In Roman mythology, Pales was a deity of shepherds, flocks and
livestock. Regarded as a male by some sources and a female by
others, and even possibly as a pair of deities (as Pales could
be either singular or plural in Latin).
Pales' festival, called the Parilia, was celebrated on April
21. Cattle were driven through bonfires on this day. Another
festival to Pales, apparently dedicated "to the two Pales"
(Palibus duobus) was held on July 7.
Marcus Atilius Regulus built a temple to Pales in Rome
following his victory over the Salentini in 267 BC. It is
generally thought to have been located on the Palatine Hill,
but, being a victory monument, it may have been located on the
route of the triumphal procession, either on the Campus
Martius or the Aventine Hill. - Wikipedia
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a Roman divinity of flocks and shepherds, is described by some
as a male, and by others as a female divinity; whence some
modern writers have inferred that Pales was a combination of
both sexes; but such a monstrosity is altogether foreign to
the religion of the Romans. (Verg. A. 3.1, 297, Georg. 3.1;
Serv. ad Virg. Eclog. 5.35; Ov. Fast. 4.721, 746, 766; Dionys.
A. R. 1.88 ; Athen. 8.361.) Some of the rites performed at the
festival of Pales, which was celebrated on the 21 st of April,
the birth-day of the city of Rome, would indeed seem to
indicate, that the divinity was a female character; but
besides the express statements to the contrary (Serv. ad Virg.
Georg. 3.1; Arnob. ad v. Gent. 3.23; Martian. cap. i. p. 27),
there also are other reasons for believing that Pales was a
male divinity. The name seems to be connected with Palatinus,
the centre of all the earliest legends of Rome, and the god
himself was with the Romans the embodiment of the same idea as
Pan among the Greeks. Respecting the festival of the Palilia
see Dict. of Ant. s. v. (Hartung, Die Relig. der Röm. vol. ii.
p. 148, &c.) - A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and
mythology, William Smith, Ed.
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