PALLADIUM

in Greek religion, image of the goddess Pallas (Athena), especially the archaic wooden statue of the goddess that was preserved in the citadel of Troy as a pledge of the safety of the city. As long as the statue was kept safe within Troy, the city could not be conquered. It was said that Zeus, the king of the gods, threw the statue down from heaven when the city of Ilium (Greek Troy) was founded and that the Greek warriors Odysseus and Diomedes carried it off from the temple of Athena in Troy, thus making the Greek capture of Troy possible. Many cities in Greece and Italy claimed to possess the genuine Trojan Palladium, but it was particularly identified with the statue brought to Italy by the hero Aeneas after Troy's destruction and preserved in the shrine of the goddess Vesta at Rome. The Palladium was a common subject in Greek art, as was its theft in literature. The story of its fall from heaven perhaps signifies that the Palladium was originally a baetyl, or sacred stone.