Palēis, or Palæ, a town in the island of Cephallenia. Pausanias, bk. 6, ch. 15.
Pales, the goddess of sheepfolds and of pastures among the Romans. She was worshipped with great solemnity at Rome, and her festivals, called Palilia, were celebrated the very day that Romulus began to lay the foundation of the city of Rome. Virgil, Georgics, bk. 3, lis. 1 & 294.—Ovid, Fasti, bk. 4, li. 722, &c.—Paterculus, bk. 1, ch. 8.
Palfurius Sura, a writer, removed from the senate by Domitian, who suspected him of attachment to Vitellius, &c. Juvenal, satire 4, li. 53.
Palibothra, a city of India, supposed now to be Patna, or, according to others, Allahabad. Strabo, bk. 15.
Palīci, or Palisci, two deities, sons of Jupiter by Thalia, whom Æschylus calls Ætna, in a tragedy which is now lost, according to the words of Macrobius. The nymph Ætna, when pregnant, entreated her lover to remove her from the pursuit of Juno. The god concealed her in the bowels of the earth, and when the time of her delivery was come, the earth opened, and brought into the world two children, who received the name of Palici, ἀπο του παλιν ἰκεσθαι, because they came again into the world from the bowels of the earth. These deities were worshipped with great ceremonies by the Sicilians, and near their temple were two small lakes of sulphureous water, which were supposed to have sprung out of the earth at the same time that they were born. Near these pools it was usual to take the most solemn oaths, by those who wished to decide controversies and quarrels. If any of the persons who took the oaths perjured themselves, they were immediately punished in a supernatural manner; and those whose oath, by the deities of the place, was sincere, departed unhurt. The Palici had also an oracle, which was consulted upon great emergencies, and which rendered the truest and most unequivocal answers. In a superstitious age, the altars of the Palici were stained with the blood of human sacrifices, but this barbarous custom was soon abolished, and the deities were satisfied with their usual offerings. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 9, li. 585.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, li. 506.—Diodorus, bk. 2.—Macrobius, Saturnalia, bk. 5, ch. 10.—Silius Italicus, bk. 14, li. 219.
Palīlia, a festival celebrated by the Romans, in honour of the goddess Pales. The ceremony consisted in burning heaps of straw, and leaping over them. No sacrifices were offered, but the purifications were made with the smoke of horses’ blood, and with the ashes of a calf that had been taken from the belly of his mother, after it had been sacrificed, and with the ashes of beans. The purification of the flocks was also made with the smoke of sulphur, of the olive, the pine, the laurel, and the rosemary. Offerings of mild cheese, boiled wine, and cakes of millet, were afterwards made to the goddess. This festival was observed on the 21st of April, and it was during the celebration that Romulus first began to build his city. Some call this festival Parilia quasi a pariendo, because the sacrifices were offered to the divinity for the fecundity of the flocks. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 14, li. 774; Fasti, bk. 4, li. 721, &c.; bk. 6, li. 257.—Propertius, bk. 4, poem 1, li. 19.—Tibullus, bk. 2, poem 5, li. 87.
Pălĭnūrus, a skilful pilot of the ship of Æneas. He fell into the sea in his sleep, and was three days exposed to the tempests and the waves of the sea, and at last came safe to the sea-shore near Velia, where the cruel inhabitants of the place murdered him to obtain his clothes. His body was left unburied on the sea-shore, and as, according to the religion of the ancient Romans, no person was suffered to cross the Stygian lake before 100 years were elapsed, if his remains had not been decently buried, we find Æneas, when he visited the infernal regions, speaking to Palinurus, and assuring him, that though his bones were deprived of a funeral, yet the place were his body was exposed should soon be adorned with a monument and bear his name, and accordingly a promontory was called Palinurus, now Palinuro. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 3, li. 513; bk. 5, li. 840, &c.; bk. 6, li. 341.—Ovid, de Remedia Amoris, li. 577.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 4.—Strabo.—Horace, bk. 3, ode 4, li. 28.
Paliscōrum, or Palīcōrum stagnum, a sulphureous pool in Sicily. See: [Palici].
Paliurus, now Nahil, a river of Africa, with a town of the same name at its mouth, at the west of Egypt, on the Mediterranean. Strabo, bk. 17.
Pallădes, certain virgins of illustrious parents, who were consecrated to Jupiter by the Thebans of Egypt. It was required that they should prostitute themselves, an infamous custom which was considered as a purification, during which they were publicly mourned, and afterwards they were permitted to marry. Strabo, bk. 17.