The Palici, or Palaci, were a pair of indigenous Sicilian chthonic deities in Roman mythology, and to a lesser extent in Greek mythology. They are mentioned in Ovid V, 406, and in Virgil IX, 585. Their cult centered around three small lakes that emitted sulphurous vapors in the Palagonia 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. The mythological lineage of the Palici is uncertain; one legend made the Palici the sons of Zeus, or possibly Hephaestus, by Aetna or Thalia, but another claimed that the Palici were the sons of the Sicilian deity Andranos.
References
- Hammond, N.G.L. & Scullard, H.H. (eds.) (1970). The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford; Oxford University Press.
- Wilson, R.J.A. (1990). Sicily under the Roman Empire. Warminster: Aris and Phillips. (p. 278)
