page_title: Palladium (protective image)
section_title: In other cultures
hierarchical_section_title: Palladium (protective image) / In other cultures
caption_attribution_description: English: London Stone. Español: La "Piedra de Londres", situada en la actualidad en el # 111 de 'Cannon Street'.
context_page_description: A palladium or palladion is an image or other object of great antiquity on which the safety of a city or nation is said to depend. The word is a generalization from the name of the original Trojan Palladium, a wooden statue of Pallas Athena that Odysseus and Diomedes stole from the citadel of Troy and which was supposedly later taken to the future site of Rome by Aeneas, where it remained until perhaps transferred to Constantinople and lost sight of after the conversion of the Empire to Christianity.
  In English, since around 1600, the word "palladium" has been used figuratively to mean anything believed to provide protection or safety, and in particular in Christian contexts a sacred relic or icon believed to have a protective role in military contexts for a whole city, people or nation. Such beliefs first become prominent in the Eastern Churches in the period after the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, and later spread to the Western church. Palladia were processed around the walls of besieged cities and sometimes carried into battle. In this more offensive role they may also be referred to as "vexilla".
context_section_description: The Emerald Buddha, a palladium (Thai: ขวัญเมือง kwan mueang; colloquially มิ่งเมีอง ming mueang) of the Kingdom of Thailand. Every Thai city and town has a kwan mueang or ming mueang (usually, but not necessarily, an image of Buddha).
  In Sri Lanka the Relic of the tooth of the Buddha is often described as a palladium in the rather different sense that control of it represented the legitimacy of the king.
  In the Khmer Empire, specific lingams associated with monarchs appear to have had a palladium-like role in the devaraja royal cult, although the subject remains controversial among scholars.
  Among many other figurative uses, in the United States, the Constitution has sometimes been referred to as the "Palladium of Liberty" or the "Palladium of the Republic" as guarantor of civil liberties. Thorstein Veblen famously referred to business enterprise as the "Palladium of the Republic".  The Christian Palladium was a significant evangelical journal in the United States, appearing between 1832 and 1862, and connected to the Christian Connection and Restoration Movements.
  Palladia in modern folk myth include the Ravens of the Tower of London, probably 19th century in origin, though dubious 17th-century origins have been claimed. These are somewhat typical of folk myth in being one-sided in their effect, in that their removal is said to presage disaster, but their continued presence is not usually held to have significant benefit. The isolated population of Barbary macaques in Gibraltar, whose continued presence is said to ensure British control, are a similar case.
  The Luck of Edenhall is an exceptionally fine and pristine example of 14th century luxury Islamic glass, made in Syria or Egypt, and now in the  Victoria and Albert Museum in London.  It was in the possession of the Musgrave family of Edenhall, Cumberland, from an unknown but early date, and is recorded in 1791 as having "by tradition" a reputation as a palladium for its owners:
  "If this cup should break or fall
  Farewell the Luck of Edenhall!"
  The cup has a custom-made 15th-century European leather case and the name is first recorded in a Musgrave will of 1677. A number of other Northern gentry families had a variety of objects called "Lucks", and "Luck of Troy" was an old English term for the Trojan and Roman prototype; the first recorded use of "luck" in this sense is a reference to the Luck of Edenhall.
  Some writers have suggested that the historic London Stone was once regarded as London's palladium. Notably, a pseudonymous contributor to the journal Notes and Queries in 1862 quoted a supposedly ancient proverb to the effect that "So long as the Stone of Brutus is safe, so long shall London flourish".   This verse, if it were genuine, would link the Stone to Brutus of Troy, legendary founder of London, as well as confirming its role as a palladium. However, the writer can be identified as Richard Williams Morgan, an eccentric Welsh clergyman who in an earlier book had claimed that the legendary Brutus was a historical figure; London Stone, he wrote, had been the plinth on which the original Trojan Palladium had stood, and was brought to Britain by Brutus and set up as the altar stone of the Temple of Diana in his new capital city of Trinovantum or "New Troy" (London).
  This story, and the verse about the "Stone of Brutus", can be found nowhere any earlier than in Morgan's writings. No one before Morgan had called London Stone "The Stone of Brutus", and although the spurious verse is still frequently quoted, there is no evidence that London's safety has ever traditionally been linked to that of London Stone.
caption: London Stone, seen through its protective grille
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