupboard clean and orderly in their honour.
- Take a token of them with you when you move house.
How they can help you
- Keeping the household fed
- Continuity through moves
- Family unity
Symbols
- salt cellar
- store jar
- small figurines
- hearth
Sources
- Cicero, De Natura Deorum 2.68
- Virgil, Aeneid 2
- Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities 1.67-68
More Roman spirits
- The Lares Guardian spirits of the household and crossroads
- Manes The honoured spirits of the family dead
- Genius The divine double of each man and household
- Juno (personal spirit) The guardian spirit of each woman
- Lares Compitales Guardians of crossroads and neighbourhoods
- Forculus and Limentinus Spirits of the door and the threshold
- Parcae The three Fates of birth and death
- Camenae Spring goddesses of song and prophecy