Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities o ...

, Pallas (/ˈpæləs/;

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...

: Πάλλας) was one of the Gigantes ( Giants), the offspring of

Gaia In Greek mythology, Gaia (; from Ancient Greek , a poetical form of , 'land' or 'earth'),, , . also spelled Gaea , is the personification of the Earth and one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia is the ancestral mother—sometimes parthen ...

, born from the blood of the castrated

Uranus Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. Its name is a reference to the Greek god of the sky, Uranus ( Caelus), who, according to Greek mythology, was the great-grandfather of Ares (Mars), grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter) and father of ...

. According to the mythographer

Apollodorus Apollodorus (Greek: Ἀπολλόδωρος ''Apollodoros'') was a popular name in ancient Greece. It is the masculine gender of a noun compounded from Apollo, the deity, and doron, "gift"; that is, "Gift of Apollo." It may refer to: :''Note: A f ...

, during the

Gigantomachy In Greek and Roman mythology, the Giants, also called Gigantes (Greek: Γίγαντες, ''Gígantes'', Γίγας, ''Gígas''), were a race of great strength and aggression, though not necessarily of great size. They were known for the Giganto ...

, the cosmic battle of the Giants with the

Olympian gods upright=1.8, Fragment of a relief (1st century BC1st century AD) depicting the twelve Olympians carrying their attributes in procession; from left to right: Hestia (scepter), Hermes (winged cap and staff), Aphrodite (veiled), Ares (helmet and s ...

, he was flayed by

Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of v ...

, who used his skin as a shield. Though the origin of Athena's epithet "Pallas" is obscure, according to a fragment from an unidentified play of Epicharmus (between c. 540 and c. 450 BC), Athena, after having used his skin for her cloak, took her name from the Giant Pallas. This story, related by Apollodorus and Epicharmus, is one of a number of stories in which Athena kills and flays an opponent, with its hide becoming her

aegis The aegis ( ; grc, αἰγίς ''aigís''), as stated in the ''Iliad'', is a device carried by Athena and Zeus, variously interpreted as an animal skin or a shield and sometimes featuring the head of a Gorgon. There may be a connection with a d ...

. For example,

Euripides Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars ...

tells that during "the battle the giants fought against the gods in Phlegra" that it was "the Gorgon" (possibly considered here to be one of the Giants) that Athena killed and flayed, while the epic poem ''Meropis'', has Athena kill and flay the Giant Asterus, using his impenetrable skin for her aegis. Another of these flayed adversaries, also named Pallas, was said to be the father of Athena, who had tried to rape her. The late 4th century AD Latin poet

Claudian Claudius Claudianus, known in English as Claudian (; c. 370 – c. 404 AD), was a Latin poet associated with the court of the Roman emperor Honorius at Mediolanum (Milan), and particularly with the general Stilicho. His work, written almost e ...

in his ''Gigantomachia'', has Pallas, as one of several Giants turned to stone by

Minerva Minerva (; ett, Menrva) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. Minerva is not a patron of violence such as Mars, but of strategic war. From the second century BC onward, the R ...

's Gorgon shield, calling out "What is happening to me? What is this ice that creeps o're all my limbs? What is this numbness that holds me prisoner in these marble fetters?"

, ''Gigantomachia'
91–103 (pp. 286–289)

Pallas Pallas may refer to: Astronomy * 2 Pallas asteroid ** Pallas family, a group of asteroids that includes 2 Pallas * Pallas (crater), a crater on Earth's moon Mythology * Pallas (Giant), a son of Uranus and Gaia, killed and flayed by Athena * Pa ...

was also the name of a

Titan Titan most often refers to: * Titan (moon), the largest moon of Saturn * Titans, a race of deities in Greek mythology Titan or Titans may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional entities Fictional locations * Titan in fiction, fictiona ...

, with whom the Giant is sometimes confused or identified.

Notes

References

, ''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
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
* *

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...

, ''De natura deorum'', translated by H. Rackham, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, London William Heinemann LTD, 1933. *

, '' Ion'', translated by Robert Potter in ''The Complete Greek Drama'', edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill Jr. Volume 1. New York. Random House. 1938. * Guillén, Lucía Rodríguez-Noriega, "Epicharmus' literary and philosophical background" in ''Theater Outside Athens: Drama in Greek Sicily and South Italy'', edited by Kathryn Bosher, Cambridge University Press, 2012. . *

Hesiod Hesiod (; grc-gre, Ἡσίοδος ''Hēsíodos'') was an ancient Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. He is generally regarded by western authors as 'the first written poet i ...

, ''

Theogony The ''Theogony'' (, , , i.e. "the genealogy or birth of the gods") is a poem by Hesiod (8th–7th century BC) describing the origins and genealogies of the Greek gods, composed . It is written in the Epic dialect of Ancient Greek and contain ...

'', in ''The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White'', Cambridge, MA.,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
* Hyginus, Gaius Julius
''The Myths of Hyginus''
Edited and translated by Mary A. Grant, Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1960. * Janko, Richard, ''The Iliad: A Commentary: Volume 4, Books 13-16'', Cambridge University Press, 1992. . * Robertson, Noel, "Chapter Two: Athena as Weather-Goddess: the ''Aigis'' in Myth and Ritual" in ''Athena in the Classical World'', edited by

Susan Deacy Susan Jane Deacy is a classical scholar who has been Professor of Classics at the University of Roehampton since January 2018. She researches the history and literature of the ancient Greek world, with a particular focus on gender and sexuality, ...

, Alexandra Villing, Brill Academic Pub, 2001, . * Wilk, Stephen R., ''Medusa: Solving the Mystery of the Gorgon'', Oxford University Press, 2000. . * Yasumura, Noriko, ''Challenges to the Power of Zeus in Early Greek Poetry'', Bloomsbury Academic, 2013. . {{Authority control Gigantes Children of Gaia Characters in Greek mythology Deeds of Athena