Athena was the Greek Goddess of wisdom, art literature, home keeping and strategic war. The city of Athens was named after her and she was called with many names according to virtue and site. The name  that was attached to her, though, was Pallas and was called with both names I.e. Athena Pallas or Pallas Athena. There are many myths of how the name was acquired . One that she killed the Titan Pallant. One other that accidentally killed her friend Pallas. She is depicted in statues both either holding a tiny statue of Pallas or the fleece that was removed from Pallant. The correct explanation is that Pallas comes from the verb 'pallo' which means vibrate, throb, reciprocate - because the governing style of Athens was by election and elections go 'back and forth'.