That Believed to Afford Protection Crossword

That believed to afford protection crossword clue. A two speed crossword puzzle question in Daily Telegraph on Thursday, 6 July 2017. 9 letters. Also appear in Herald Sun and The Courier-Mail newspaper.

Answer: PALLADIUM

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 (xoanon) 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.