The Palici (

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

: , romanized: ), or Palaci, were a pair of indigenous Sicilian chthonic deities in

Roman mythology Roman mythology is the body of myths of ancient Rome as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans. One of a wide variety of genres of Roman folklore, ''Roman mythology'' may also refer to the modern study of these representa ...

, and to a lesser extent in

Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities ...

. They are mentioned in

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

's ''Metamorphoses'' V, 406, and in

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: th ...

's ''Aeneid'' IX, 585. Their cult centered on three small lakes that emitted sulphurous vapors in the

Palagonia Palagonia ( Sicilian: ''Palagunìa'', Latin: ''Palica'') is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Catania in the Italian region Sicily, located about southeast of Palermo and about southwest of Catania. Palagonia borders the ...

plain, and as a result these twin brothers were associated with geysers and the underworld. There was also a shrine to the Palaci in Palacia, where people could subject themselves or others to tests of reliability through divine judgement; passing meant that an oath could be trusted.

Genealogy

The mythological lineage of the Palici is uncertain. One version of the legend attributes their parentage to sky god

Zeus Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek reli ...

and nymph

Aetna Aetna Inc. () is an American managed health care company that sells traditional and consumer directed health care insurance and related services, such as medical, pharmaceutical, dental, behavioral health, long-term care, and disability plans, ...

. Others associate their birth to a coupling between Aetna herself and smith deity

Hephaestus Hephaestus (; eight spellings; grc-gre, Ἥφαιστος, Hḗphaistos) is the Greek god of blacksmiths, metalworking, carpenters, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metallurgy, fire (compare, however, with Hestia), and volcanoes.Walter B ...

. The "Greek version" indicate they are sons of Zeus and anoher nymph, called Thaleia. A third account claimed that the Palici were the sons of the Sicilian deity

Adranus Adranus or Adranos (Greek: ) was a fire god worshipped by the Sicels, an ancient population of the island of Sicily. His worship occurred all over the island, but particularly in the town of Adranus, modern Adrano, near Mount Etna. According to ...

. The medieval ''

Vatican Mythographers The so-called Vatican Mythographers ( la, Mythographi Vaticani) are the anonymous authors of three Latin mythographical texts found together in a single medieval manuscript, Vatican Reg. lat. 1401. The name is that used by Angelo Mai when he publi ...

'' book ascribed their lineage to Zeus and Aetna: Zeus (Jupiter) impregnated Aetna and she, fearing the wrath of Hera (Juno), was entrusted to Earth to protect her and her sons.

Interpretations

The second book of the ''Vatican Mythographers'' translated their name as 'twice-born'. Scholar Marcel Meulder argues for an

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo- ...

origin for their name, and relates it to a group of Greek compound names that belong to the semantic field of colours (e.g., ''leuko'' 'white'; ''melas'' 'black'). Thus, their name would mean 'of a white colour, of a grey colour, of a yellow colour' ("blanchâtre, jaunâtre, grisâtre”"). He also suggests it as evidence of the Indo-European character of the Siculian language. Polish historian Krzysztof Tomasz Witczak and Daria Zawiasa suggest the Palici may derive from the old

Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...

mytheme of the

divine twins The Divine Twins are youthful horsemen, either gods or demigods, who serve as rescuers and healers in Proto-Indo-European mythology. Like other Proto-Indo-European divinities, the Divine Twins are not directly attested by archaeological or writt ...

. they argue that the pair fit some of the common traits that scholar Donald J. Ward ascribed to the mytheme, such as a

sky-god The sky often has important religious significance. Many religions, both polytheistic and monotheistic, have deities associated with the sky. The daytime sky deities are typically distinct from the nighttime ones. Stith Thompson's ''Motif ...

's paternity and a single designation for both twins.Witczak K. T., Zawiasa D. (2004).
Palici – the Sicilian Twin Brothers and the Indo- European Myth about Divine Twins
. In: ''Živa Antika'' ntiquité Vivante54(1–2), 2004, pp. 56–60.

Notes

References

*Hammond, N.G.L. & Scullard, H.H. (eds.). ''The Oxford Classical Dictionary'' (Oxford; Oxford University Press. 1970). *Wilson, R.J.A. ''Sicily under the Roman Empire'' (Warminster: Aris and Phillips, 1990), p. 278. * Maniscalco, Laura (ed.). ''Il santuario dei Palici: un centro di culto nella Valle del Margi'' (Palermo: Regione Siciliana, 2008) (Collana d'Area. Quaderno n. 11). * * Meurant, Alain. ''Les Paliques, dieux jumeaux siciliens''. Louvain-la-Neuve: Peeters, 1998. .

Genealogy

Interpretations

Notes

References

Further reading