Pallas is the second asteroid, found by Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers at Bremen on 28 March 1802. Olbers noticed it while observing Ceres, and the fact that two bodies shared the same region started the idea of a belt rather than a single missing planet. Pallas is the second largest body of the belt and its orbit is markedly tilted.
Its name comes from the epithet Pallas of Athena. This page tells the myths behind that epithet. In classical astrology Pallas has no rulership, exaltation, sect or joy. Asteroid interpretation is a twentieth century development; in this school the body may be observed in a chart, but it rules no sign.
The glyph of Pallas stands at the centre. The branches around it show the symbolism in four colours: goddesses in gold, archetypes in blue, traditions in green and narratives in red. Touch a branch and its explanation opens below the map.
Athena is the guardian goddess of Athens, and her name shares a root with the name of the city. Hesiod makes her the daughter of Zeus and Metis. She governs the ordered face of war, the handcrafts and practical intelligence together. Athena in the family tree →
Minerva forms the Capitoline triad with Jupiter and Juno. Her name shares a root with the Latin mens, mind. She is the goddess of craftsmen and teachers, and her festival Quinquatrus opens on 19 March.
Apollodorus writes that Athena killed Pallas, daughter of Triton, by accident during a mock fight. In grief the goddess put her friend's name before her own. Another account makes Pallas a giant Athena killed, and both explanations circulated side by side.
When the head of Zeus began to ache unbearably, Hephaestus opened it with an axe and Athena stepped out fully armed. Pindar says the sky shook at the cry she gave as she was born. The story establishes a goddess born from mind rather than from a mother.
Metis is a daughter of Oceanus and her name means cunning intelligence. Hearing the prophecy that her child would overthrow him, Zeus swallowed her while she was pregnant. According to Hesiod she remains inside him and keeps telling him what is good and what is not. Metis in the family tree →
The aegis is the fringed skin Athena wears on her shoulder, with the head of the Gorgon at its centre. Homer names it as a weapon of Zeus, while Athena is the goddess who uses it with order. It is a device for freezing an enemy with fear rather than a cutting weapon.
Perseus cuts off the head of Medusa by watching her reflection in the polished shield Athena gave him. The head is then fixed to the goddess's aegis. Ovid writes that Medusa was transformed because of an assault in Athena's temple, a detail found only in Ovid.
The epithet Ergane means the one who does the work and marks the craft side of Athena. The loom, the potter's wheel and shipbuilding all belong to her. The potters' quarter of Athens kept a cult under this title.
Ovid tells how the Lydian weaver Arachne challenged Athena to a contest. The goddess wove the victories of the gods, while Arachne wove their crimes. Athena tore the cloth and turned the girl into a spider, so the work was faultless but the subject was not forgiven.
Athena and Poseidon compete for Attica. Poseidon strikes the rock and brings out a spring of salt water, while Athena gives the olive tree, and the citizens choose her gift. Pausanias writes that the marks of both the spring and the tree were shown on the Acropolis.
The Panathenaia was the festival of Athens, held on a grand scale every four years. The women of the city wove a new peplos for the statue of the goddess and carried it in procession to the temple. The frieze of the Parthenon shows that procession.
The epithet Parthenos means unmarried, and the name of her temple comes from it. It marks independence rather than a sexual prohibition. The goddess enters no partnership and governs her own field alone.
Hephaestus approaches Athena, she resists, and the seed falls to the ground. Athena puts the child born from the earth in a basket and entrusts it to the daughters of Cecrops. They open the basket, are seized with terror and throw themselves from the rock, while the child founds the royal line of Athens.
Greek thought divided the two faces of war between two gods. Ares is the bloodshed itself, while Athena is the plan, the order and the technique of victory. In the Iliad Athena knocks Ares down with a stone, which states the distinction plainly.
Homer constantly calls Athena glaukopis, bright eyed. The owl is her bird and was struck on the reverse of Athenian silver coins. Its ability to see in the dark was read together with the goddess's eye for what is hidden.
Tritogeneia is one of the oldest epithets of Athena. Some sources explain it as born by the river Trito, others tie it to Lake Tritonis in Libya. That the meaning was already disputed in antiquity suggests the epithet comes from a pre Greek layer.
The Palladium was a small statue of Athena believed to have fallen from the sky, and the city that held it was thought to be safe. Its theft prepared the fall of Troy, while Rome told that Aeneas brought it and that it was kept in the temple of Vesta. That story joins Pallas and Vesta in a single cult object. The Palladium on the Vesta page →
In the Timaeus Plato writes that the Greeks identified Neith, goddess of the city of Sais, with Athena. Neith is a goddess of weaving and of the bow, so she carries the same double role. The equation was made in the Hellenic period, while the two cults are separate in origin.
The 1973 ephemeris of Eleanor Bach made Pallas calculable in a chart. Demetra George connects it with pattern recognition and creative intelligence. These readings have no link to the classical system of dignities and cannot be added to it.
The glyph of Pallas ⚴ is a spear. A diamond shaped point sits at the top and a vertical line runs down as the shaft. The sign states the armed birth of the goddess with a single tool.
Many cultures have an armed and wise goddess, but the functions are distributed differently. The counterparts below share ground with Athena rather than matching her exactly. Each line states where the equation actually holds.
Daughter of Zeus and Metis. The order of war, the handcrafts and the guardianship of the city belong to her.
See in the family treeMember of the Capitoline triad. Craftsmen and teachers made offerings to her at the Quinquatrus.
Goddess of Sais, both weaver and archer. Plato identifies her with Athena, while in Egypt she is also a creator goddess.
See in the family treeShe comes close to Athena as an armed goddess, but her fields of love and fertility have no counterpart in Athena. The two cannot be equated, only their war aspects compared.
See in the family treeShe is linked with weaving and foresight and is said to spin the clouds. She has no war aspect, so the equation holds only on the side of craft.
See in the family treeIn northern Britain she is named with craft and protection. The Romans equated her with Minerva and gave her Minerva's attributes in sculpture.
Goddess of knowledge, speech and the arts. The craft and mind overlap, while weapons and city guardianship are not hers.
Hesiod tells that Zeus lay with Metis and, on hearing that her child would take his throne, swallowed the pregnant goddess. When the time came his head ached beyond bearing and Hephaestus opened it with an axe. Athena stepped out in armour, holding a spear. Pindar says the sky and the sea shook at that moment. Metis stayed inside Zeus, so the king of the gods had taken intelligence into himself by swallowing it.
Athena and Poseidon competed for the guardianship of Attica, and the city acted as judge. Poseidon struck the rock with his trident and salt water sprang out. Athena planted the olive, which gives food, fuel and light. The city chose the olive and took the name of the goddess. Pausanias writes that both the spring and the tree were shown on the Acropolis, and that the tree was said to have put out a new shoot within a day of the Persian fire.
In Ovid's Metamorphoses the Lydian girl Arachne says she owes her skill to no one and challenges the goddess. Athena comes as an old woman to warn her, and the girl does not listen. The goddess weaves the punishment of mortal arrogance, while Arachne weaves gods deceiving women. The work is faultless and the subject is not forgiven. Athena tears the cloth and turns Arachne into a spider.
| Rulership | None. In classical astrology domicile belongs to the seven traditional planets alone. Assigning Aquarius or Virgo to Pallas is a modern proposal. |
|---|---|
| Exaltation | None. Degrees of exaltation are defined for the seven planets. |
| Sect | None. The division by sect belongs to the classical seven. |
| Joy | None. Joy is tied to the house system and does not cover asteroids. |
| Type of body | Asteroid. About 512 kilometres across and the second largest body of the belt. |
| Discovery | 28 March 1802, Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers, Bremen. |
| Orbit | It circles the Sun in about 4.6 years. Its orbital inclination is 34 degrees, so it departs markedly from the band of the zodiac. |
| Modern use | Calculable from the ephemerides published after 1973. Its interpretation belongs to modern asteroid literature. |
The position of this school is plain: Pallas is not a planet and rules no sign. It has no place in the dignity table. For the detail see Essential and Accidental Dignities.
These correspondences come from the discovery record, from the mythological sources and from twentieth century asteroid literature. They are not part of the classical system of dignities and should not be read as if they were.
| Discovery | 28 March 1802, Heinrich Olbers, Bremen |
|---|---|
| Class | Asteroid, second largest body of the belt |
| Orbital inclination | 34 degrees, among the most tilted of the large orbits |
| Glyph | ⚴, a spear |
| Greek counterpart | Athena |
| Roman festival | Quinquatrus, 19 to 23 March |
| Modern literature | Eleanor Bach ephemeris 1973, Demetra George 1986 |
Pallas is an epithet of Athena. Apollodorus says the goddess took the name of a friend she had killed by accident. That epithet was chosen when the asteroid was named, so the body is named for Athena herself.
No. Classical astrology works with the seven traditional planets and domicile belongs to those seven. Texts proposing Aquarius or Virgo for Pallas belong to the twentieth century.
In Greek thought both rest on the same faculty, on planning and technique. The calculation at the loom and the calculation in a battle line are the work of one mind. Ares stands for slaughter while Athena stands for the technique of victory.
Perseus kills Medusa with the polished shield Athena gave him, and the head is then fixed to the goddess's aegis. The temple scene given as the reason for Medusa's transformation appears only in Ovid and is absent from earlier sources.
In this school the reading is built from the seven planets. If you are curious the calculator will show the sign and house of Pallas, but treating it as a planet breaks the system of dignities.
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The free birth chart calculator shows the sign, house and aspects of Pallas. It does not appear in the dignity table, because it holds no dignity in the classical system.
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