Palikoi
The Palikoi ( Greek Παλικοί "returnees", Latin Palici ) are chthonic twin deities of Sicily in Greco-Roman mythology.
myth
The Palikoi are considered children of Zeus and Thalia. In Macrobius' Aitnaiai of Aeschylus is quoted from the lost piece . Accordingly, Thalia (or Aitne / Aitna / Aetna) was a Sicilian girl who was impregnated by Zeus and - as so often - was then persecuted by the jealousy of Zeus' wife Hera to such an extent that she wished the earth would devour her. This also happened in this case, but after the end of the pregnancy the earth opened up again and released the twin sons (hence the name "returnees"). Aeschylus, who had just arrived in Sicily at the time, is said to have performed the piece to recommend himself to the tyrant Hieron , who had recently founded the city of Aitne .
In another version, the Palikoi are considered the sons of Hephaestus and the Oceanid Aitna , or of Adranos identified with Hephaestus . In Nonnos , the Lemnian Kabiren are identified with the Sicilian Palikoi.
Originally the Palikoi were deities of the Sikeler . The sanctuary, which was located near a lake, the Palicorum Lacus ( Lago di Nafta ), was discovered in 1962 in a grotto near Palagonia , which lies at the foot of a hill known today as Rochitella . A cult establishment existed from the 6th century BC. Until the imperial era. Although the lake is only small, it was already considered sacred in the earliest times due to the volcanic outgassing below the surface of the water, especially in two places where geyser- like phenomena occurred when the gas escaped violently and the water shot up in fountains. These two places are called by Diodor Krateras ( κρατῆρας "[volcanic] cauldron").
It was the volcanic gases and sulfur fumes that made the stay uncomfortable, and the Palikoi were also considered dark, subterranean deities. At Ovid , the lake is on the path of the god Pluto , who brings the newly stolen Proserpine to the underworld. But the sanctuary granted asylum, gave oracles and people went to it to swear particularly reliable oaths, because it was believed that the twin gods would blind anyone who swore perjury in their place (as with Diodorus).
There must have been a great fear of breaking an oath sworn by the Palikoi, because Diodorus reports that the sanctuary was in particular an asylum for runaway slaves who otherwise did not know how to save themselves from the brutality of their masters. However, they were safe in the holy district and could stay until they had negotiated humane treatment concessions with their masters, and these were secured by oaths sworn by the Palikoi. So great is the holy shyness of the cruel gentlemen that no case is known in which such an oath has ever been broken.
The sanctuary's reputation as an asylum for runaway slaves may also have been the reason that it was used as a place of negotiations in the Second Slave War in 102 BC. Was selected. Salvius , the "king" of the rebellious slaves, offered the palikoi generous sacrifices as thanks for the help they had always given to the slaves.
Near the sanctuary, the Sicilian leader Duketios founded 453 BC. The city of Palike as the center of his Siculian empire by having the 459 BC. BC also by him founded city Menainon transplanted into the plain.
swell
- Diodor Library 11.88f, 36.3.3 and 36.7.1
- Macrobius convivia primi diei Saturnaliorum ("Table discussions at the Saturnalia Festival") 5.19.15-31
- Ovid Metamorphoses 5.406f
- Servius commentarius in Vergilii Aeneida 9.584
- Strabon Geographica 6.2.9
- Virgil Aeneid 9,585.
literature
- Gaetano G. Cosentini: Intorno al mito siciliano dei Palici. In: The Power of the Past. Myth and Reality of Classical Culture. Files from the German-Italian conference of the Centrum Latinitatis Europae Berlin, November 29-30, 2003. Ed. By Gherardo Ugolini. Classical texts and studies. Volume 39. Olms, Hildesheim et al. 2005, pp. 159-168
- Jean-Luc Lamboley: Palikoi. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 9, Metzler, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-476-01479-7 , column 187 f.
- Laura Maniscalco, BE McConnell: The sanctuary of the divine Palikoi (Rocchicella di Mineo, Sicily). Fieldwork from 1995 to 2001. In: American Journal of Archeology 107 (2003), pp. 145-180
- William Smith : Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography 1854, sv Palicorum Lacus [1]
- Konrat Ziegler : Palikoi. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XVIII, 3, Stuttgart 1949, Col. 100-123.
Web links
- Palikoi in the Theoi Project