Household gods that protect the house and family in Roman worship, kept beside the hearth. In the Aeneid they are what Aeneas holds most sacred: Hector asks him in a dream to carry them away from Troy, his father Anchises carries them in the escape because Aeneas, stained with blood, cannot touch them, and later they themselves appear to him to correct his course and point out Italy.
Where It Appears
- Book II: The Fall of Troy
- Book III: The Wandering
- Book IV: Dido
- Book VII: The Arrival in Latium
- Book VIII: The Shield
Quotes
Troy entrusts to you its sacred objects and its Penates. Take them as companions of the fates: seek for them the walls that, once you have crossed the sea, you will at last found.
Book II: The Fall of Troy, Hector
Hail, land owed to me by the fates; and you, he said, faithful Penates of Troy, hail! Here is the home, this is the homeland.
Book VII: The Arrival in Latium, Aeneas
Here you have a sure home and sure Penates, do not give up; do not be frightened by the threats of war: all the swelling of the gods' anger has subsided.