Pallădium, a celebrated statue of Pallas. It was about three cubits high, and represented the goddess as sitting and holding a pike in her right hand, and in her left a distaff and a spindle. It fell down from heaven near the tent of Ilus, as that prince was building the citadel of Ilium. Some, nevertheless, suppose that it fell at Pessinus in Phrygia, or, according to others, Dardanus received it as a present from his mother Electra. There are some authors who maintain that the Palladium was made with the bones of Pelops by Abaris; but Apollodorus seems to say that it was no more than a piece of clock-work, which moved of itself. However discordant the opinions of ancient authors be about this famous statue, it is universally agreed that on its preservation depended the safety of Troy. This fatality was well known to the Greeks during the Trojan war, and therefore Ulysses and Diomedes were commissioned to steal it away. They effected their purpose; and if we rely upon the authority of some authors, they were directed how to carry it away by Helenus the son of Priam, who proved in this unfaithful to his country, because his brother Deiphobus, at the death of Paris, had married Helen, of whom he was enamoured. Minerva was displeased with the violence which was offered to her statue, and, according to Virgil, the Palladium itself appeared to have received life and motion, and by the flashes which started from its eyes, and its sudden springs from the earth, it seemed to show the resentment of the goddess. The true Palladium, as some authors observe, was not carried away from Troy by the Greeks, but only one of the statues of similar size and shape, which were placed near it, to deceive whatever sacrilegious persons attempted to steal it. The Palladium, therefore, as they say, was conveyed safe from Troy to Italy by Æneas, and it was afterwards preserved by the Romans with the greatest secrecy and veneration, in the temple of Vesta, a circumstance which none but the vestal virgins knew. Herodian, bk. 1, ch. 14, &c.—Ovid, Fasti, bk. 6, li. 442, &c.; Metamorphoses, bk. 13, li. 336.—Dictys Cretensis, bk. 1, ch. 5.—Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 12.—Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 1, &c.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 10.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 2, li. 166; bk. 9, li. 151.—Plutarch, Parallela minora.—Lucan, bk. 9.—Dares Phrygius.—Juvenal, satire 3, li. 139.
Palladius, a Greek physician, whose treatise on fevers was edited 8vo, Leiden, 1745.——A learned Roman under Adrian, &c.
Pallantēum, a town of Italy, or perhaps more properly a citadel built by Evander, on mount Palatine, from whence its name originates. Virgil says it was called after Pallas the grandfather of Evander; but Dionysius derives its name from Palantium, a town of Arcadia. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, bk. 1, ch. 31.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 8, lis. 54 & 341.
Pallantia, a town of Spain, now Palencia, on the river Cea. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 6.
Pallantias, a patronymic of Aurora, as being related to the giant Pallas. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 9, fable 12.
Pallantides, the 50 sons of Pallas the son of Pandion and the brother of Ægeus. They were all killed by Theseus the son of Ægeus, whom they opposed when he came to take possession of his father’s kingdom. This opposition they showed in hopes of succeeding to the throne, as Ægeus left no children except Theseus, whose legitimacy was even disputed, as he was born at Trœzene. Plutarch, Theseus.—Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 22.
Pallas (ădis), a daughter of Jupiter, the same as Minerva. The goddess received this name either because she killed the giant Pallas, or perhaps from the spear which she seems to brandish in her hands (παλλειν). For the functions, power, and character of the goddess, See: [Minerva].
Pallas (antis), a son of king Evander, sent with some troops to assist Æneas. He was killed by Turnus the king of the Rutuli, after he had made a great slaughter of the enemy. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 8, li. 104, &c.——One of the giants, son of Tartarus and Terra. He was killed by Minerva, who covered herself with his skin, whence, as some suppose, she is called Pallas. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 12.——A son of Crius and Eurybia, who married the nymph Styx, by whom he had Victory, Valour, &c. Hesiod, Theogony.——A son of Lycaon.——A son of Pandion, father of Clytus and Butes. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 7, fable 17.—Apollodorus.——A freedman of Claudius, famous for the power and the riches he obtained. He advised the emperor, his master, to marry Agrippina, and to adopt her son Nero for his successor. It was by his means, and those of Agrippina, that the death of Claudius was hastened, and that Nero was raised to the throne. Nero forgot to whom he was indebted for the crown. He discarded Pallas, and some time after caused him to be put to death, that he might make himself master of his great riches, A.D. 61. Tacitus, Annals, bk. 12, ch. 53.
Pallēne, a small peninsula of Macedonia, formerly called Phlegra, situate above the bay of Thermæ on the Ægean sea, and containing five cities, the principal of which is called Pallene. It was in this place, according to some of the ancients, that an engagement happened between the gods and the giants. Livy, bk. 31, ch. 45; bk. 45, ch. 30.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 4, li. 391.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 15, li. 357.——A village of Attica, where Minerva had a temple, and where the Pallantides chiefly resided. Herodotus, bk. 1, chs. 1, 161.—Plutarch, Theseus.
Pallenses, a people of Cephallenia, whose chief town was called Pala or Palæa. Livy, bk. 38, ch. 18.—Polybius, bk. 3, ch. 3.