Pallas and a Female Pyrrhic Dance for Athena in Attica

Abstract

In Attica, Pallas was a giant apparently related to the sanctuary of Athena at Pallene. Pallene recalled the eponymous Chalcidian region and thus echoed the myth of the Gigantomachy. In some versions, Athena performed the Pyrrhic dance after defeating the giants. In other versions, however, Pallas was also a Titan, the father of Athena and another young woman. This maiden was the alter ego of the goddess and died at the hands of Athena in an hoplomachia. In this paper, I explore the possibility that some representations of a female Pyrrhic dance relating to Athena on red-figure vases may reflect a ritual in fifth-century Athens. This ritual was presumably associated with the Pallenian sanctuary where the Gigantomachy was evoked and a mimêsis of the goddess in arms seems to have taken place.