Set III-6-zeu-002. In Greek mythology, aegis was an apotropaic device in form of an animal skin, often decorated with a snakes-fringe and gorgoneion (the severed head of Gorgon Medusa). Aegis was usually depicted with scaly surface and was used in different modes: neck-aegis, torso-aegis, cloak-aegis, shoulder-&-arm-aegis, shield-aegis, and helmet-aegis. It was carried among gods almost exclusively by Athena and Zeus. It was also used as a high-status decorative device by many Hellenistic rulers and Roman Emperors.
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“ But packed in a mass the Trojans came on pounding, Hector leading the way with long, leaping strides and heading the van in person came the god Apollo, shoulders wrapped in cloud, gripping the storm-shield [αἰγίς, aegis], the tempest terror, dazzling, tassels flaring along its front - The bronzesmith god of fire gave it to Zeus to bear and strike fear in men and Apollo gripped it now, locked in his two fists as he led the Trojans on. But packed in a mass the Argives stood their ground, deafening cries of battle breaking from both sides as whipping arrow leapt away from bowstrings. Showers of spears raining from daring, hardy arms went deep into soldiers' bodies quick to fight but showers of others, cut short halfway before they could graze glistening skin, stuck in the ground, still lusting to sink in flesh. Long as Apollo held the storm-shield [αἰγίς, aegis] firm in his grasp the weapons hurtled side-to-side and men kept falling. But once he looked the fast Achaean drives square in the eyes, shook the shield and loosed an enormous battle cry himself, Apollo stunned the high courage in all their chests - they lost their grip, forgot their fighting-fury. Routed like herds of cattle or big flocks of sheep when two wild beasts stampede them away in terror, suddenly pouncing down in their midst - pitch darkness, the shepherd off and gone - so the defenseless Argives panicked, routed. Apollo hurled fear in their hearts and handed Hector and all his Trojans instant glory. {...} Holding formation now the Trojans rolled across it, Apollo heading them, gripping the awesome storm-shield [αἰγίς, aegis] and he tore that Argive rampart down with the same ease some boy at the seashore knocks sand castles down - he no sooner builds his playthings up, child's play, than he wrecks them all with hands and kicking feet, just for the sport of it. God of the wild cry, Apollo - so you wrecked the Achaeans' work and drove the men who had built up with all that grief and labour into headlong panic rout. „
● Homer (700s-600s BC), Iliad XV: 360-387, 423-432 | Translated by Robert Fagles. Copyright © 1990.
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“ {...} Zeus who bears the aegis {...} aegis-bearing Zeus {...} „
● Homer (700s-600s BC), Odyssey IV: 752, 763; VI: 105, 325; XI: 256; XXIV: 529 | Translated by Emile V. Rieu. Copyright © 1946.
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“ {...} Zeus who holds the aegis {...} aegis-bearing Zeus {...} „
● Hesiod (700s-600s BC), Theogony: 011, 013, 025, 052, 735, 966, 1022 | Translated by Dorothea Wender. Copyright © 1973.
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“ {...} Zeus who holds the aegis {...} aegis-bearing Zeus {...} „
● Hesiod (700s-600s BC), Works and Days: 483, 661 | Translated by Dorothea Wender. Copyright © 1973.
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“ {...} aegis-holding Zeus {...} „
● Hesiod (700s-600s BC) (?), The Shield [Άσπίς]: 321, 443 | Translated by Glenn W. Most. Copyright © 2007.
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“ {...} Zeus who holds the aegis {...} „
● Anonymous (600s-500s BC), Homeric Hymns IV: To Hermes, 183, 396, 551; V: To Aphrodite, 008, 024, 026, 187; XXVIII: To Athena, 008, 017 | Translated by Jules Cashford. Copyright © 2003.
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“ O Nymphs, who they say are sprung from the Aegis-Bearer [Zeus] {...} „
● Alcaeus of Mytilene (620-500s BC), To the Nymphs (in Lyra Graeca I, LCL, Fragment № 16, Hephaestion (fl. 100s AD), Handbook of Metre, 66) | Translated by John Maxwell Edmonds. Copyright © 1922-1927.
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“ To the goat (aeg-) which suckled him Zeus also accorded certain honours, and in particular took from it a surname, being called Aegiochus [αἰγίοχος, "aegis-bearing"]. {...} Aegis-bearing Zeus {...} „
● Diodorus Siculus (90-30 BC), Historical Library V: 70, 6; VII, 16, 1 | Translated by Charles H. Oldfather. Copyright © 1933-1954.
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“ The Arcadians believe they have witnessed great Jove himself, seen him repeatedly shaking his dark aegis and summoning up the storm clouds [nimbus]. „
● Publius Vergilius Maro (70-19 BC), Aeneid VIII: 352-354 | Translated by Cecil Day-Lewis. Copyright © 1952.
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“ Ilos went to Phrygia, and finding that games were being held there by the king, he became victor in the wrestling. As a prize he received fifty boys and as many girls, and the king, in obedience to an oracle, also gave him a dappled cow, telling him to found a city at the place where the cow lay down. So he followed the cow, and when it arrived at a certain hill, called the Hill of Phrygian Ate, it lay down; and there Ilos founded a city, naming it Ilion. And he prayed to Zeus to reveal a sign to him, and when day arrived, he saw the Palladion, which had fallen from the sky, lying outside his tent. It was three cubits high; its feet were joined together [!], and in its tight hand it held a raised spear and in the other, a distaff and spindle. This is the story that people tell about the Palladion. They say that after her birth, Athena was brought up by Triton, who had a daughter, Pallas; and that both girls practised the arts of war, and this led them into conflict one day. And when Pallas was about to land a blow, Zeus grew alarmed and placed his aegis in the way, causing Pallas to look upwards in fright and fall victim to a fatal wound from Athena. Greatly distressed at her loss, Athena fashioned a wooden statue in her likeness, and wrapping the aegis which had aroused her fear around its chest, she set it up by Zeus' side and paid honour to it. Subsequently, since Electra had sought refuge at the Palladion when she was raped, Zeus threw the Palladion along with Ate into the Land if Ilion, where Ilos built a temple for it and honoured it. That is what people say about the Palladion. „
● Pseudo-Apollodorus (100s AD?), Bibliotheca III: 12, 142-144 | Translated by Robin Hard. Copyright © 1997.
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“ On the so-called South Wall, where the akropolis looks into the theatre, is a gilt head of Medusa the Gorgon, with a fringe of snakes [Ø] [αἰγίς, aegis]. „
● Pausanias (110-180 AD), Description of Greece I Attica: 21, 4 | Translated by Peter Levi. Copyright © 1971.
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“ Only the aegis-cape is left me [Zeus]; but what will my aegis do fighting with Typhon's thunderbolt? {...} the goatskin cape of Zeus [αἰγίς, aegis] {...} Zeus breasting the tempests with his aegis-breastplate {...} the tassel-tips of the aegis-cape {...} crafty Cronides shaking the aegis-cape {...} Hermes keeps his rod and wears not his father's [Zeus'] aegis, lifts not his father's fiery lightning. {...} No god, no god is that man [Dionysos]; he has lied about his birth. For what Olympian aegis of Cronion [Zeus'] does he brandish? What spark has he of Zeus-thrown thunderbolt? What heavenly lighting of his father's does he lift? No Cronides equips himself for war with vine-leaf and ivy! {...} If in that marriage [with Semele] the wooing flame of Zeus was your midwife, now fight with fire, O fire-born [Dionysos]! Now battle with the thunderbolt of your father against the helmsman of the trident [Poseidon], hurl the lightning and wield your father's aegis. {...} you [Dionysos] should hold the aegis of your father Cronides [Zeus]. „
● Nonnus of Panopolis (late 300s-400s AD), Dionysiaca I: 380-382; 474; II: 421, 470; VI: 177; XXXVIII: 208-209; XXXIX: 053-058; XLIII: 174-178; XLV: 094 | Translated by William H. D. Rouse. Copyright © 1940.
| Editorial notes: {...} - Omitted text; [...] - Translation back to the original, clarification, or curator's commentary. |
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