PATELLA
PATELLA (
λεκάνιον,
λεκανίς,
λεκανίδιον,
λεκανίσκη,
λοπάδιον), a small dish or plate. The word is a diminutive of PATINA: a supposed connexion with
patera has been a source of error to some writers
[
PATERA]. 1. The patella was
used for holding solid food, meat or vegetables, either in cooking (
Plin. Nat. 19.171, 30.68), or for serving
up at table (
Hor. Ep. 1.5,
2;
Mart. 5.78,
13.81;
Juv. 5.85). It
was usually of earthenware (
Mart. 14.114), but
sometimes of metal (
Juv. 10.64). Marquardt
(
Privatleben, p. 651) takes the patella used for cooking
to be identical with the
sartago: it seems more
probable that, though of the same flat shape, it was smaller. [For the
deeper cooking vessels, see AENUM, LEBES, OLLA.]
2. The patella was also a sacred vessel of the same shape as the ordinary
patella, but reserved for domestic sacred rites, especially for the offering
of food to the Lares,
lances being used when a
larger dish was needed [
LANX].
Hence it is called
cultrix foci (Pers. 3.26;
cf.
Ov. Fast. 6.310); and hence, too, every
household ought to have one kept solely for religious uses, and Cicero
(
de Fin. 2.7, 22) notes it as a mark of
profanity, “ut edint de patella,” meaning of course the patella
used for offerings. This sacred dish was, if possible, of silver; even in
comparatively poor households it was customary to have at least a patella,
patera, salinum, and censer of silver (
Cic. Ver.
4.21, 46); and in B.C. 410, as is
mentioned by
Liv. 26.36, in the general
contribution of silver plate, it was provided that the householder should
retain a salinum and patella of silver “deorum causa” (cf.
Plin. Nat. 30.153;
V. Max. 4.4,
3;
Marquardt,
Privatl. p. 318). Of this offering Varro says,
“Quocirca oportet bonum civem legibus parere et deos colere, in
patellam dare
μικρὸν κρέας”
[see further under
LARARIUM],
and the Lares are thence called by Plautus
patellarii
dii (
Cist. 2.1, 46).
[
G.E.M]
