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[[File:Athena Lemnia (SK Dresden 49) 04.jpg|thumb|The aegis on the so-called [[Athena Lemnia]], a Roman statue type often identified as a copy of a work by the Classical Greek sculptor [[Pheidias]] (Dresden Skulpturensammlung)]] | [[File:Athena Lemnia (SK Dresden 49) 04.jpg|thumb|The aegis on the so-called [[Athena Lemnia]], a Roman statue type often identified as a copy of a work by the Classical Greek sculptor [[Pheidias]] (Dresden Skulpturensammlung)]] | ||
The '''aegis''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|i:|dʒ|ɪ|s}} {{respell|EE|jis}};<ref>{{cite web |title=aegis |url=https://www.lexico.com/definition/aegis |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200323141618/https://www.lexico.com/definition/aegis |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 23, 2020 |work=Oxford Dictionary |publisher=Lexico | The '''aegis''' or '''egis'''<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/egis |title=egis |website=Merriam-Webster Dictionary}}</ref> ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|i:|dʒ|ɪ|s}} {{respell|EE|jis}};<ref>{{cite web |title=aegis |url=https://www.lexico.com/definition/aegis |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200323141618/https://www.lexico.com/definition/aegis |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 23, 2020 |work=Oxford Dictionary |publisher=Lexico |access-date=23 June 2014}}</ref> {{langx|grc|αἰγίς}} ''aigís''), as stated in the ''[[Iliad]]'', is a device carried by [[Athena]] and [[Zeus]], variously interpreted as an animal skin or a [[shield]] and sometimes featuring the head of a [[Gorgon]]. There may be a connection with a deity named Aex, a daughter of [[Helios]] and a nurse of Zeus or alternatively a mistress of Zeus ([[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''Astronomica'' 2. 13).<ref name=Hammond/> | ||
|access-date=23 June 2014}}</ref> {{langx|grc|αἰγίς}} ''aigís''), as stated in the ''[[Iliad]]'', is a device carried by [[Athena]] and [[Zeus]], variously interpreted as an animal skin or a [[shield]] and sometimes featuring the head of a [[Gorgon]]. There may be a connection with a deity named Aex, a daughter of [[Helios]] and a nurse of Zeus or alternatively a mistress of Zeus ([[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''Astronomica'' 2. 13).<ref name=Hammond/> | |||
The modern concept of doing something "under someone's ''aegis''{{-"}} means doing something under the protection of a powerful, knowledgeable, or benevolent source. The word ''aegis'' is identified with protection by a strong force with its roots in [[Greek mythology]] and adopted by the [[Roman mythology|Romans]]; there are [[Comparative mythology|parallels]] in [[Norse mythology]] and in [[Egyptian mythology]] as well,{{ | The modern concept of doing something "under someone's ''aegis''{{-"}} means doing something under the protection of a powerful, knowledgeable, or benevolent source. The word ''aegis'' is identified with protection by a strong force with its roots in [[Greek mythology]] and adopted by the [[Roman mythology|Romans]]; there are [[Comparative mythology|parallels]] in [[Norse mythology]] and in [[Egyptian mythology]] as well,<ref>{{Cite web |last=www.kaloa.net |first=Studio de design Kaloa- |title=Ægis |url=https://www.jacquesrougeriedatabase.com/project/aegis |access-date=2025-09-07 |website=Jacques Rougerie Database |language=en}}</ref> where the Greek word ''aegis'' is applied by extension. | ||
==Etymology== | ==Etymology== | ||
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==In Greek mythology== | ==In Greek mythology== | ||
[[File:Douriscup 83d40m Athene aegisWingedLionessOwl pythonVomitsJason fleeceInTree Vatican.jpg|thumb|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 ([[Vatican Museums]])]]The aegis of Athena is referred to in several places in the ''Iliad''. " | [[File:Douriscup 83d40m Athene aegisWingedLionessOwl pythonVomitsJason fleeceInTree Vatican.jpg|thumb|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 ([[Vatican Museums]])]]The aegis of Athena is referred to in several places in the ''Iliad''. "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."<ref name=Hammond>{{cite book|translator=Martin Hammond |date=1987 |orig-year= 1st pub. c. 735 B.C. |author= Homer |title=The Iliad|title-link=The Iliad |volume=2 |pages=446–9|publisher= Penguin Classics |isbn= 978-0-14044-444-5}}</ref> | ||
Virgil imagines the [[Cyclopes]] in [[Hephaestus]]'s 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 [[Gorgon]] herself upon the goddess's breast—a severed head rolling its eyes",<ref>''[[Aeneid]]'' 8.435–8, (Day-Lewie's translation).</ref> furnished with golden tassels and bearing the ''[[Gorgoneion]]'' ([[Medusa]]'s head) in the central boss. Some of the [[Attica|Attic]] vase-painters retained an archaic tradition that the tassels had originally been [[Serpent (symbolism)|serpents]] in their representations of the aegis. When the Olympian deities overtook the older deities of Greece and she was born of [[Metis (mythology)|Metis]] (inside Zeus who had swallowed the goddess) and "re-born" through the head of Zeus fully clothed, Athena already wore her typical garments. | Virgil imagines the [[Cyclopes]] in [[Hephaestus]]'s 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 [[Gorgon]] herself upon the goddess's breast—a severed head rolling its eyes",<ref>''[[Aeneid]]'' 8.435–8, (Day-Lewie's translation).</ref> furnished with golden tassels and bearing the ''[[Gorgoneion]]'' ([[Medusa]]'s head) in the central boss. Some of the [[Attica|Attic]] vase-painters retained an archaic tradition that the tassels had originally been [[Serpent (symbolism)|serpents]] in their representations of the aegis. When the Olympian deities overtook the older deities of Greece and she was born of [[Metis (mythology)|Metis]] (inside Zeus who had swallowed the goddess) and "re-born" through the head of Zeus fully clothed, Athena already wore her typical garments. | ||
When the Olympian shakes the aegis, [[Mount Ida]] is wrapped in clouds, the thunder rolls and men are struck down with fear.<ref name="EB1911"/>{{tone inline|date=January 2022}} "Aegis-bearing Zeus", as he is in the ''Iliad'', sometimes lends the fearsome aegis to [[Athena]]. In the ''Iliad'' when Zeus sends [[Apollo]] to revive the wounded [[Hector]], Apollo, holding the aegis, charges the Achaeans, pushing them back to their ships drawn up on the shore. According to [[Edith Hamilton]]'s ''Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes'',<ref>Part I, section I (Warner Books' United States Paperback Edition)</ref> the Aegis is the [[breastplate]] of Zeus, 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. | When the Olympian shakes the aegis, [[Mount Ida]] is wrapped in clouds, the thunder rolls and men are struck down with fear.<ref name="EB1911"/>{{tone inline|date=January 2022}} "Aegis-bearing Zeus", as he is in the ''Iliad'', sometimes lends the fearsome aegis to [[Athena]]. In the ''Iliad'' when Zeus sends [[Apollo]] to revive the wounded [[Hector]], Apollo, holding the aegis, charges the Achaeans, pushing them back to their ships drawn up on the shore. According to [[Edith Hamilton]]'s ''Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes'',<ref>Part I, section I (Warner Books' United States Paperback Edition)</ref> the Aegis is the [[breastplate]] of Zeus, 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. | ||
==In classical poetry and art== | ==In classical poetry and art== | ||