AEGIS (Gr. Aigis)  , in Homer, the shield or buckler of Zeus, fashioned for him by Hephaestus, furnished with tassels and bearing the Gorgon's head in the centre . Originally symbolical of the storm-cloud, it is probably derived from aivo•m, signifying rapid, violent motion . When the god shakes it, Mount Ida is wrapped in clouds, the thunder rolls and men are smitten with fear . He sometimes lends it to Athene and (rarely) to Apollo . In the later story (Hyginus, Poet . Astronom. ii . 13) Zeus is said to have used the skin of the goat Amaltheia (aiyis = goat-skin), which suckled him in Crete, as a buckler when he went forth to do battle against. the giants . Another legend represents the aegis as a fire-breathing monster like the Chimaera, which was slain by Athene, who afterwards wore its skin as a cuirass (Diodorus Siculus iii . 70) . It appears to have been really the goat's skin used as a belt to support the shield . When so used it would generally be fastened on the right shoulder, and would partially envelop- the chest as it passed obliquely round in front and behind to be attached to the shield under the left arm . Hence, by transference, it would be employed to denote at times the shield which it supported, and at other times a cuirass, the purpose of which it in part served .

In accordance with this

double meaning the aegis appears in works of art sometimes as an animal's skin thrown over the shoulders and arms, sometimes as a cuirass, with a border of snakes corresponding to the tassels of Homer, usually with the Gorgon's head in the centre . It is often represented on the statues of Roman emperors, heroes and warriors, and on cameos and vases . See F . G . Welcker, Griechische Gotterlehre (1857) ; L . Preller, Griechische Mythologie, i . (1887) ; articles in Pauly-Wissowa's I- ea1-encyclopadie, Roscher's Lexikon der Mythologie, Daremberg and Saglio's Dictionnaire des Antiquites, and Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (3rd ed., 189o) .