Definition of "penates"

penates

/pɪˈnɑːtiːz/

noun
plural only
1. (Roman mythology) The household deities thought to watch over the houses and storerooms of ancient Rome.
  Quotations
  lest the name thereof being discovered unto their enemies, their Penates and Patronal Gods might be called forth by charms and incantations.
  1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, I.3
2. (figuratively) Synonym of household deities in other contexts.
  Quotations
  ...and a china shepherd and shepherdess, clothed in "a green and yellow melancholy," were the penates of the mantel-piece.
  1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XII, in Romance and Reality. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], page 101