The original Pallas was a daughter of the sea god Triton and a dear childhood friend of Athena’s. They would play semi-serious war games together. On one occasion, when Pallas was winning against Athena, Zeus (ever watchful and protective of his darling) intervened and, setting one of his thunderbolts to stun, knocked Pallas unconscious. Athena, in the heat of the moment, administered the coup de grâce and killed her friend. Forever after, she bore Pallas’s name as a sorrowful token of her enduring affection and remorse. Athena, like Demeter, remained untouched by man.60 Her childless, single
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