In Plato

Plato

Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...

's Symposium

Symposium (Plato)

The Symposium is a philosophical text by Plato dated c. 385–380 BCE. It concerns itself at one level with the genesis, purpose and nature of love....

, Penae ("deficiency" or "poverty" in Latin) or Penia - Πενία ("deficiency" or "poverty" in Greek) was the personification of poverty

Poverty

Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...

 and need. She married Porus at Aphrodite

Aphrodite

Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation.Her Roman equivalent is the goddess .Historically, her cult in Greece was imported from, or influenced by, the cult of Astarte in Phoenicia....

's birthday and was sometimes considered the mother of Eros. Her sisters are Amechania

Amechania

Amechania was the ancient Greek spirit of helplessness. She was regarded as a close companion of Penia and Ptocheia. She was virtually identical to Aporia. Amechania was mentioned by ancient Greek authors such as Alcaeus and Herodotus....

 and Ptocheia

Ptocheia

Ptocheia was the ancient Greek female spirit of beggary. She was regarded as a companion of Penia and Amechania. Her opposites were Euthenia and Ploutos. She was mentioned by Aristophanes in his work entitled Plutus ....

. Penia was also mentioned by other ancient Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

 writers such as Alcaeus

Alcaeus

Alcaeus may refer to:*Alcaeus , a writer of ten plays of the Old Comedy.*Alcaeus , one of several figures of this name in Greek mythology*12607 Alcaeus - a main belt asteroid...

 (Fragment 364), Theognis

Theognis

Theognis was a member of the Thirty Tyrants of Athens . Lysias was able to escape from the house of Damnippus, where Theognis was guarding other aristocrats rounded up by the Thirty....

 (Fragment 1; 267, 351, 649), Aristophanes

Aristophanes

Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...

 (Plutus

Plutus (play)

Plutus is an Ancient Greek comedy by the playwrightAristophanes, first produced c. 388 BC. A political satire on contemporary Athens, it features the personified god of wealth Plutus...

, 414ff), Herodotus

Herodotus

Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...

, Plutarch

Plutarch

Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...

 (Life of Themistocles), and Philostratus

Philostratus

Philostratus or Lucius Flavius Philostratus , , called "the Athenian", was a Greek sophist of the Roman imperial period. His father was a minor sophist of the same name. He was born probably around 172, and is said by the Suda to have been living in the reign of emperor Philip the Arab . His death...

(Life of Appollonius).