The Palici

The Palici

by Ignazio Caloggero

The Palici lakes in an eighteenth-century watercolor

Reference page: Repertory of Cults and Myths

Origins of the Myth

Also the cult of the Palici is probably to be attributed to the Sicilian period. They were twins who can be considered as the personification of two sulphurous-thermal springs whose site is that of the Naftia lake, near Palagonia (town in the province of Catania). These phenomena have now ceased, but were extensively described by historians, Diodorus Siculus [lib. XI 89], Tommaso Fazello [History of Sicily. (first decade, book 3, second chapter)] and Adolfo Holm [History of Sicily in antiquity. vol. I p. 170].

It is likely that, before the myth was born from the fertile Greek imagination, the simplest genealogy considers the Palici to be the sons of the Sicilian god Adrano and the nymph Etna . The attempt by Greek and Roman writers to find connections and kinship with national deities led to paternity first being attributed to Hephaestus , the god of volcanoes, then, in a later reworking, to Zeus (the Roman Jupiter). The latter, betraying his wife Hera, had an affair with the nymph Thalia . The nymph, having become pregnant and knowing what the vengeful Hera was capable of, decided to ask Zeus for help, who hid her underground, where, when the time came for the birth, the twins were born.

The Palici were compared to the Dioscuri (the common name for Castor and Pollux, also sons of Zeus), but also to the Cabeiri of Samothrace. This was perhaps because some Greeks considered both the Palici and the Cabri, sons of Hephaestus [Ciaceri Emanuele: Cults and Myths of Ancient Sicily p. 27] (the god Vulcan of the Latins), the deity who dwelt within volcanoes; and the craters that gave rise to the cult of the Palici are, in fact, volcanic. The Dioscuri themselves have been identified with the Cabeiri , who were deities of the Pelasgians, who spread their cult to the island of Samothrace. Since the Dioscuri were considered protectors of navigation, the association of the Palici with the Dioscuri meant that the former were also called "navigating gods" and were, therefore, elevated to the role of protectors of navigation.

Note: With the term Pelasgians the ancients indicated the pre-Indo-European populations who inhabited Greece before the Hellenes and who would have spread throughout Greece, Asia Minor and probably also southern Italy.

A sanctuary was soon born near the Naftia lake, considered among the oldest and most revered in Sicily where solemn oaths were taken.

According to legend, perjury was punished by the gods, with blindness, or sudden flames engulfed him and reduced him to ashes in the presence of all.

It is known that still today, in some parts of the south (and beyond), the "loss of eye sight" is invoked in case of perjury. According to some, the ritual consisted in writing the oath on a tablet which was then thrown into the lake. If the tablet had floated the oath would have been true otherwise it was in the presence of a perjurer.

It is probable that the legend hides the memory of ancient human sacrifices which, as Holm states, have been mitigated over the centuries, with blinding replacing the killing [Adolfo Holm: Storia della Sicilia nella antica antica. vol. I p. 171].

The water of the “lacus ebullientes” and the fact that the Palici are considered subterranean deities, have contributed to the affirmation, as happens for the cave of Lillibeo (Marsala), of the belief that the sanctuary was the seat of an oracle. It is said that, during a famine, the oracle of the Palici suggested to the Siculi to make sacrifices in honor of a Sicilian hero ( Pediocrates ). Once the famine was over, the Siculi “gathered on the altar of the Palici every kind of grain” [Ciaceri Emanuele: Culti e Miti dell'Antica Sicilia p. 32 (quoting Macrobius V.19,22 and 19,30) This last detail connects the cult of the Palici with that of a Sicilian hero]. Virgil also speaks of an altar of the Palici, rich in gifts, located in a wood on the banks of the Simeto (Aeneid Book IX, 845 and following).

As happened with other pagan deities linked to the underground, the advent of Christianity favored the birth of legends in which demons took the place of the Palici. Pitrè in his “Spettacoli e Feste”, speaking of Saint Agrippina , tells of a place, two miles from Mineo, home to subterranean demons who flee at the sight of the body of the Saint. A direct connection with the Dioscuri, and therefore with the Palici, would derive from the fact that, in the same story, it is said that the demons in question had previously been driven out by St. Paul from the body of Dioscorus' daughter [Giuseppe Pitrè: Spettacoli e feste popolari siciliane p. 284]. The place was called Lamia, from the name of a witch who worked in the area; this detail, combined with the fact that the lake was also called Donna Fetia, could lead one to think, as Holm states [History of Sicily in Antiquity p. 170], that the cult of the Palici was replaced by that of a fairy. It is probable, however, as Biagio Pace states [Art and Civilization of Ancient Sicily. Vol. III p. 525.], that the name is of Arabic origin, in fact "ayn" in Arabic means "source", later translated as "woman".

At this sanctuary, towards the fifth century BC, the Sicilian king Ducezio called the Sicilian populations, gathered in a confederation, to revolt against the Greeks of Sicily, founding the city of Palikè near the sanctuary. After the defeat suffered by Ducezio, the city was soon abandoned but the sanctuary retained its importance, also due to the protection it offered to those who took refuge there (something similar has happened for centuries in churches and convents which have constituted a sacred asylum for whoever asked). This protection was much appreciated by fugitive slaves during the period of the servile wars, to the point that, later, the Palici were considered protectors of slaves.

The remains of the city of Palikè and of the sanctuary of the Palici must have been clearly visible at the time of Fazello who wrote about it:

"Today the remains of it still exist on the same hill, which however are included in a not large area, as well as around the lake, many parts of the same temple, largely destroyed". [History of Sicily. (first decade, book 3, second chapter.]

The hill indicated by Fazello is located on a small hill called "la Rocchicella", where the remains of houses and pottery dating from the Bronze Age to the XNUMXth century have been found. BC A stairway carved into the rock was also found which connects the top of the hill with a natural cave which is positioned at its end. In front of the cave the remains of a building were found which can most probably be identified with the ancient sanctuary which, on the basis of the material discovered, seems to have been frequented up to the imperial age.

The Myth in the IWB Register of the Sicily Region

The Sicilian Region has included the Myth of the Palici in the LIM (Places of Identity and Memory) register – Places of the Gods and Minor Deities. The location identified in the register is Lake Naftia (Mineo, Catania Province).

Highlights