Part 251: Palladion

PERSONA MYTHOLOGY UPDATE

Let's talk about Palladion.


A palladion was an ancient image or statue upon which a city's safety depended. It was closely linked to Pallas Athena, one of the most common incarnations of the goddess. Apparently several different Greek cities had a palladion but the most famous one was the Trojan Palladion.

Athena herself created the Trojan Palladion out of grief for her friend Pallas, who she had killed by accident. She built the wooden statue to resemble Pallas, hung the aegis around its neck, and set up up next to Zeus. Ilos, the founder of Troy, prayed to Zeus for a sign, whereupon the statue fell from heaven. However, when he laid eyes on the image he was struck blind, only regaining his sight after making the proper offerings to Athena. According to another story, after Zeus raped the Pleiad Elektra (not Agamemnon's daughter), the poor woman tried to take refuge at the statue, only for Zeus to throw the statue to earth. A third variation states that she took the statue with her when she left, presumably passing it down to Ilos, who was her son.

After the death of Paris in the tenth year of the Trojan War, the princes Deiphobos and Helenos squabbled with each other for the hand of Helen. Deiphobus won, and in a fit of pique Helenos left town to settle on Mount Ida. The Greeks captured him there. Helenos, an oracle like his sister Kassandra, revealed to the Greeks that Troy would never fall so long as it had its Palladion.

Odusseus and Diomedes disguised themselves as beggars and somehow sneaked into the city to steal the Palladion. They ran into Helen, who told them the statue's location. The two Greeks broke into the temple, murdered the guards (and possibly a priest or two), and escaped with the statue. Various Greek cities, including Athens, Sparta, and Argos claimed to possess the Trojan Palladion afterward.

However, other accounts place the Palladion in Troy during its destruction. One story depicts Kassandra seeking refuge in the temple of Athena, the patron goddess of the Greeks, during the sack of Troy. However, Aias the Lesser disregarded the temple's protection and raped Kassandra while she clung to the Palladion. The furious Athena killed him while he sailed home. The Romans claimed that the statue Oduseeus and Diomedes stole was a fake, and the Trojan prince Aeneas took the real deal with him to Rome. There it was kept in the Temple of Vesta by the Forum, where it remained for centuries. Supposedly Constantine brought it to Constantinople, where he buried it beneath the Column of Constantine, presumably in order to legitimize his decision to move the empire's capital.

Another famous palladion was the Palladion of Athens. Athens, as you may have guessed, considered Athena to be their patron goddess, and their palladion of her was one of their most sacred images. Like the Palladion of Troy, it too had fallen from heaven. It belonged to the cult of Athena Polias (Athena, Protector of Cities) and was kept in the Erechtheion with other important relics. Once a year, the Athenians held the festival of Plynteria, during which the palladion was stripped of its clothes and ornaments in order for them to be ritually cleaned. The city was considered to be unprotected during this period, so any project started during the festival would be unsuccessful. In addition, the temple would shut down, as it was considered ritually impure, and the palladion was covered with a veil to shield it from people's looks. Athenians would also hold a procession, during which dried figs were passed around. The name comes from the ancient Greek word plynein, meaning "to wash."