Di Penates

O: Two jugate heads of Di Penates Publici

D · P · P

R: Soldiers with spears pointing at lying sow

C·SV(LP)ICI·C·F

Reverse depicts scene from Aeneid. According to the prophecy, in the place where a white sow casts 30 piglets under an oak tree, a new city shall be built (Lavinium); also, a new city called after the white sow shall be built by Ascanius 30 years later (Alba Longa).

Silver serrate denarius struck by C. Sulpicius C. f. Galba in Rome 106 BC. ref.: Sulpicia 1., Sydenham 572., Crawford 312/1

Aeneas and the Penates, from a 4th-century manuscript

In ancient Roman religion, the Di Penates (Latin: [ˈdiː pɛˈnaːteːs]) or Penates (English: /pɪˈneɪtiːz/ pin-AY-teez) were among the dii familiares, or household deities, invoked most often in domestic rituals. When the family had a meal, they threw a bit into the fire on the hearth for the Penates.[1] They were thus associated with Vesta, the Lares, and the Genius of the pater familias in the "little universe" of the domus.[2]

Like other domestic deities, the Penates had a public counterpart.[3]

  1. ^ Servius, note to Aeneid 1.730, as cited by Robert Schilling, "The Penates," in Roman and European Mythologies (University of Chicago Press, 1981, 1992), p. 138.
  2. ^ Cicero, De natura deorum 2.60–69, as cited by Jane Chance, Medieval Mythography: From Roman North Africa to the School of Chartres, A.D. 433–1177 (University Press of Florida, 1994), p. 73.
  3. ^ Celia E. Schutz, Women's Religious Activity in the Roman Republic (University of North Carolina Press, 2006), p. 123.