αἰγίς

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /ai̯.ɡís/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ɛˈʝis/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /eˈʝis/^[1]

Forms

αἰγῐ́ς (aigís) f (genitive αἰγῐ́δος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is usually taken as derived from αἴξ (aíx, “goat”), “goatskin”, formed like νεβρίς (nebrís, “fawnskin”) from νεβρός (nebrós, “fawn”).^[2][3][1] Herodotus already took the aegis of Athena for a goatskin, a view that many modern scholars defend.^[2][4]

Other explanations exist: a derivation from an unattested verb *αἴγω “to move, shake”, matching Sanskrit एजति (éjati, “moves, trembles”) (Kretschmer, Thumb), with αἴγλη “gleam”; or a link with αἴγειρος (aígeiros, “black poplar”), which would make it a wooden shield.^[2][4][1] The sense “storm wind” was probably influenced by ἐπαιγίζω (epaigízō, “to rush upon”), used of winds.^[2] Cunliffe thought the original idea was a storm cloud.^[2][5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Iliad it is the terrifying shield of Zeus, which he shakes to rout armies.^[4][5] Athena and Apollo also wield it, Athena casts it over Achilles' shoulders, and Apollo covers Hector's body with it.^[5][3][4]

Semantic evolution

The CGL describes the Homeric aegis as apparently a metal shield covered with goatskin, fringed with golden tassels and bearing the Gorgon's head, Panic, Strife, Might and Rout.^[6] Hesiod describes Athena shaking it so that the earth groans.^[4] Later poets made it Athena's attribute and pictured it as a garment: in Pindar and Euripides it is fringed with snakes, in Aeschylus it is worn, and Euripides makes it of the Gorgon's skin.^[6][3] Herodotus explains the aegis of Athena's statues from a goatskin dress.^[4][3]

As an ordinary word it meant a goatskin, as in Euripides' Cyclops.^[3][4] Aeschylus and Pherecrates use it for a storm wind, terrible as the shaken aegis.^[3][6] Technical uses were the hard heartwood of the pine (Theophrastus) and a speck in the eye (Hippocrates).^[3][1] Polybius uses it as a symbol of divine power.^[6] English aegis, from Latin, means “protection” from 1793.^[7]

Timeline

• Homer – the shield of Zeus, wielded by Athena and Apollo.^[5][3]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod describes Athena shaking it.^[4]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus explains it as a goatskin dress.^[3][4]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it for a storm wind.^[3][6][4]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus uses it for the heartwood of the pine.^[3][4]
• 1793 – English aegis “protection”.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. The aegis, the shield of Zeus (Zeús), also borne by Athena and Apollo.^[3][6]
2. The aegis of Athena (Athēnâ), pictured as a garment fringed with snakes and bearing the Gorgon's head.^[3][6]
3. A goatskin worn as a garment.^[3][6]
4. A dress worn by the priestess of Athena, an ornament worn on the breast, or, in Laconian, a cuirass.^[3]
5. A rushing storm, a hurricane.^[3][6]
6. The heartwood of the pine.^[3]
7. (medicine) A speck in the eye.^[3]

Word family

• αἰγίοχος (aigíokhos)
• ἐπαιγίζω (epaigízō)
• καταιγίζω (kataigízō)
• καταιγίς (kataigís)
• αἰγίζω (aigízō)
• αἴξ (aíx)

Related words

• English aegis

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
5. ^ a b c d Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com