More Athena and the Aegis

Athena often helped heroes, like Jason and Perseus. She wore an aegis, a goatskin shield which had a fringe of snakes. When Perseus killed the gorgon Medusa, whose face turned men to stone, he gave the gorgon head to Athena, and the goddess placed it on her aegis.

Athena wearing her aegis, with its snake-fringe and gorgon head

Toledo 1963.26, Attic black figure calyx krater, c. 520-515 B.C.

Athena depicted on an Attic red figure amphora from ca. 525 BC. Her aegis is positioned over her right shoulder so that the Gorgon head—the head of serpents—is seen in full frontal-face. The look of the Gorgon Medusa had the power to turn men to stone. The glare of Medusa still mesmerizes those who don’t look away to Genesis to discern Athena’s true identity.

Athena and the Aegis

Medusa was killed by the hero Perseus with the help of Athena and Hermes. He killed her by cutting of her head and gave it to Athena, who placed it in the center of her Aegis, which she wore over her breastplate.

The Aegis is a protective device that was originally associated with Zeus, but also, and later solely, with Athena. It is variously considered to be a bright-edged thundercloud (because when Zeus used it lightning flashed and thunder sounded) fashioned by Hephaestus, or the skin of the divine goat Amaltheia. It is represented as a sort of cloak, sometimes covered with scales and fringed with serpents, and with the head of Medusa fastened in the middle. The Aegis could also serve as a shield and in that fashion Athena wears it upon her breastplate. 

This statue of Athena from the old Parthenon, now in the Acropolis Museum, shows her snaky aegis well.