PATÆCI, in Mythology, images of gods which the Phœnicians carried upon the prows of their gallees. Herodotus denominates them parwmi. The word is Phœnician, and derived from pethica, signifying titulus.1 But Scaliger does not agree in this, and Morin derives it from πένταξ, monkey, an animal which had been an object of worship amongst the Egyptians, and might therefore have been honoured by their neighbours. Mr Elsner has observed, however, that Herodotus does not call the patæci gods; but that they obtained this dignity from the liberality of Hesychius, 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 bestowed some pains upon this subject; and Morin has likewise inserted a learned dissertation concerning it, in the Mémoires de l'Acad. des Inscrip. et des Belles Lettres; but Mr Elsner thinks it defective in point of evidence.