Pallas (son of Lycaon)

Pallas
Eponymous King of Pallantion
Member of the Arcadian Royal Family
AbodeArcadia
ParentsLycaon and Cyllene or Nonacris
OffspringChryse

In Greek mythology, Pallas (/ˈpæləs/; Ancient Greek: Πάλλας) was an Arcadian prince and the eponymous founder of the Arcadian town of Pallantion.[1] He was the teacher of Athena,[2] who, according to local myths, was born in Aliphera.[3]

Family[edit]

Pallas was one of the 50 sons of the impious King Lycaon[4] either by the naiad Cyllene,[5] Nonacris[6] or by unknown woman. He had a daughter, Chryse who married Dardanus and brought the Palladium to Troy.[7]

Stone statues of Pallas and his grandson Evander[8] were extant in Pallantium in Pausanias' times.[9] Roman authors used Pallas' name to provide an etiology for the name of the hill Palatium.[8]

Mythology[edit]

Pallas and his siblings were the most nefarious and carefree of all people. To test them, Zeus visited them in the form of a peasant. These brothers mixed the entrails of a child into the god's meal, whereupon the enraged king of the gods threw the meal over the table. Pallas was killed, along with his brothers and their father, by a lightning bolt of the god.[4]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Pausanias, 8.3.1; Stephanus of Byzantium, s.v. Pallantion
  2. ^ Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiquitates Romanae 1.33.1
  3. ^ Pausanias, 8.26.6
  4. ^ a b Apollodorus, 3.8.1
  5. ^ Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiquitates Romanae 1.13.1
  6. ^ Pausanias, 8.17.6
  7. ^ Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiquitates Romanae 1.61.2; 1.62.1 & 1.68.3
  8. ^ a b Servius, Commentary on Virgil's Aeneid 8.51
  9. ^ Pausanias, 8.44.5

References[edit]

  • Apollodorus, The Library with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISBN 0-674-99135-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
  • Dionysus of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities. English translation by Earnest Cary in the Loeb Classical Library, 7 volumes. Harvard University Press, 1937-1950. Online version at Bill Thayer's Web Site
  • Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiquitatum Romanarum quae supersunt, Vol I-IV. . Karl Jacoby. In Aedibus B.G. Teubneri. Leipzig. 1885. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
  • Maurus Servius Honoratus, In Vergilii carmina comentarii. Servii Grammatici qui feruntur in Vergilii carmina commentarii; recensuerunt Georgius Thilo et Hermannus Hagen. Georgius Thilo. Leipzig. B. G. Teubner. 1881. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
  • Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. ISBN 0-674-99328-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
  • Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
  • Stephanus of Byzantium, Stephani Byzantii Ethnicorum quae supersunt, edited by August Meineike (1790-1870), published 1849. A few entries from this important ancient handbook of place names have been translated by Brady Kiesling. Online version at the Topos Text Project.