A n c i e n t P l a n e t
T he Sacre d I mage of the Palladium By Eva Alex. Statherou
O n l i n e
Remember to establish in the city
j o u r n a l
which you shall build perpetual worship to the gods, and to honour them with safeguards, sacrifices and choirs. For, as long as these venerable gifts of the daughter of Zeus to your wife shall remain in your country your city shall for ever be impregnable. — Dion of Halicarnassus
T
he Palladium, perhaps the most legendary sacred image among the miraculous cult idols of Greek antiquity, was both a unique talisman of divine power and an insuperable political weapon. Said to have fallen from the heavens, this mysterious statue was an indisputable symbol of divine authority over the land in which it stood and the most powerful cities of the Graeco-Roman world vied for its ownership. According to ancient sources, the Palladium was an image of Pallas Athena, given either to Dardanus’ wife Chryse as a wedding gift by the gods or sent to Ilus, Dardanus’ son, during Troy’s foundation as assurance that the new city would be divinely protected as long as the
idol remained untouched within its shrine. Ancient sources also refer to the incident of its theft by Odysseus and Diomedes before or during the sack of Troy since, as the seers Calchas and Helenus had prophesied, its removal from the sacred shrine was crucial for the Greeks’ victory over the Trojans. The Palladium, as one scholar says, “is the secret strength of Troy … or [rather] it is the secret weakness of Troy, the magical weak link that is mastered” [James M. Redfield, 2003]. After the fall of Troy the Palladium was transferred to the Greek city of Argos by Diomedes, though some accounts place it in Athens or Sparta. Yet other versions of the myth refer to the Palladium’s venerable 35