Aegis
Aegis (goatskin) In Greek mythology, the shield forged by Hephaestus that had on it the Gorgon Medusa’s head. When Zeus shook the aegis, thunder ripped through the heavens. It was used not only by Zeus but also by Athena and Apollo. Since the word means goatskin, the aegis was said in later myth to be the skin of the goat that had suckled Zeus in his infancy. When the aegis became part of the iconography of Athena, it was portrayed as a shaggy or scaly skin with a fringe of snakes and the Gorgon’s head in the middle. Vergil’s Aeneid
(book 8), Ovid’s Fasti (book 3), and Milton’s Comus (447) are among the literary works that refer to the shield.
SOURCE:
Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend, Third Edition – Written by Anthony S. Mercatante & James R. Dow– Copyright © 2009 by Anthony S. Mercatante
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