Pĕnātes

, certain inferior deities among the Romans, who presided over houses and the domestic affairs of families. They were called Penates , because they were generally placed in the innermost and most secret parts of the house, in Pen it is simâ ædium parte, quod , as Cicero says, penitus insident . The place ♦ where they stood was afterwards called penetralia , and they themselves received the name of Penetrales . It was in the option of every master of a family to choose his Penates, and therefore Jupiter, and some of the superior gods, are often invoked as patrons of domestic affairs. According to some, the gods Penates were divided into four cla es; the first comprehended all the celestial, the second the sea-gods, the third the gods of hell, and the last all such heroes as had received divine honours after death. The Penates were originally the manes of the dead, but when superstition had taught mankind to pay uncommon reverence to the statues and images of their deceased friends, their attention was soon exchanged for regular worship, and they were admitted by their votaries to share immortality and power over the world, with a Jupiter or a Minerva. The statues of the Penates were generally made with wax, ivory, silver, or earth, according to the affluence of the worshipper, and the only offerings they received were wine, incense, fruits, and sometimes the sacrifice of lambs, sheep, goats, . In the early ages of Rome, human sacrifices were offered to them; but Brutus, who expelled the Tarquins, abolished this unnatural custom. When offerings were made to them, their statues were crowned with garlands, poppies, or garlic, and besides the monthly day that was set apart for their worship, their festivals were celebrated during the Saturnalia. Some have confounded the Lares and the Penates, but they were different. Cicero , de Natura Deorum , bk. 2 , ch. 27 ; Against Verres , bk. 2 .— Dionysius of Halicarna us , bk. 1 . ♦ ‘were’ replaced with ‘where’