ancient pair of local Sicilian gods who presided over the twin geysers still called Lago dei Palici, near Palagonia. The site became an asylum for escaped slaves, hence its importance as a symbol during the Sicilian slave revolts during the second half of the 2nd century BC. The Palici were only local, volcanic gods, divine derivatives of the geysers that they represented, but the mythographers made them the offspring of Zeus or Hephaestus.