But Ilus went to Phrygia, and finding games held there by the king, he was victorious in wrestling. As a prize he received fifty youths and as many maidens, and the king, in obedience to an oracle, gave him also a dappled
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cow and bade him found a city wherever the animal should lie down; so he followed the cow. And when she was come to what was called the hill of the Phrygian Ate, she lay down; there Ilus built a city and called it Ilium.
[*](This legend of the foundation of Ilium by Ilus is repeated by Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 29. The site of Thebes is said to have been chosen in obedience to a similar oracle. See above, Apollod. 3.4.1. Homer tells us (Hom. Il. 20.215ff.) that the foundation of Dardania on Mount Ida preceded the foundation of Ilium in the plain. As to the hill of Ate, compare Stephanus Byzantius, s.v. Ἴλιον .) And having prayed to Zeus that a sign might be shown to him, he beheld by day the Palladium, fallen from heaven, lying before his tent. It was three cubits in height, its feet joined together; in its right hand it held a spear aloft, and in the other hand a distaff and spindle.
[*](As to the antique image of Pallas, known as the Palladium, see Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Ant. Rom. i.68ff., ii.66.5; Conon 34; Paus. 1.28.9; Paus. 2.23.5; Clement of Alexandria, Protrept. iv.47, p. 42, ed. Potter; Malalas, Chr. v. pp. 108ff., ed. L. Dindorf; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 355; Suidas, s.v. Παλλάδιον ; Etymologicum Magnum, s.v. Παλλάδιον, p. 649-50; Scholiast on Hom. Il. vi.311; Verg. A. 2.162ff.; Ovid, Fasti vi.417-436; Ov. Met. 13.337-349; Silius Italicus, Punic. xiii.30ff.; Dictys Cretensis v.5; Serv. Verg. A. 2.166; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 14ff., 45 (First Vatican Mythographer 40, 142). The traditions concerning the Palladium which have come down to us are all comparatively late, and they differ from each other on various points; but the most commonly received account seems to have been that the image was a small wooden one, that it had fallen from heaven, and that so long as it remained in Troy the city could not be taken. The Greek tradition was that the Palladium was stolen and carried off to the Greek camp by Ulysses and Diomedes (see Apollod. E.5.10 and Apollod. E.5.13), and that its capture by the Greeks ensured the fall of Troy. The Roman tradition was that the image remained in Troy till the city was taken by the Greeks, when Aeneas succeeded in rescuing it and conveying it away with him to Italy, where it was finally deposited in the temple of Vesta at Rome. These two traditions are clearly inconsistent with each other, and the Roman tradition further conflicts with the belief that the city which possessed the sacred image could not be captured by an enemy. Hence in order to maintain the genuineness of the image in the temple of Vesta, patriotic Roman antiquaries were driven to various expedients. They said, for example, that an exact copy of the Palladium had been publicly exposed at Troy, while the true one was carefully concealed in a sanctuary, and that the unsuspicious Greeks had pounced on the spurious image, while the knowing Aeneas smuggled away the genuine one packed up with the rest of his sacred luggage (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Ant. Rom. i.68ff.). Or they affirmed that the thief Diomedes had been constrained to restore the stolen image to its proper owners (First Vatican Mythographer 40, 142); or that, warned by Athena in a dream, he afterwards made it over to Aeneas in Italy (Silius Italicus, Punic. xiii.30ff.). But the Romans were not the only people who claimed to possess the true Palladium; the Argives maintained that it was with them (Paus. 2.23.5), and the Athenians asserted that it was to be seen in their ancient court of justice which bore the very name of Palladium. See Paus. 1.28.8ff.; Harpocration, s.vv. βουλεύσεως and ἐπὶ Παλλαδίῳ ; Suidas, s.v. ἐπὶ Παλλαδίῳ ; Julius Pollux viii.118ff.; Scholiast on Aeschin. 2.87, p. 298, ed, Schultz; Bekker's Anecdota Graeca, i. p. 311, lines 3ff. The most exact description of the appearance of the Palladium is the one given by Apollodorus in the present passage, which is quoted, with the author's name, by Tzetzes (Scholiast on Lycophron 355). According to Dictys Cretensis v.5, the image fell from heaven at the time when Ilus was building the temple of Athena; the structure was nearly completed, but the roof was not yet on, so the Palladium dropped straight into its proper place in the sacred edifice. Clement of Alexandria, Protrept. iv.47, p. 42, ed. Potter, mentions a strange opinion that the Palladium “was made out of the bones of Pelops, just as the Olympian (image of Zeus was made) out of other bones of an Indian beast,” that is, out of ivory. Pherecydes discussed the subject of palladia in general; he described them as “shapes not made with hands,” and derived the name from πάλλειν, which he considered to be equivalent to βάλλειν, “to throw, cast,” because these objects were cast down from heaven. See Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 355; Etymologicum Magnum, s.v. Παλλάδιον, p. 649.50. Apollodorus as usual confines himself to the Greek tradition; he completely ignores the Romans and their claim to possess the Palladium.) 41
The story told about the Palladium is as follows:
[*](The following account of the origin of the Palladium was regarded as an interpolation by Heyne, and his view has been accepted by Hercher and Wagner. But the passage was known to Tzetzes, who quotes it (Scholiast on Lycophron 355) immediately after his description of the image, which he expressly borrowed from Apollodorus.) They say that when Athena was born she was brought up by Triton,
[*](Apparently the god of the river Triton, which was commonly supposed to be in Libya, though some people identified it with a small stream in Boeotia. See Hdt. 4.180; Paus. 9.33.7; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 519; compare Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.109.) who had a daughter Pallas; and that both girls practised the arts of war, but that once on a time they fell out; and when Pallas was about to strike a blow, Zeus in fear interposed the aegis, and Pallas, being startled, looked up, and so fell wounded by Athena. And being exceedingly grieved for her, Athena made a wooden image in her likeness, and wrapped the aegis, which she had feared, about the breast of it, and set it up beside Zeus and honored it. But afterwards Electra, at the time of her violation,
[*](See above, Apollod. 3.12.1.) took refuge at the image, and Zeus threw the Palladium along with Ate
[*](Homer tells (Hom. Il. 19.126-131) how Zeus in anger swore that Ate should never again come to Olympus, and how he seized her by the head and flung her from heaven.) into the Ilian
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country; and Ilus built a temple for it, and honored it. Such is the legend of the Palladium. And Ilus married Eurydice, daughter of Adrastus, and begat Laomedon,
[*](Compare Hom. Il. 20.236. Homer does not mention the mother of Laomedon. According to one Scholiast on the passage she was Eurydice, daughter of Adrastus, as Apollodorus has it; according to another she was Batia, daughter of Teucer. But if the family tree recorded by Apollodorus is correct, Batia could hardly have been the wife of Ilus, since she was his great-grandmother.) who married Strymo, daughter of Scamander; but according to some his wife was Placia, daughter of Otreus, and according to others she was Leucippe; and he begat five sons, Tithonus, Lampus, Clytius, Hicetaon, Podarces,
[*](Compare Hom. Il. 20.237ff., with whom Apollodorus agrees as to Laomedon's five sons. Homer does not mention Laomedon's wife nor his daughters. According to a Scholiast on Hom. Il. iii.250, his wife's name was Zeuxippe or Strymo; for the former name he cites the authority of the poet Alcman, for the latter the authority of the historian Hellanicus. Apollodorus may have followed Hellanicus, though he was acquainted with other traditions. According to Tzetzes (Scholiast on Lycophron 18), Priam and Tithonus were sons of Laomedon by different mothers; the mother of Priam was Leucippe, the mother of Tithonus was Strymo or Rhoeo, daughter of Scamander. The Scholiast on Hom. Il. xi.1, speaks of Tithonus as a son of Laomedon by Strymo, daughter of Scamander.) and three daughters, Hesione, Cilla, and Astyoche; and by a nymph Calybe he had a son Bucolion.
[*](Compare Hom. Il. 6.23ff., who says that Bucolion was the eldest son of Laomedon, but illegitimate and one of twins.) Now the Dawn snatched away Tithonus for love and brought him to Ethiopia, and there consorting with him she bore two sons, Emathion and Memnon.[*](As to the love of Dawn (Eos) for Tithonus, see the HH Aphr. 218ff.; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 18; Scholiast on Hom. Il. 11.1; Prop. ii.18.7-18, ed. Butler. Homer speaks of Dawn (Aurora) rising from the bed of Tithonus (Hom. Il. 11.1ff.; Hom. Od. 5.1ff.). According to the author of the Homeric hymn, Dawn obtained from Zeus for her lover the boon of immortality; according to the Scholiast on Homer, it was Tithonus himself who asked and obtained the boon from the loving goddess. But the boon turned to be a bane; for neither he nor she had remembered to ask for freedom from the infirmities of age. So when he was old and white-headed and could not stir hand or foot, he prayed for death as a release from his sufferings; but die he could not, for he was immortal. Hence the goddess in pity either shut him up in his chamber and closed the shining doors on him, leaving him to lisp and babble there eternally, or she turned him into a grasshopper, the most musical of insects, that she might have the joy of hearing her lover's voice sounding for ever in her ears. The former and sadder fate is vouched for by the hymn writer, the latter by the Scholiast. Tzetzes perhaps lets us into the secret of the transformation when he tells us Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 18 that “the grasshoppers, like the snakes, when they are old, slough their old age” (τὸ γῆρας, literally “old age,” but applied by the Greeks to the cast skins of serpents). It is a widespread notion among savages, which the ancestors of the Greeks apparently shared, that creatures which cast their skins, thereby renew their youth and live for ever. See Folk-Lore in the Old Testament, i.66ff. The ancient Latins seem also to have cherished the same illusion, for they applied the same name (senecta or senectus) to old age and to the cast skins of serpents.)
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