The palladium, myth and beliefs

[expat]

In Greek and Roman mythology, the Palladium or Palladion (Greek Παλλάδιον (Palladion), Latin Palladium) was a cult image of great antiquity on which the safety of Troy and later Rome was said to depend, the wooden statue (xoanon) of Pallas Athena that Odysseus and Diomedes stole from the citadel of Troy and which was later taken to the future site of Rome by Aeneas. The Roman story is related in Virgil's Aeneid and other works. Rome possessed an object regarded as the actual Palladium for several centuries; it was in the care of the Vestal Virgins for nearly all this time.

Nike (Victory) offers an egg to a snake entwined around a column surmounted by the Trojan Palladium. (Marble bas relief, Roman copy of the late 1st century AD. After a neo-Attic original of the Hellenistic era.)

The Trojan Palladium was said to be a wooden image of Pallas (whom the Greeks identified with Athena and the Romans with Minerva) and to have fallen from heaven in answer to the prayer of Ilus, the founder of Troy.

During the Trojan War, the importance of the Palladium to Troy was said to have been revealed to the Greeks by Helenus, the prophetic son of Priam. After Paris' death, Helenus left the city but was captured by Odysseus. The Greeks somehow managed to persuade the warrior seer to reveal the weakness of Troy: the city would not fall while the Palladium remained within its walls. The perilous task of stealing this sacred statue again fell upon the shoulders of Odysseus and Diomedes. The two stole into the citadel in Troy by a secret passage and carried it off, leaving the desecrated city open to the deceit of the Trojan Horse.

Odysseus, according to the epitome of the Little Iliad (one of the books of the Epic Cycle) preserved in Proclus's Chrestomathia, went by night to Troy disguised as a beggar. There he was recognized by Helen, who told him where to find the Palladium. After some stealthy killing, he went back to the ships. He and Diomedes then re-entered the city and stole the sacred statue. Diomedes is sometimes depicted as the one carrying the Palladium to the ships. There are several statues and many ancient drawings of him with the Palladium.

Diomedes with the Palladium approaches an altar

According to various versions of this legend the Trojan Palladium found its way to Athens, Argos, Sparta (all in Greece) or Rome in Italy. To this last city it was either brought by Aeneas, the exiled Trojan (Diomedes, in this version, having only succeeded in stealing an imitation of the statue) or surrendered by Diomedes himself.

An actual object regarded as the Palladium was undoubtedly kept in the Temple of Vesta in the Roman Forum for several centuries. It was regarded as one of the pignora imperii, sacred tokens or pledges of Roman rule (imperium).

Pliny the Elder said that Lucius Caecilius Metellus had been blinded by fire when he rescued the Palladium from the Temple of Vesta in 241 BC, an episode alluded to in Ovid and Valerius Maximus. When the controversial emperor Elagabalus (reigned 218–222 AD) transferred the most sacred relics of Roman religion from their respective shrines to the Elagabalium, the Palladium was among them.

In Late Antiquity, it was rumored that the Palladium was transferred from Rome to Constantinople by Constantine the Great and buried under the Column of Constantine in his forum. Such a move would have undermined the primacy of Rome, and was naturally seen as a move by Constantine to legitimize his reign and his new capital.

I was quite happy to get a rough coin but with a decent image of the palladium, shown as Minerve with shield and spear.

Julia  Mamaea Denarius. IVLIA MAMAEA AVG, diademed and draped bust right / VESTA, Vesta standing half-left, holding palladium and sceptre.  
RIC 360, Sear 8217,  RSC 81.
 Augusta AD 225-235. Rome
Denarius AR 20 mm, 3,43 g

Thanks for reading and please show your palladiums

SOURCE: Primarily Wikipedia

Edited July 14 by expat

[Al Kowsky]

1 hour ago, expat said:

In Greek and Roman mythology, the Palladium or Palladion (Greek Παλλάδιον (Palladion), Latin Palladium) was a cult image of great antiquity on which the safety of Troy and later Rome was said to depend, the wooden statue (xoanon) of Pallas Athena that Odysseus and Diomedes stole from the citadel of Troy and which was later taken to the future site of Rome by Aeneas. The Roman story is related in Virgil's Aeneid and other works. Rome possessed an object regarded as the actual Palladium for several centuries; it was in the care of the Vestal Virgins for nearly all this time.

Nike (Victory) offers an egg to a snake entwined around a column surmounted by the Trojan Palladium. (Marble bas relief, Roman copy of the late 1st century AD. After a neo-Attic original of the Hellenistic era.)

The Trojan Palladium was said to be a wooden image of Pallas (whom the Greeks identified with Athena and the Romans with Minerva) and to have fallen from heaven in answer to the prayer of Ilus, the founder of Troy.

During the Trojan War, the importance of the Palladium to Troy was said to have been revealed to the Greeks by Helenus, the prophetic son of Priam. After Paris' death, Helenus left the city but was captured by Odysseus. The Greeks somehow managed to persuade the warrior seer to reveal the weakness of Troy: the city would not fall while the Palladium remained within its walls. The perilous task of stealing this sacred statue again fell upon the shoulders of Odysseus and Diomedes. The two stole into the citadel in Troy by a secret passage and carried it off, leaving the desecrated city open to the deceit of the Trojan Horse.

Odysseus, according to the epitome of the Little Iliad (one of the books of the Epic Cycle) preserved in Proclus's Chrestomathia, went by night to Troy disguised as a beggar. There he was recognized by Helen, who told him where to find the Palladium. After some stealthy killing, he went back to the ships. He and Diomedes then re-entered the city and stole the sacred statue. Diomedes is sometimes depicted as the one carrying the Palladium to the ships. There are several statues and many ancient drawings of him with the Palladium.

Diomedes with the Palladium approaches an altar

According to various versions of this legend the Trojan Palladium found its way to Athens, Argos, Sparta (all in Greece) or Rome in Italy. To this last city it was either brought by Aeneas, the exiled Trojan (Diomedes, in this version, having only succeeded in stealing an imitation of the statue) or surrendered by Diomedes himself.

An actual object regarded as the Palladium was undoubtedly kept in the Temple of Vesta in the Roman Forum for several centuries. It was regarded as one of the pignora imperii, sacred tokens or pledges of Roman rule (imperium).

Pliny the Elder said that Lucius Caecilius Metellus had been blinded by fire when he rescued the Palladium from the Temple of Vesta in 241 BC, an episode alluded to in Ovid and Valerius Maximus. When the controversial emperor Elagabalus (reigned 218–222 AD) transferred the most sacred relics of Roman religion from their respective shrines to the Elagabalium, the Palladium was among them.

In Late Antiquity, it was rumored that the Palladium was transferred from Rome to Constantinople by Constantine the Great and buried under the Column of Constantine in his forum. Such a move would have undermined the primacy of Rome, and was naturally seen as a move by Constantine to legitimize his reign and his new capital.

I was quite happy to get a rough coin but with a decent image of the palladium, shown as Minerve with shield and spear.

Julia  Mamaea Denarius. IVLIA MAMAEA AVG, diademed and draped bust right / VESTA, Vesta standing half-left, holding palladium and sceptre.  
RIC 360, Sear 8217,  RSC 81.
 Augusta AD 225-235. Rome
Denarius AR 20 mm, 3,43 g

Thanks for reading and please show your palladiums

SOURCE: Primarily Wikipedia

expat, Interesting coin & research 😉.

[ambr0zie]

Greek palladium 

11 mm, 1,00 g.
Mysia, Pergamon. AR diobol. Circa 310-282 BC.
Head of Alexander as Hercules right wearing lion-skin headdress, paws tied around his neck / ΠEPΓAM , ethnic vertical upwards to left of cult statue of Athena (a.k.a. "The Palladium") standing facing, wearing kalathos and aegis, brandishing spear and holding shield from which fillet hangs.
BMC 9; v. Aulock 1350; SNG France 5, 1559-66; Klein 27.

Held by Roma

19,7 mm, 3,1 g.
Hadrian 117-138. AR denarius. Rome. 137-138 AD.
HADRIANVS AVG COS III P P, bare head right / ROMAE AETERNAE, Roma seated left on low seat, shield at her side, holding palladium and spear.
RIC II, Part 3 (second edition) Hadrian 2342; Old RIC II Hadrian 265.

Same as OP coin 

20 mm, 2,26 g.
Julia Mamaea, Augusta 225-235 AD. AR denarius. Rome.
IVLIA MAMAEA AVG, bust of Julia Mamaea, diademed, right / VESTA, Vesta, veiled, draped, standing left, holding palladium in right hand and up-right sceptre in left hand.
RIC IV Severus Alexander 360.
 

Got this primarily for the reverse 

17 mm, 3,21 g.
Antoninus Pius 138-161. AR denarius. Rome. 152-153.
ANTONINVS AVG PIVS P P TR P XV, head of Antoninus Pius, laureate, right / COS IIII, Vesta, veiled, draped, standing left, holding simpulum lowered in right hand and palladium at shoulder in left.
RIC III Antoninus Pius 203; BMC 762; RSC 196.

[ominus1]

[Roman Collector]

Lovely coin, @expat and informative writeup. This is one of my favorite Vesta holding Palladium coins. It has a similar reverse motif as your Julia Mamaea denarius.

 

Faustina I, 138-140 CE.
Roman orichalcum sestertius, 26.32 g, 31.7 mm, 11 h.
Rome, 145-147 CE.
Obv: DIVA FAVSTINA, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: AVGVSTA S C, Vesta standing left, holding long torch and palladium.
Refs: RIC 1125; BMCRE 1521; Cohen 113 corr.; Strack 1293; RCV 4618.

[shanxi]

Sabina
AR Denarius, AD 128-136
Obv: SABINA AVGVSTA HADRIANI AVG P P, draped bust of Sabina to right, her hair piled on top of her head above an elaborate stephane
Rev: Vesta seated to left, holding Palladium in her extended right hand and transverse scepter with her left.
Ag, 3.26g, 20mm
Ref.: RIC 413a [S], CRE 67 [R]

 

 

 

[Ancient Coin Hunter]

Very interesting piece @expat ! Thank you. I have no representations of a palladium unfortunately.

[kirispupis]

Argos, Argolis
ca 280-260 BCE
Ae Dichalkon 16.3mm 3.2g
Obv: Head of Hera right wearing stephane inscribed ARGE
Rev: The Palladion standing left holding spear and shield
SNG Cop 57

[Coinmaster]

8 hours ago, expat said:

In Late Antiquity, it was rumored that the Palladium was transferred from Rome to Constantinople by Constantine the Great and buried under the Column of Constantine in his forum. Such a move would have undermined the primacy of Rome, and was naturally seen as a move by Constantine to legitimize his reign and his new capital.

In his time Constantinople (former Byzantium and later Istanbul) was called 'Nova Roma'. With the transfer of the Palladium that act would have been a contribution.

[Deinomenid]

Technically not  really mine, and more the British Museum's but an unusual take on the theft. Depicting the whole Trojan War as ridiculous - it can be read like that!

Apulia 370BC, Diomedes and Odysseus as grotesques stealing the Palladion.

 

 

[MrMonkeySwag96]

 

Septimius Severus, 193-211 A.D. AR Denarius (19 mm, 3.3 g) SEVERVS PIVS AVG, laureate head right. RESTITVTOR VRBIS, Roma seated left holding palladium & spear, round shield below. RIC 288, RSC 606. EF

Edited July 19 by MrMonkeySwag96

[Hrefn]

This denarius of Julius Caesar predates the writing of the Aeneid, so these elements of the legendary history of the Palladium were in place before Virgil.  Here is Aeneas carrying his father Anchises and the Palladium while fleeing Troy.  Coin has been posted previously, but since no example has graced this thread, I felt I should include it.   

[El Cazador]

4 hours ago, Hrefn said:

This denarius of Julius Caesar predates the writing of the Aeneid, so these elements of the legendary history of the Palladium were in place before Virgil.  Here is Aeneas carrying his father Anchises and the Palladium while fleeing Troy.  Coin has been posted previously, but since no example has graced this thread, I felt I should include it.   

Nice coin!

[DonnaML]

An interesting subject. I have only a few coins depicting the Palladium. You can't really see it very well on the Julia Titi and the Salonina, so you'll have to use your imagination. The Marcus Aurelius and the Lucilla are better, especially the latter.

Julia Titi Flavia (daughter of Titus), AE (orichalcum) Dupondius 80-81 AD, Rome Mint. Obv. Draped bust right with hair bundled high in front and coiled in chignon high in back, IVLIA IMP T AVG F AVGVSTA/ Rev. Vesta seated left, holding palladium in right hand and long transverse scepter in left arm, VESTA below, S C across fields. RIC II.1 398 at. p. 223 (Titus) (2007 ed.), old RIC II 180 (Titus) (1926 ed.), Sear RCV I 2617 (ill.), BMCRE Titus 257. 26 mm., 12.23 g., 6 h.

 

Marcus Aurelius AR Denarius, 165-166 AD, Rome Mint. Obv. Laureate head right, M ANTONINVS AVG - ARMENIACVS* / Rev. Roma, helmeted and draped, seated left with round shield at side, holding Palladium [statue of Pallas Athena taken to Rome by Aeneas] in her extended right hand and short vertical scepter (or spear) in left hand, P M TR P XX - IMP III COS III.  RIC III Marcus Aurelius 155 corr. (erroneously describes Roma as seated on shield and identifies Palladium as Victory); RSC II Marcus Aurelius 490 at p. 210 (Palladium and short spear); BMCRE IV Marcus Aurelius 392 at p. 438 & fn. (Palladium and short spear); https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_1937-0708-53 (same specimen as BMCRE 392, with same description); Sear RCV II 4923 (Victory and spear). 18 mm., 3.14 g., 6 h.  Purchased at Nomos Obolos Auction 22, 6 March 2022, Lot 610.**

*See Edward A. Sydenham, Historical References on Coins of the Roman Empire (1968 ed.; orig. pub. 1917) at p. 109, explaining that Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus assumed the title of Armeniacus after the defeat of the Parthians and the recovery of Armenia (placing a new vassal on the Armenian throne), a victory achieved in 163 by Statius Priscus while Marcus Aurelius remained in Rome and Lucius Verus, dispatched from Rome in command of the troops, spent the time in Antioch “in luxury and dissipation, relegating the conduct of the war to his generals.”

**Nomos AG characterized this type as “rare” in its auction description. I have found only five other specimens in ACSearch, two describing the figure held by Roma as the Palladium, and three as Victory. I believe that all are depictions of the same figure – which looks to me like the Palladium, not Victory -- identified differently by different authorities and dealers, rather than two actual variants. Similarly, with respect to the issue of whether Roma holds a short scepter or spear in her left hand, I detect no actual difference between the objects identified as one or the other. (I lean towards the scepter interpretation, because I see no spear point on any of the examples, although admittedly the tip of the object is concealed by the reverse legend.) In any event, I am not sure I agree with Nomos’s statement in its auction description that there is more than one real variant of this type, i.e. that “This type can be addressed as a variant of RIC 155, with Roma holding the Palladium and a sceptre instead of Victory and a spear.”  

 

Lucilla (wife of Lucius Verus & daughter of Marcus Aurelius) AR Denarius, Rome Mint AD 164-66. Obv. Draped bust right with hair in small chignon pulled behind her head, LVCILLAE AVG ANTONINI AVG F / Rev. Vesta standing left, veiled and draped, sacrificing over lighted altar from simpulum (ladle)* held in her right hand, and holding Palladium [statue of Pallas Athena taken to Rome by Aeneas] in her left hand, VES-TA. RIC III 788, RSC II Lucilla 92 (p. 234), BMCRE IV Marcus Aurelius & Lucius Verus 325 (p. 429) (ill. Pl. 58 no. 18), Sear RCV II 5493 (p. 370). Purchased from cgb.fr, 14 April 2024.

 

* See Jones, John Melville, A Dictionary of Ancient Roman Coins (Seaby, London 1990), entry for “Simpulum” at p. 290: “the name for a ladle made of earthenware which was one of the traditional implements of the pontifices at Rome. It should be distinguished from a culullus, which was a drinking vessel.”

Salonina (wife of Gallienus), Billon Antoninianus, 257-258 AD, Cologne Mint. Obv. Diademed bust draped right, on crescent, SALONINA AVG / Rev. Vesta seated left on throne holding Palladium and transverse scepter, VESTA. RIC V-1 70, RSC IV 142, Sear RCV III 10664. 22 mm., 3.4 g.

 

 

Edited July 19 by DonnaML

[MrMonkeySwag96]

 

3.16g, 17mm Diademed head of Venus right Aeneas advancing left, holding palladium and carrying Anchises on his shoulder. "CAESAR" RSC 12

Edited July 20 by MrMonkeySwag96

[LONGINUS]

Nice coin and an interesting essay, @expat ! Thanks to your post, I now have a better comprehension of what the term ‘palladium’ means.

 

This is my one and only coin featuring a palladium.