Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PAL-LA'DI-UM, n. [Gr. παλλαδιον, from Pallas, the goddess.]

1. Primarily, a statue of the goddess Pallas, which represented her as sitting with a pike in her right hand, and in her left a distaff and spindle. On the preservation of this statue depended the safety of Troy. Hence,
2. Something that affords effectual defense, protection and safety; as when we say, the trial by jury is the palladium of our civil rights. – Blackstone.
3. A metal discovered in 1803 by Wollaston, and found in very small grains, of a steel gray color and fibrous structure, in auriferous and platiniferous sand. It is infusible by ordinary heat, and when native, is alloyed with a little platinum and iridium. – Dict. Nat. Hist.