Pallas

Not to be confused with Athena, whose epithet is Pallas.

Pallas was a Titan, a son of Crius and Eurybia and a brother of Astraeus and Perses. He married Styx, the daughter of Oceanus, and became the father of Zelus, Nike, Kratos and Bia. The Titan Pallas should not be confused with the Giant Pallas, whom Athena killed in the Gigantomachy, or with Athena herself, whose epithet is Pallas.

Family of Pallas

Pallas belonged to the second generation of the Titan family. His father Crius was one of the Titans, the children of Uranus and Gaea (Hesiod, Theogony 133–136), and his mother Eurybia, a daughter of Pontus and Gaea, bore to Crius three sons: great Astraeus, Pallas and Perses (Theogony 237–239, 375–377). Apollodorus gives the same three sons of Crius and Eurybia (Apollodorus, Library 1.2.2). Astraeus, married to Eos, became the father of the winds and stars (Theogony 378–382), and Perses, married to Asteria, the father of Hecate (Theogony 409–411).

Pallas and Styx

Styx, daughter of Oceanus, was joined to Pallas and bore Zelus (Emulation) and fair-ankled Nike (Victory) in his halls, and also Kratos (Strength) and Bia (Force) (Hesiod, Theogony 383–385). They have no house or seat apart from Zeus, and always sit beside him (Theogony 386–388). Apollodorus likewise says that Victory, Dominion, Emulation and Violence were born to Pallas and Styx (Library 1.2.4).

When Zeus called the gods to Olympus and promised honours to any who would fight on his side against the Titans, Styx was the first to come, with her children, and Zeus honoured her with great gifts: she became the great oath of the gods, and her children were to live with him always (Theogony 389–403). Hesiod does not describe Pallas himself fighting in the war between Titans and gods, which lasted ten years (Theogony 629–636).

Pallas in Other Sources

Pausanias says that the Achaean city of Pellene took its name, according to the Pellenians, from Pallas, who was, they say, one of the Titans, though the Argives derived the name from Pellen, a son of Phorbas (Pausanias 7.26.12).

Pallas the Giant

The Pallas killed by Athena was a different figure. In Apollodorus’ account of the Gigantomachy, the war between the Olympians and the Giants, Athena threw the island of Sicily on the Giant Enceladus as he fled, and she flayed Pallas, another of the Giants, and used his skin as a shield for her body in the fight (Library 1.6.2). The Titan Pallas, son of Crius, is not said by Hesiod or Apollodorus to have been killed by Athena.

Pallas as a Name of Athena

Pallas is also a very common epithet of the goddess Athena. Homer, for example, says that Achilles knew at once “Pallas Athena” when she stood behind him (Iliad 1.197–200).

Pallas Sources

Hesiod, Theogony 133–136, 237–239, 375–388, 389–403, 409–411, 629–636; Apollodorus, Library 1.2.2, 1.2.4, 1.6.2; Pausanias 7.26.12; Homer, Iliad 1.197–200.

See Also: Crius, Eurybia, Titans, Astraeus, Perses, Styx, Athena, Nike