Object on which the safety of a city or nation is said to depend
A palladium or palladion (plural palladia) is an
image or other object of great antiquity on which the safety of a city or nation is said to depend. The word is a generalization from the name of the original
Trojan Palladium, a wooden statue (xoanon) of
Pallas Athena that
Odysseus and
Diomedes stole from the
citadel of
Troy. It was supposedly later taken to the future site of
Rome by
Aeneas, where it remained until perhaps transferred to
Constantinople and was lost after the Empire converted to Christianity.
In English, since around 1600, the word "palladium" has been used figuratively to mean anything believed to provide protection or safety,[1] and in particular in Christian contexts a sacred
relic or
icon believed to have a protective role in military contexts for a whole city, people or nation. Such beliefs first become prominent in the
Eastern Churches in the period after the reign of the Byzantine Emperor
Justinian I, and later spread to the Western church. Palladia were processed around the walls of besieged cities and sometimes carried into battle.[2] In this more offensive role they may also be referred to as "vexilla" (singular
vexillum, Latin for "battle standard").
The original Palladion was part of the
foundation myths of both
Troy and
Rome. It was a wooden image of
Pallas (whom the
Greeks identified with
Athena and the
Romans with Minerva) said to have fallen from heaven in answer to the prayer of
Ilus, the founder of
Troy. In the
Trojan War the besieging Greeks discovered that they would be unable to take the city while it was protected by it, and so
Odysseus and
Diomedes stole it from the citadel of Troy before taking the city by the ruse of the
Trojan Horse.
According to a later set of myths it was then taken to Rome, where an actual image, unlikely to have been actually of Trojan origin, was kept in the
Temple of Vesta in the
Roman Forum for centuries, and regarded as one of the pignora imperii, sacred tokens or pledges of Roman rule (
imperium). The Roman story is related in
Virgil's Aeneid and other works.[citation needed]
Athens
The goddess Athena was worshipped on the
Acropolis of Athens under many names and cults, the most illustrious of which was of the Athena Poliás, "[protectress] of the city". The cult image of the Poliás was a wooden effigy, often referred to as the "xóanon diipetés" (the "carving that fell from heaven"), made of olive wood and housed in the east-facing wing of the
Erechtheum temple in the classical era. Considered not a man-made artefact but of divine provenance, it was the holiest image of the goddess and was accorded the highest respect. It was placed under a bronze likeness of a palm tree and a gold lamp burned in front of it.
The centerpiece of the grand feast of the
Panathenaea was the replacement of this statue's woolen
veil with a newly woven one. It was also carried to the sea by the priestesses and ceremonially washed once a year, in the feast called the Plynteria ("washings"). Its presence was last mentioned by the
Church FatherTertullian (Apologeticus 16.6), who, in the late 2nd century AD, described it derisively as being nothing but "a rough stake, a shapeless piece of wood" (
Latin original: "[] Pallas Attica [] quae sine effigie rudi palo et informi ligno prostat?"). Earlier descriptions of the statue have not survived.[citation needed]
Christian palladia
Around the end of the 6th century the first references to Christian palladia start to appear.[3] The
Image of Edessa in
Armenian Mesopotamia, or Mandylion, later moved to
Constantinople, is one of the first and long the most famous examples. This was later credited with the failure of the Persian siege of
Edessa in 544. But the image is not mentioned in the account of
Procopius, writing soon after the event, and first appears as the agent of the failure in the history of
Evagrius Scholasticus of about 593.[4] Specific icons, especially those of the
Virgin Mary or
Virgin and Child became credited with specialist functions, with their
veneration aiding against disease or other misfortunes, and the military role of palladium was an example of this.
Beliefs attributing particular icons as palladia were found especially in the
Eastern Churches, and have remained particularly powerful in
Russian Orthodoxy, where a number of icons protected different cities. Important public officials in Imperial Russia would have an insignia that signified their status and authority. This was treated with very great respect. In
Celtic Christianity, palladia were more often relics that were typically possessions of a saint, such as books, bells, belts and croziers, all housed in
reliquaries.
In
Ireland, these functioned as the battle standards of clans rather than protecting a city.[citation needed] They were sometimes carried into battle in their reliquaries or
cumdach,[citation needed] hanging by a chain around the neck of a member of the clan. In the Western church, such beliefs have declined even in Catholic countries since the Reformation, and have disappeared in Protestant beliefs.
The Byzantine palladia, which first appear in the late 6th century, cannot be said to have had a very successful track record, as apart from Constantinople most major cities in
Egypt, Syria and later
Anatolia fell to Muslim attacks.[5]
Just before the start of the
Byzantine Iconoclasm an incident of what might be called a "reverse-palladium" is recorded. According to
Iconoclast sources an officer called Constantine, defending
Nicaea against an Arab siege in 727, smashed an icon of the Virgin, and this saved the city. The
Iconodule sources also record the incident, but say that Constantine was promptly killed, and the city saved by other icons, including the famous series of 318 portraits of participants in the
First Council of Nicaea which adorned the hall where the council had met in 325.[6]
The
Image of Camuliana was an icon of Christ which was the earliest important palladium of Constantinople after it reached the city in 574, but seems to have been destroyed in the Byzantine Iconoclasm.[7]
The
Virgin Hodegetria — an ancient
Madonna and Child image — was the traditional protectress of
Byzantine Constantinople. At times of siege it was paraded along the city walls.[8] At the final fall of the city (1453) it failed to deter the
Turks, was pillaged, and disappeared forever.
Theotokos of Vladimir, a Byzantine icon of the Virgin considered the protectress of
Moscow in particular, and
Russia in general, now in the
Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. It was in particular credited with saving Moscow from the attack of
Tamerlane in 1395, and the
Tatar armies in 1451 and 1480.
The
Girdle of Thomas or Sacra Cintola, supposed the belt of the
Virgin Mary, paraded round the city of
Prato near Florence in 1402 when a Milanese army threatened, and perhaps on other occasions.
Our Lady of Kazan, a holy icon, considered the protectress of Russia and lost in 1904, though copies were used to bolster the morale of troops in both World Wars.
Palladium of the Czechs - Czech legend holds that St. Ludmila, on her conversion to Christianity by St. Methodius, had her pagan statues melted down and reformed into a consecrated image of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus. She prayed in front of it often, and was doing so when she was murdered by agents of Dragomir, mother of St. Wenceslas. Wenceslas inherited the image and had it carried above his troops when at war. He wore it on his chest when he was murdered by his brother, and it was taken from his body and hidden by his servant. Years later it was found buried in a field by a ploughman, and was brought to the church authorities. It was named “Palladium” and has since been kept as a symbol of Czech Christianity and patriotism.
The image of
Our Lady of Guadalupe has been hailed at times as a protecting image, not just for the people of
Mexico where the apparitions related to the image are purported to have taken place in 1531, but also in the
United States and other areas of the world where people of Mexican descent have settled.
Pope John Paul II entrusted her protection to the unborn in 1999.[11]
The
Emerald Buddha, a palladium (
Thai: ขวัญเมือง kwan mueang; colloquially มิ่งเมีอง ming mueang) of the Kingdom of Thailand. Every Thai city and town has a
kwan mueang or ming mueang (usually, but not necessarily, an image of
Buddha).
In
Sri Lanka the
Relic of the tooth of the Buddha is often described as a palladium in the rather different sense that control of it represented the legitimacy of the king.
The Golden Maitreya Buddha in the
Wat Preah Keo of the Kingdom of Cambodia.
In the
Khmer Empire, specific
lingams associated with monarchs appear to have had a palladium-like role in the
devaraja royal cult, although the subject remains controversial among scholars.[12]
Palladia in modern
folk myth include the
Ravens of the Tower of London, probably 19th century in origin, though dubious 17th-century origins have been claimed. These are somewhat typical of folk myth in being one-sided in their effect, in that their removal is said to presage disaster, but their continued presence is not usually held to have significant benefit. The isolated population of
Barbary macaques in Gibraltar, whose continued presence is said to ensure British control, are a similar case.
If this cup should break or fall
Farewell the Luck of Edenhall!
The cup has a custom-made 15th-century European leather case and the name is first recorded in a Musgrave will of 1677. A number of other Northern
gentry families had a variety of objects called "Lucks", and "Luck of Troy" was an old English term for the Trojan and Roman prototype;[15][16] the first recorded use of "luck" in this sense is a reference to the Luck of Edenhall.[17]
Some writers have suggested that the historic
London Stone was once regarded as London's palladium.[18] Notably, a pseudonymous contributor to the journal Notes and Queries in 1862 quoted a supposedly ancient proverb to the effect that "So long as the Stone of Brutus is safe, so long shall London flourish".[19] This verse, if it were genuine, would link the Stone to
Brutus of Troy, legendary founder of London, as well as confirming its role as a palladium. However, the writer can be identified as
Richard Williams Morgan, an eccentric Welsh clergyman who in an earlier book had claimed that the legendary Brutus was a historical figure; London Stone, he wrote, had been the plinth on which the original Trojan Palladium had stood, and was brought to Britain by Brutus and set up as the altar stone of the Temple of Diana in his new capital city of
Trinovantum or "New Troy" (London).[20]
This story, and the verse about the "Stone of Brutus", can be found nowhere any earlier than in Morgan's writings. No one before Morgan had called London Stone "The Stone of Brutus", and although the spurious verse is still frequently quoted, there is no evidence that London's safety has ever traditionally been linked to that of London Stone.[21]
^Crosby, Kate, "Devaraja", p. 418, in Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia, from Angkor Wat to Timor, Volume 3, R-Z, ed. Ooi Keat Gin, 2004, ABC-CLIO,
ISBN1576077705, 9781576077702,
google books
^Morgan, Richard Williams (1857). The British Kymry or Britons of Cambria. Ruthin: Isaac Clarke. pp. 26–32.
^Clark 2010, pp. 45–52. sfn error: no target: CITEREFClark2010 (
help)
Cited works
Beard, Charles R., Luck And Talismans: A Chapter of Popular Superstition, 2004 reprint, Kessinger Publishing,
ISBN1417976489, 9781417976485,
google books
Beckwith, John, Early Christian and Byzantine Art, Penguin History of Art (now Yale), 2nd edn. 1979,
ISBN0140560335
Kitzinger, Ernst, "The Cult of Images in the Age before Iconoclasm", Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Vol. 8, (1954), pp. 83–150, Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University,
JSTOR
Mango, Cyril, "Historical Introduction," in Bryer & Herrin, eds., Iconoclasm, pp. 2–3., 1977, Centre for Byzantine Studies, University of Birmingham,
ISBN0704402262
Price, S. R. F., and Emily Kearns (eds.) The Oxford Dictionary of Classical Myth and Religion. s.v. "Palladium". Oxford University Press.