Pal-lā'di-üm, n.

n. [Lat., Gr. Παλλάδιον, from Παλλάδιος, of, or belonging to, Pallas, from Παλλάς, Παλλάδος, Pallas.]

1. (Antiq.) 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.
2. Hence, something that affords effectual defense, protection, and safety; as, the trial by jury is the palladium of our civil rights. Blackstone.
3. (Chem.) 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.