Pales

thumb|16th-century engraving of Pales, by Cornelis Cort In ancient Roman religion, Pales was a deity of shepherds, flocks and livestock. Regarded as male by some sources and female by others, Pales can be either singular or plural in Latin, and refers at least once to a pair of deities. Pales may have been a loose Roman equivalent of the Greek god Pan, also a deity of shepherds and flocks.

Pales's festival, called the Parilia, was celebrated on April 21. This coincided with the traditional "birthday" of the city of Rome itself. The festival was linked with a ritual purification for shepherds and their flocks. Sheep pens were cleaned and decorated with plants; bonfires were lit using sulphur with the smoke purifying the livestock; and offerings of cake and milk were given in honor of Pales. Shepherds could also wash themselves, drink milk, and jump through the bonfire smoke themselves. For observation in urban areas such as Rome which lacked shepherds, leftover ashes from calf fetuses burned at Fordicidia (the Ides of March, April 15) may have been sprinkled into sulphur bonfires.