A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

PENATES. PENELOPE. 183
hence the expression of Varro, that the number Die Relig. der RMm. vol. i. p. 71, &c.; Klausen,
and names of the Penates were indefinite (ap. Aeneas und die Penaten, p. 620, &c.) [L. S.]
Arnob. iii. 40; Macrob. I. c.; Isid. Orig. viii. 11). PENEIUS (rI.vTeis), also called Peneus, a
This statement of a great antiquarian might have Thessalian river god, and a son of Oceanus and
deterred any one from entering upon any further Tethys. (Hes. Theog. 343; Hom. II. ii. 757; Ov.
investigation; but some have nevertheless ven- Met. i. 568, &c.) By the Naiad Creusa he betured upon the wide field of speculation, and con- came the father of Hypseus, Stilbe, and Daphne.
jectured that the Penates were Neptune and (Diod. i. 69; Ov. Ans. iii. 6. 31; Hygin. Fab. 203;
Apollo, because these divinities had surrounded Serv. ad Ae4. i. 93; Ov. Met. iv. 452; Pind.
Troy with walls. According to this view the Pe- Pyis. ix. 26, where the Scholiast, instead of Creusa,
nates were the sacred relics that were believed to mentions Phillyra, the daughter of Asopus.) Cyhave been brought from Troy to Italy (Arnob. iii. rene also is called by some his wife, and by others
40; Macrob. 1. c.) According to an Etruscan opinion his daughter, and hence Peneius is called the gethe Penates were four in number, or divided into nitor of Aristaeus. (Hygin. Fab. 161; Virg.
four classes, viz. Jupiter and his suite, Neptune Georg. iv. 355.) [L. S.]
and his train, and the gods of the upper and lower PENE'LEOS (Inlve'Aew s), son of Hippalcmus
worlds; but this opinion is certainly based upon a and Asterope, and one of theArgonauts. He was the
view of the Penates which is different from that father of Opheltes, and is also mentioned among
entertained by the Romans. Others again believed the suitors of Helen. (Apollod. i. 9. ~ 16, iii. 10.
that the Penates were those divinities who were ~ 8, where he is erroneously called a son of Leitus;
the representatives of the vital principle in man Diod. iv. 67; Paus. ix. 5. ~ 8; Hygin. Fab. 97;
and nature, that is, Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, to Plut. Quaest. Gr. 37.) He was one of the leaders,whom Tarquinius built a common temple on the of the Boeotians in the war against Troy, where he
Capitol; and as Tarquinius was believed to have slew Ilioneus and Lycon, and was wounded by
been initiated in the Samothracian mysteries, the Polydamas. (Hom. Il. ii. 494, xiv. 487, &c. xvi.
Penates were identified with the great gods of 341, xvii. 597, &c.; comp. Virg. Aen. ii. 425.) He
Samnothrace. This was accounted for by the sup- is said to have been slain by Eurypylus, the son
position that the Trojan Penates who had been of Telephus. (Paus. ix. 5. ~ 8; Dict. Cret. iv.
brought to italy, had been introduced at Troy 17.) [L. S.]
from Samothrace. (Dionys. i. 68.; Serv. ad Aen. PENE'LOPE (U7IveXohWr7, rives'eiry7, MIIVreNAii. 325, iii. 148; Macrob. 1. c.) But all these irera), a daughter of lcarius and Periboea of
opinions and conjectures are of little value. The Sparta (Hom. Od. i. 329; Apollod. iii. 10. ~ 6;
public Penates of the city of Rome had a chapel comp. ICARIus.) According to Didymus, Penelope
somewhere about the centre of the city, in a place was originally called Ameirace, Arnacia, or Arcalled sub Velia. They were represented as two naea, and Nauplius or her own parents are said to
youths with lances in their hands, and similar have cast her into the sea (Tzetz. ad Lye. 792),
images of them existed in many other sanctuaries. where she was fed by sea-birds (7rve7'oWrEs) from
(Dionys. i. 68; Liv. xlv. 16.) Lavinium, the cen- which she derived her name. (Eustath. ad Horn.
tral point of Latiarm, too, had the Penates, who p. 1422.) She was married to Odysseus, king of
had been brought by Aeneas from Troy (Varr. Ithaca, by whom she had an only child, TelemaDe L. L. v. 144; Dionys. i. 67), and every chus, who was yet an infant at the time when her
Roman consul, dictator, and praetor, immediately husband went with the Greeks to Troy. (Od. xi.
after entering upon his office, was bound to offer 447, xxi. 158.) During the long absence of Odysup a sacrifice to the Penates and Vesta at Lanu- seus, she was beleaguered by numerous and imvium. (Macrob. Sat. iii. 4.) portunate suitors, whom she deceived by declaring
As the public Lares were worshipped in the that she must finish a large shroud which she was
central part of the city or country, and at the making for Laertes, her aged father-in-law, before
public hearth, so the private Penates had their she should make up her mind. During the day
place at the hearth of every house; but not time she accordingly worked at the shroud, and ill
only the hearth was sacred to them, but the the night she undid the work of the day. (Od.
table also. On the hearth a perpetual fire xix. 149, &c., comp. ii. 121; Propert. ii. 9. 5.) By
was kept up in their honour, and the table al- this means she succeeded in putting off the suitors.
ways contained the salt-cellar and the firstlings But at length her stratagem was betrayed by her
of fruit for these divinities. (Plut. Sympos. vii. servants; and when, in consequence, the faithful
4; Arnob. ii. 67; Liv. xxvi. 36; Val. Max. iv. Penelope, who was pining and longing for her
4. ~ 3; Cic. De-Fin. ii. 7.) Every meal that was husband's return, was pressed more and more by
taken in the house thus resembled a sacrifice the impatient suitors, Odysseus at length arrived
offered to the Penates, beginning with a purifica- in Ithaca, and as she recognised him by several
tion and ending with a libation which was poured signs, she heartily welcomed him, and the days of
either on the table or upon the hearth. After her grief and sorrow were at an end. (Od. xvii.
every absence from the hearth, the Penates 103, xxiii. 205, xxiv. 192; Eurip. Orest. 588, &c.;
were saluted like the living inhabitants of the Ov. Ileroid. i. 83; Trist. v. 14; Propert. iii. 12.
house; and whoever went abroad prayed to the 23, &c.; comp. ICARIUS and ODYSSEus.) While
Penates and Lares for a happy return, and when the Homeric tradition describes Penelope as a
he came back to his house, he hung up his most chaste and faithful wife, later writers charge
armour, staff, and the like by the side of their her with the very opposite vices, and relate that
images (Terent. Phorm. ii. 1. 81; Plaut. Stich. iv. by Hermes or by all the suitors together she be.
1. 29; Ov. Trist. i. 3. 41, iv. 8. 21), and on the came the mother of Pan. (Lycoph. 772; Schol.
whole, there was no event occurring in a family, ad Herod. ii. 145; Cic. De Nat. Deor. iii. 22;
whether sad or joyfill, in which people did not comp. PAN.) Odysseus on his return for this
pray to the Lares and Penates. (Comp. Hartung, reason repudiated her, whereupon she went to
N 4