Di Penates

[3] An etymological interpretation of the Penates would make them in origin tutelary deities of the storeroom, Latin penus, the innermost part of the house, where they guarded the household's food, wine, oil, and other supplies.

[6] The 2nd-century AD grammarian Festus defined penus, however, as "the most secret site in the shrine of Vesta, which is surrounded by curtains.

"[7] Macrobius reports the theological view of Varro that "those who dig out truth more diligently have said that the Penates are those through whom we breathe in our inner core (penitus), through whom we have a body, through whom we possess a rational mind.

[9] The public cult of the ancestral gods of the Roman people originated in Lavinium,[10] where they were also closely linked with Vesta.

[12] Archaeological evidence from Lavinium shows marked influence from Greece in the archaic period, and Aeneas was venerated there as Jupiter Indiges.