423:
295:
611:
813:
591:(1955) asserts that the aegis in its Libyan sense had been a shamanic pouch containing various ritual objects, bearing the device of a monstrous serpent-haired visage with tusk-like teeth and a protruding tongue which was meant to frighten away the uninitiated. In this context, Graves identifies the aegis as clearly belonging first to Athena.
27:
579:, which was always a distant territory of ancient magic for the Greeks. "Athene's garments and aegis were borrowed by the Greeks from the Libyan women, who are dressed in exactly the same way, except that their leather garments are fringed with thongs, not serpents."
318:, 4.17) and was borne by Athena in battle ... and among them went bright-eyed Athene, holding the precious aegis which is ageless and immortal: a hundred tassels of pure gold hang fluttering from it, tight-woven each of them, and each the worth of a hundred oxen."
413:
involving spears. Not wanting his daughter to lose, Zeus flapped his aegis to distract Pallas, whom Athena accidentally impaled. Zeus apologized to Athena by giving her the aegis; Athena then named herself Pallas Athena in tribute to her late friend.
552:
The aegis appears in works of art sometimes as an animal's skin thrown over Athena's shoulders and arms, occasionally with a border of snakes, usually also bearing the Gorgon head, the
402:, and was "awful to behold". However, Zeus is normally portrayed in classical sculpture holding a thunderbolt or lightning, bearing neither a shield nor a breastplate.
329:' forge, who "busily burnished the aegis Athena wears in her angry moods—a fearsome thing with a surface of gold like scaly snake-skin, and the linked serpents and the
282:= "Zeus who holds the aegis" may have originally meant "Sky/Heaven, who holds the thunderstorm". The transition to the meaning "shield" or "goatskin" may have come by
298:
Athena's aegis, with Gorgon, here resembles the skin of the serpent who guards the golden fleece (regurgitating Jason); cup by Douris, early fifth century BC (
602:), a rough and shaggy goatskin that has been firmly established in literary texts and iconography by H.G. Güterbock, was a source of the aegis.
422:
564:
in a fresco from
Pompeii dated to the first century BC, which shows the image of the head of a woman on his armor that resembles the Gorgon.
833:
294:
828:
927:
359:
who had swallowed the goddess) and "re-born" through the head of Zeus fully clothed, Athena already wore her typical garments.
681:
435:
1030:
351:
in their representations of the aegis. When the
Olympian deities overtook the older deities of Greece and she was born of
1020:
766:
731:
696:
386:, Apollo, holding the aegis, charges the Achaeans, pushing them back to their ships drawn up on the shore. According to
989:
970:
637:
556:. In some pottery it appears as a tasselled cover over Athena's dress. It is sometimes represented on the statues of
75:
508:
shows that the aegis was represented exactly as the skin of the great serpent, with its scales clearly delineated.
333:
herself upon the goddess's breast—a severed head rolling its eyes", furnished with golden tassels and bearing the
366:
is wrapped in clouds, the thunder rolls and men are struck down with fear. "Aegis-bearing Zeus", as he is in the
1045:
1015:
1050:
560:
emperors, heroes, and warriors, and on coins, cameos and vases. A vestige of that appears in a portrait of
748:
713:
406:
138:
means doing something under the protection of a powerful, knowledgeable, or benevolent source. The word
1055:
743:
708:
226:"goatskin coat", from treating the word as meaning "something grammatically feminine pertaining to
445:
interpreted the
Homeric aegis usually as a cover of some kind borne by Athena. It was supposed by
1025:
84:
20:
925:
Watkins, Calvert (2000). "A Distant
Anatolian Echo in Pindar: The Origin of the Aegis Again".
505:
151:
818:
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
1040:
534:
522:
121:
8:
857:
561:
485:
348:
944:
240:
159:
19:
This article is about the shield used by Zeus in Greek mythology. For other uses, see
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677:
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352:
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442:
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286:
among a people familiar with draping an animal skin over the left arm as a shield.
52:
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753:
718:
587:
466:
347:
vase-painters retained an archaic tradition that the tassels had originally been
299:
155:
147:
143:
676:. Vol. 2. Translated by Martin Hammond. Penguin Classics. pp. 446–9.
515:
387:
283:
175:
39:
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824:
819:
739:
704:
582:
576:
16:
Shield, buckler, or breastplate of Athena and Zeus bearing the head of Medusa
994:: a Doctoral dissertation on the Ægis (Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität,
882:
622:
557:
511:
645:
610:
999:
395:
26:
948:
837:. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 254.
335:
326:
995:
991:
Die Aigis: Zu
Typologie und Ikonographie eines Mythischen Gegenstandes
671:
572:
446:
363:
200:
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614:
595:
481:
410:
322:
142:
is identified with protection by a strong force with its roots in
116:. There may be a connection with a deity named Aex, a daughter of
847:
Part I, section I (Warner Books' United States
Paperback Edition)
501:
493:
470:
431:
426:
First century BC depiction of
Alexander wearing the aegis on the
35:
453:, 995) that the aegis borne by Athena was the skin of the slain
790:
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whom Athena overcame and whose name she attached to her own.
274:
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The aegis of Athena is referred to in several places in the
767:"A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), AEGIS"
530:
399:
356:
227:
105:
545:, as a shield when he went forth to do battle against the
61:
120:
and a nurse of Zeus or alternatively a mistress of Zeus (
64:
984:
913:
Perspectives on
Hittite Civilization: Selected Writings
131:
The modern concept of doing something "under someone's
621:
thrown over his shoulder as a divine attribute in the
730:"to quickly move, to shoot, dart, to put in motion":
575:
thought he had identified the source of the aegis in
529:
ii. 13), Zeus is said to have used the skin of a pet
76:
67:
514:
says that aegis was the skin of the monstrous giant
55:
273:The original meaning may have been the first, and
1007:
492:, who afterwards wore its skin, the aegis, as a
476:In a similar interpretation, Aex, a daughter of
108:, variously interpreted as an animal skin or a
417:
392:Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes
457:, yet the usual understanding is that the
405:In some versions, Zeus watched Athena and
343:'s head) in the central boss. Some of the
665:
663:
223:The shield of a deity as described above.
823:
806:
804:
802:
800:
609:
480:, represented as a great fire-breathing
421:
370:, sometimes lends the fearsome aegis to
293:
211:) = "I rush or move violently". Akin to
25:
924:
594:One current interpretation is that the
1008:
965:, p. 296, 2009, British Museum Press,
928:Harvard Studies in Classical Philology
660:
112:and sometimes featuring the head of a
797:
749:An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon
669:
436:Naples National Archaeological Museum
289:
362:When the Olympian shakes the aegis,
794:8.435–8, (Day-Lewie's translation).
190:"violent windstorm", from the verb
13:
567:
541:"goat-skin") which suckled him in
14:
1067:
978:
811:
51:
955:
918:
905:
892:
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310:. "It produced a sound as from
38:, represented by a cast at the
850:
841:
783:
759:
724:
690:
630:
186:has many meanings, including:
162:as well, where the Greek word
1:
963:Masterpieces of Classical Art
605:
598:sacral hieratic hunting bag (
169:
7:
1031:Interpersonal relationships
856:Noted by Graves 1960, 9.a;
418:In classical poetry and art
10:
1072:
1021:Objects in Greek mythology
733:
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488:, was slain and flayed by
275:
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88:
18:
407:Triton's daughter, Pallas
166:is applied by extension.
100:, is a device carried by
644:. Lexico. Archived from
409:, compete in a friendly
834:Encyclopædia Britannica
714:A Greek–English Lexicon
521:In a late rendering by
484:serpent similar to the
985:Theoi Project: "Aigis"
862:The Gods of the Greeks
626:
439:
382:to revive the wounded
303:
42:
21:Aegis (disambiguation)
1046:Mythological clothing
1016:Comparative mythology
873:As in Kerenyi 1951:50
771:www.perseus.tufts.edu
740:Liddell, Henry George
705:Liddell, Henry George
613:
425:
297:
29:
1051:Mythological shields
523:Gaius Julius Hyginus
321:Virgil imagines the
251:) = "goat" + suffix
94:), as stated in the
562:Alexander the Great
533:owned by his nurse
394:, the Aegis is the
146:and adopted by the
627:
527:Poetical Astronomy
500:iii. 70), or as a
440:
304:
290:In Greek mythology
160:Egyptian mythology
43:
1056:Symbols of Athena
961:Williams, Dyfri.
683:978-0-14044-444-5
648:on March 23, 2020
642:Oxford Dictionary
314:roaring dragons (
220:, "thunderstorm".
30:The aegis on the
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378:when Zeus sends
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646:the original
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31:
1041:Mythography
911:Güterbock,
864:1951, p 50.
411:mock battle
396:breastplate
126:Astronomica
1010:Categories
776:2024-03-02
606:References
554:gorgoneion
506:Douris cup
459:Gorgoneion
336:Gorgoneion
327:Hephaestus
998:1991) by
900:Histories
673:The Iliad
573:Herodotus
447:Euripides
374:. In the
364:Mount Ida
230:": Greek
201:word stem
170:Etymology
152:parallels
935:: 1–14.
615:Augustus
535:Amalthea
482:chthonic
355:(inside
349:serpents
323:Cyclopes
218:kataigis
214:καταιγίς
128:2. 13).
996:Münster
949:3185205
902:iv.189)
822::
752:at the
717:at the
652:23 June
638:"aegis"
596:Hittite
502:chlamys
494:cuirass
486:Chimera
471:Perseus
432:Pompeii
158:and in
122:Hyginus
36:Phidias
1036:Medusa
969:
947:
889:, 355.
816:
791:Aeneid
680:
600:kursas
547:Titans
516:Pallas
504:. The
490:Athena
478:Helios
455:Gorgon
384:Hector
380:Apollo
372:Athena
341:Medusa
331:Gorgon
312:myriad
260:(stem
148:Romans
118:Helios
114:Gorgon
110:shield
102:Athena
945:JSTOR
829:Aegis
734:ἀίσσω
699:αἰγίς
619:aegis
558:Roman
543:Crete
539:aigis
463:added
376:Iliad
368:Iliad
353:Metis
345:Attic
316:Iliad
308:Iliad
197:aïssō
193:ἀίσσω
184:aigis
180:αἰγίς
176:Greek
164:aegis
140:aegis
133:aegis
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92:aigís
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967:ISBN
678:ISBN
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531:goat
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400:Zeus
357:Zeus
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