Pallas

In Greek mythology, a title of the goddess Athena, possibly meaning virgin.

One tradition relates how Pallas, a childhood friend of Athena, was killed accidently by the goddess. Stricken by remorse, Athena took her name and had the image of the Palladium fashioned in her memory. Another theory for the merge of the names suggests that Athena may have evolved from a Minoan-Mycenean palace goddess, and that Greek invaders, identified her with their own virgin warrior goddess, who was named Pallas.

Pallas (died AD 62)

Roman freed slave of and chief financial secretary to the emperor Claudius. It was at his instigation that Claudius married Agrippina the Younger (Pallas was alleged to have been her lover), and adopted her son (the future emperor Nero). After Nero's accession, Agrippina and Pallas gradually lost their influence, and in AD 62 Nero had Pallas killed, perhaps to get hold of his enormous wealth.

Pallas

Second-largest asteroid in the Solar System (after Ceres), discovered by German astronomer Heinrich Olbers in 1802. It is 522 km/324 mi in diameter. Pallas orbits the Sun at a distance of 414 million km/257 million mi with a period (the time it takes to circle the Sun) of 4.61 years.