In Roman mythology, and to a lesser extent in Greek mythology, the Palici (or Palikoi) were a pair of indigenous Sicilian chthonic gods who ruled over the geysers and thermal springs in the region of Palacia (Palacae) in Sicily.
They were also the gods of solemn oaths, which were sworn upon their hot-springs and offered refuge in their shrine to escaped slaves.
They may have been another descendant of the Indo-European Divine Twins.[1]
Parents[]
Their origin is debatable, they could have been the offspring of Zeus and a nymph Thalia, of the Sicilian god Adranos, or of Zeus and Aetna. According to the Aeneid, they could have been the sons of Vulcan (Hephaestus) and Aetna.
In the medieval book Vatican Mythographers, it ascribed their lineage to Jupiter and Aetna: Jupiter impregnated Aetna and she, fearing the wrath of Juno, was entrusted to Earth (Tellus) to protect her and her sons.
In Popular Culture[]
Literature[]
They appear in The Hidden Oracle, in the Trials of Apollo series by Rick Riordan. In the book they reside in the forests of Camp Half-Blood and are named Pete and Paulie, they help the protagonists Meg McCaffrey and Apollo.
Although in Percy Jackson's Greek Gods by Rick Riordan, they are the children of Hephaestus and the mountain nymph Aetna. They attempt to reconcile this by making it so that Thalia is a nymph daughter of Aetna and Hephaestus, and she's the mother of the Palikoi with Zeus.
External Links[]
- https://antiquitasviva.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/54.1-2.05.-witczak-k.-t.-zawiasa-d.-palici-e28093-the-sicilian-twin-brothers-and-the-indo-european-myth-about-divine-twins.pdf
- https://www.jstor.org/stable/4427356