Pallas

Pallas gathered his sons and prepared to claim the throne of Athens from Theseus. Pallas was the brother of Aegeus and a son of Pandion. He and his sons disputed the succession, alleging that Aegeus was not truly Pandion’s son. The Pallantids therefore opposed Theseus, who had succeeded Aegeus as king. Some accounts give Pallas fifty sons, though the number is not consistent across the traditions.

The sons divided their forces. Some went to Sphettus to summon Pallas’s armed men. Others moved towards Gargettus, near Aphidnae. Medea learned of the plan by gazing into a bowl of water and told Theseus where the groups were going. Theseus drove at speed to Aphidnae, where the sons of Phytalus armed their men. During the night, his forces hid in the woods around Gargettus and guarded every road from the village.

Near the end of the second watch, Theseus and his men attacked the Pallantids around their fires. Some were awake, but most were asleep. Those who escaped were caught by the men guarding the roads. At dawn, Theseus led his companions to Aegeus’s palace. The forces from Sphettus were besieging it, had broken through the court gate, and were trying to burn the house. Arrows came from the bows of the Athenians on the palace roof. Theseus attacked the besiegers from behind and defeated them.

Pallas and the Pallantids were killed, ending their attempt to take the throne. Another account places the killings after Theseus had succeeded Aegeus and says that he executed nearly all his opponents first, leaving Pallas and the rest of his sons alive until a later precautionary attack. Theseus was then charged with murder before the Court of Apollo the Dolphin. He pleaded justifiable homicide and was acquitted. He was purified of the blood at Troezen and remained there for a year.

Pallas attacked Athena. He was described as a winged, goatish Giant, or as a divine assailant. Some Hellenes said that he was Athena’s father. He attempted to outrage her, and Athena killed him. She stripped the skin from his body and made it into the aegis, her battle emblem and armour. She also took his wings for her own shoulders. From Pallas’s name she formed the title Pallas Athena.

Other accounts place the event among the battles of the gods and Giants. Athena fought the Giants with Zeus and Heracles. The Giants could not be destroyed by the gods alone, and a mortal ally was needed. Athena helped Heracles against Alkyoneus, advising him to drag the Giant away from Pallene, where he recovered strength. When Enkelados fled, Athena threw the island of Sicily at him. In this tradition, Pallas was one of the Giants whose skin Athena stripped away.

A different account gives Pallas a less hostile role. According to the Pelasgians, Athena was born beside Lake Tritonis in Libya and was nurtured by three Libyan nymphs. As a girl, she fought her playmate Pallas in a friendly contest with spear and shield. She killed Pallas by accident. In grief, she placed Pallas’s name before her own. This account does not describe Pallas as a winged attacker or connect the killing with an assault.

The aegis itself is also disputed. One account identifies it as the skin of Pallas. Another says that it was the skin of Medusa, whom Athena flayed after Perseus had decapitated the Gorgon. Athena’s aegis could bring panic upon her enemies when she raised it in battle.

Pallas founded the settlement of Pallantium in Arcadia. The account gives no further detail about the place of its foundation or the manner in which the settlement was established. Its name was later associated with Evander’s Arcadian ancestry.

Pallas was a son of Lycaon, who became king of the Arcadians. Lycaon was the son of Pelasgos. One account, attributed to Acousilaos, makes Pelasgos a son of Zeus and Niobe. Hesiod instead says that Pelasgos was born from the earth. Pelasgos had Lycaon by Meliboia, daughter of Oceanos, or, in another version, by the nymph Cyllene.

Lycaon fathered fifty sons by many different women. Pallas was one of them. The other sons named in the account include Melaineus, Thesprotos, Nyctimos, Peucetios, Caucon, Aigeion, Mantineus, Cleitor, Stymphalos and Orchomenos. The brothers were said to have surpassed other men in arrogance and impiety. Zeus visited them in disguise to test their conduct, but the passage does not give the outcome within this account. Pallas’s part in the tradition is the foundation of Pallantium, whose name became linked with the Arcadian descent attributed to Evander.

Pallas, daughter of Triton, grew up as Athena’s companion. In the Pelasgian account, Athena was born beside Lake Tritonis in Libya and was nurtured by three Libyan nymphs, who wore goat skins. She later came to Greece by way of Crete and lived first at Athenae, beside the Boeotian river Triton.

While Athena and Pallas were engaged in friendly combat, they took up spear and shield. Zeus distracted Pallas by displaying the aegis. Athena struck her companion by accident and killed her. The account presents the death as an unintended result of their armed game, rather than a planned attack.

Athena mourned Pallas and placed her name before her own, taking the name Pallas Athena. She also adopted Pallas’s image. The name became an epithet of Athena. Other traditions connect Pallas with Athena’s spear, since the Greek verb pallein can refer to brandishing a spear. One Suidas entry instead says that Pallas was a Gigante whom Athena killed. The name and image of Pallas later carried associations with a sacred statue of the goddess. Such statues were kept in secret shrines in several cities, and some traditions claimed that different cities possessed the true Palladium while others held only a copy.