The Aegis of Athena/Zeus

TheCanMan

I'm looking for a picture of the Aegis of Athena/Zeus. Is there a painting or sculpture depicting this shield that is considered to be more famous and/or correct (I'm assuming "correct" is too subjective to have a definitive answer?)? I know practically nothing about ancient Greek literature and art, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

If the answer is "there isn't one" that would be helpful too.

Thanks!

Darkewolfe

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegis

TheCanMan

Yeah, I read that before posting. It doesn't really answer what I'm asking though. Maybe I wasn't being clear enough. What I'm looking for is "what is the image most commonly associated with the Aegis of Athena".

I also did a GIS and came up with a bunch of pictures, but without any actual knowledge of the subject I have no way of knowing if what I'm looking at is commonly accepted as "the Aegis of Athena" or just some random picture so idiot decided to call the Aegis.

Joe Camacho MKII

Well, I tried a GIS just to see what I could find, IIRC the Aegis was less of a shield and more of some kind of armor.. And behold!

On a site about a missile system called AEGIS, they had a "culture corner" where they explained what was Aegis: http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/weaps/aegis.htm

Now if you need a shield design.. Well maybe you could GIS Athena from Saint Seiya, her armor uses a shield, maybe you would like the design.

EDIT.- To answer your question, which I kind of skipped (Sorry.), I don't really think there is a "standard" design of the Aegis, outside of the one described on the Illiad. Usually people relate Aegis to some kind of shield, yes, but I don't think it has a particular design, just that it is really powerful.

So I don't think you could really find what you are looking for. Unless you were looking for it on a specific medium.

Skeith

iirc, the armor of Alexander the Great in that mosaic is meant to be the aegis. Look up the Alexander Mosaic, but he has the same armor in Civ 5.

TheCanMan

Joe Camacho MKII wrote: »

Well, I tried a GIS just to see what I could find, IIRC the Aegis was less of a shield and more of some kind of armor.. And behold!

On a site about a missile system called AEGIS, they had a "culture corner" where they explained what was Aegis: http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/weaps/aegis.htm

Now if you need a shield design.. Well maybe you could GIS Athena from Saint Seiya, her armor uses a shield, maybe you would like the design.

EDIT.- To answer your question, which I kind of skipped (Sorry.), I don't really think there is a "standard" design of the Aegis, outside of the one described on the Illiad. Usually people relate Aegis to some kind of shield, yes, but I don't think it has a particular design, just that it is really powerful.

So I don't think you could really find what you are looking for. Unless you were looking for it on a specific medium.

Yeah, I was kind of afraid the answer would be "there isn't one".

The funny thing is, I'm asking about this because my dad has been a test engineer for the Aegis radar systems since the very early '80s. That job basically put me and both my sisters through college and is a big part of the reason I am where I am right now. I'm trying to come up with an idea for a tattoo to commemorate this. At first I was going to get the badge of the USS Princeton (the first radar he worked on) but getting such an obviously military tattoo without ever being in the military myself doesn't feel right. Then the idea of honoring its etymology hit me. Guess it's back to the drawing board.

Darkewolfe

Oh, if you're doing Aegis, why not take a look at the various Missile Defense Agency insignias for inspiration?

Also, that wikipedia page says that the Aegis is usually a shield with the gorgon's head on it. Except when it isn't.

Inquisitor77

Being of Chinese heritage, I hesitate to mention this, but since using foreign words as tattoos is a thing, why not just go with the Greek translation: αιγίς

Alternatively, you could just go with a stylized or ancient form the word or even just the letter alpha.

TheCanMan

Inquisitor77 wrote: »

Being of Chinese heritage, I hesitate to mention this, but since using foreign words as tattoos is a thing, why not just go with the Greek translation: αιγίς

Alternatively, you could just go with a stylized or ancient form the word or even just the letter alpha.

Ooo. I hadn't thought of spelling it out in ancient Greek. That's nice and subtle. I really like that idea. I already have Gaelic on my back, so I'm already on the foreign words as tattoos bandwagon.