Page:Greek and Roman Mythology.djvu/170

 156 GREEK AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY Pales was the special tutelary goddess of pastures and herds of cattle, as her name indicates, being con- nected with pd-sco (<to pasture') (c/. Pan). In Kome the seat of her worship was on the Palatium (Palatine hill), which was probably named after her. On the 21st of April the Palllia (or Parilia) were celebrated in her honor, a feast at which sheep and stables were purified and consecrated by water and bloodless sacrifices. For the same purpose shepherds and flocks leaped over heaps of burning straw. A similar custom prevailed at the feast of Feronia, and is still in vogue in Germany at the bonfires on Easter eve and St. John's day. 203. Diana should probably be added to this series of goddesses of fruitfulness. Like all the others, she was worshiped in well-watered groves (Diana Nemoren- sis), especially on Mount Tifata, near Capua, and in the vicinity of Tusculum, near Aricia. At Aricia the custom was for him to succeed to the priesthood who should slay his predecessor with a bough broken in the sacred grove. This was evidently a kind of human sacrifice which was offered with the assistance of the goddess herself, who manifested her power in her trees. At Rome her an- cient temple was situated on the Aventine. Here, and throughout Italy, her principal feast was kept on the Ides of August, a day on which sacrifices were offered to Vertumnus also. In Aricia there was a torchlight procession in the early morning to honor her, just as Pales was worshiped at sunrise, and Flora by lighting candles. 1 Like Feronia, she protected slaves, evidently those especially that had fled into the forest which was 1 Mater Matuta, for whom the Matralia ('mother festival') were observed, was, like Diana, a goddess both of the dawn and of birth.