PATACI, in mythology, images of gods which the Phoenicians carried on the prows of their gallees. Herodotus, lib. iv. calls them patacoi. The word is Phoenician, and derived from patheia, i. e. titulus. See Bochart's Chanaan, lib. ii. cap. 3. But Scaliger does not agree. Morin derives it from patoc, monkey, this animal having been an object of worship among the Egyptians, and hence might have been honoured by their neighbours. Mr Elmer has observed, that Herodotus does not call the patacoi gods; but that they obtained this dignity from the liberality of Hefychius and Suidas, and other ancient lexicographers, who place them at the stern of ships; whereas Herodotus placed them at the prow. Scaliger, Bochart, and Selden, have taken some pains about this subject.—Mr Morin has also given us a learned dissertation on this head in the Mémoires de l'Acad. des Inscriptions et des Belles Lettres, tom. i.; but Mr Elmer thinks it defective in point of evidence.