“Great Pales help, the pastoral rites I sing,
With humble duty mentioning each thing.”
Pope.
Palla′dium. A famous statue of the goddess Pallas (Minerva). She is sitting with a spear in her right hand, and in her left a distaff and spindle. Various accounts are given of the origin of it. Some writers say it fell from the skies. It was supposed that the preservation of the statue would be the preservation of Troy; and during the Trojan War the Greeks were greatly encouraged when they became the possessors of it.
Pal′las, or Minerva. The name was given to Minerva when she destroyed a famous giant named Pallas. See Minerva.
“Apollo, Pallas, Jove, or Mercury,
Inspire me that I may this treason find.”
Shakespeare.
Pan. The Arcadian god of shepherds, huntsmen, and country folk, and chief of the inferior deities, is usually considered to have been the son of Mercury and Penelope. After his birth he was metamorphosed into the mythical form in which we find him depicted, namely, a horned, long-eared man, with the lower half of the body like a goat. He is generally seen playing a pipe made of reeds of various lengths, which he invented himself, and from which he could produce music which charmed even the gods. These are the Pan-pipes, played by Punch and Judy showmen. Pan’s terrific appearance once so frightened the Gauls when they invaded Greece that they ran away though no one pursued them; and the word panic is said to have been derived from this episode. The Fauns, who greatly resembled Pan, were his attendants.
“Piping on their reeds the shepherds go,