Hi!
Here I will give the information I have. Perhaps
Patricia may correct me or can add something I have missed!
The
Palladium (greek
palladion) is the picture/sculpure of a young wife bearing
weapons.
Pallas means 'young girl' and was a title of the goddess
Athena. So there was a distinct relation to
Athena. But the
Palladium seems to be older than
Athena. Indeed there existed many Palladia. Their function was to protect a city. This was not done by the
Palladium as an
amulet, but as a city goddess. The
Palladium always was small and made of
wood.
The most famous
Palladium was that from
Troy. So many cities claimed the identity of its own P. with that from
Troy. The myth says it was fallen down from heaven and the
fate of
Troy was connected with it. The seer Helenos has, as captive or because he didn't get
Helena after the death of
Paris, made possible the robbery of the P. by betrayal (a variant named Antenor). So Odysseus and Diomedes could rob the
Palladium and
Troy was without protection. The end is well-known.
In
Athens there are two variants about the way of the P. to
Attica. The first tells that Diomedes has given the P. to Demophon to keep it, who has send it to Agamemnon, because he want to have it.
The other variant tells of a war between Argivians and Athenians in the darkness (phonos akoysios), and a court procedure which would be necessary after that.
A
Palladium was in Amphissa, Alalkomenai, Pellene in
Achaia, Lindos, Siris near Herakleia, and in Arcadia. Clear, that
Rome, by the myth connected with the Troyan tradition, claimed to have the real
Palladium. It stood in the round temple of
Vesta, which only was allowed to enter by the
Vestal Virgins. The only exception was by the
Pontifex Maximus if he
had to save the
Palladium from the burning temple. This was not seldom due to the open fire of the Vestals!
On coins a
Palladium appears as an attribute of
Aeneas,
Nobilitas,
Roma,
Vesta or
Victory. It should not be confused with the Victoriola, the small statue of
Victory on a globe.
And now to the last question of Rhetor: The problem with the
Roman Palladium is, that at the fall of
Troy the
Palladium was stolen, and how could
Aeneas then take it to
Italy? The myth has to explain this alogic! So it was said that
Troy not only has
had one
Palladium but several Palladia, brought to
Troy from the surrounding regions. And one of these was stolen by the Achaeans during the
Trojan War, and the rest were brought by
Aeneas to
Italy, being otherwise called
PENATES. These became the household gods of the
Romans, and were represented as two youths holding spears.
Others have said that the Achaeans stole a copy, made on purpose to delude them, and that
Aeneas did bring the real
Palladium to
Italy, where it was kept from the time of Numa (the second
king of
Rome) by the
Vestal Virgins. (BTW that is a clever story, isn't it?)
But
still others have said that only one
Palladium ever existed, either found by Ilus at the
hill of Ate, or given by
Zeus to Dardanus, it being the same
Palladium that the Achaeans stole. And they argue that
Aeneas could not have occasion to rescue the
Palladium when
Troy fell, since the
Palladium,
had it been at
Troy, would have prevented anyone from taking the city. In any case, the fame of the
Palladium was such that several Palladia were kept in many cities, throughout
antiquity.
"Whether it was Diomedes, or the guileful
Ulysses, or
Aeneas, they same someone carried it off; the culprit is uncertain; the thing is now in
Rome:
Vesta guards it, because she sees all things by her light that never fails" [Ovid,
Fasti 4.433]
Ref.:
For the first
part "Der kleine
Pauly"
For the second
part http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Palladium.htmlRegards,
Jochen