At the dawn of civilization, relics served as a link to a highly esteemed individual or to divinity itself. These could consist of anything originating from past individuals — even the skulls of great-grandparents or formidable enemies slain in battle were worthy of being relics. In Homer's Odyssey, the Argives tried to steal the Palladium, a relic which supposedly was sent down from heaven, as they thought it would give them victory over the Trojans. The appeal of relics as cultic objects was so robust that it lasted even into the medieval era where they were not only prized as items to be held for display in churches, but for worship as well. Not all people were avid about them: although they kept the personal effects of the Prophet and his associates, the majority of Muslims did not ven