Hail Pales
Whether god, whether goddess,
Whether male or female,
Whether one or two!
Hail Mars!
Hail goddess Palatua!
Hail to the spirit of Jupiter!
Hail goddess Roma!
Hail Pales!
We ask for the purification and well-being of our livestocks.
We pray for the stability and prosperity of our mother Rome
And the ‘local Rome’ in which we live.
We ask as well for our own cleansing from impurity.
We pray for guidance from the divine twins.
Salve Pales!
Si deus, si dea,
Sive mas, sive femina,
Si unus, si duo!
Salve Marte!
Salve diva Palatua!
Salve genius Iovalis!
Salve dea Roma!
Salve Pales!

* * * * *

The Parilia are dedicated to Pales, a shadowy figure that may be connected to the dea Palatua, the goddess of the Palatine Hill – the first area of Roman settlement. By extension, the Palatine becomes Rome itself, and the goddess Palatua, the dea Roma. The Parilia (sometimes called the Palilia) are the dies natales or birthday of Rome.

For the rustic celebration of the festival, the sheepfold is swept clean on the preceding evening and sprinkled with water and covered with leaves and branches. A festoon or wreath is placed on the gate. From Ovid we learn that on the day of the festival itself a fire is made using the wood of olive, pine, savine and laurel along with sulphur. The sheep and cattle are then lustrated by driving them through the smoke of the fire. The Pales are offered baskets of millet and cakes of the same along with pails of fresh milk. The celebrants drink sapa – a mixture of milk with warmed wine – and then leap through the flames of the bonfire.

The urban celebration is similar, although here the fire includes the februa casta – bean-straw to which has been added the blood of a horse (the equus casta or equus October) and the calf ashes from the Fordicidia. For today’s world, these offerings could take the form of cookies shaped in equine and bovine fashion and then offered  - or their ashes – to the fire. Ovid describes three fires placed in a row with the participants then springing through each. For contemporary times, a candle or candles works as well in the urban environment.

The Parilia celebrate yet again the telluric spirit upon which human nourishment depends, and a shadowy connection may be discerned between Tellus, Ceres, Mars, the genius Iovalis and Pales/the Pales. The earth’s fertility is honoured, and the warming soil is mimetically reflected in the ritual use of fire at this time. Dumézil sees the pales as two goddesses, possibly a god and goddess, but I see them more as an instance of the divine twins – Jupiter and Mars; more likely as Mars and Quirinus.