Chapter 2: The Olympians
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♠ Aischylos, Eumenides 736-38
For there was no mother who gave me birth; and in all things, except for marriage, whole-heartedly I am for the male and entirely on the father’s side. Greek Text
♠ Homer, Iliad 8.360-72
howbeit mine own father rageth with evil mind, cruel that he is, ever froward, a thwarter of my purposes; neither hath he any memory of this, that full often I saved his son when he was fordone by reason of Eurystheus’ tasks. For verily he would make lament toward heaven and from heaven would Zeus send me forth to succour him. Had I but known all this in wisdom of my heart when Eurystheus sent him forth to the house of Hades the Warder, to bring from out of Erebus the hound of loathed Hades, then had he not escaped the sheer-falling waters of Styx. Howbeit now Zeus hateth me, and hath brought to fulfillment the counsels of Thetis, that kissed his knees and with her hand clasped his chin, beseeching him to show honour to Achilles, sacker of cities. Greek Text
♠ Homeric Hymn to Demeter 2.424
and lovely Galaxaura with Pallas who rouses battles and Artemis delighting in arrows. Greek Text
♠ ApB 3.12.3 – Apollodoros, Bibliotheke (Library)
They say that when Athena was born she was brought up by Triton, who had a daughter Pallas; and that both girls practised the arts of war, but that once on a time they fell out; and when Pallas was about to strike a blow, Zeus in fear interposed the aegis, and Pallas, being startled, looked up, and so fell wounded by Athena. And being exceedingly grieved for her, Athena made a wooden image in her likeness, and wrapped the aegis, which she had feared, about the breast of it, and set it up beside Zeus and honored it. Greek Text
♠ ApB 1.6.2 – Apollodoros, Bibliotheke (Library)
Enceladus fled, but Athena threw on him in his flight the island of Sicily; and she flayed Pallas and used his skin to shield her own body in the fight. Greek Text
♠ Homer, Iliad 4.515
but the Achaeans were urged on by the daughter of Zeus, most glorious Tritogeneia. Greek Text
♠ Homer, Iliad 2.157
Out upon it, child of Zeus that beareth the aegis, unwearied one! Greek Text
♠ Homer, Iliad 15.309-10
before him went Phoebus Apollo, his shoulders wrapped in cloud, bearing the fell aegis, girt with shaggy fringe, awful, gleaming bright, that the smith Hephaestus gave to Zeus to bear for the putting to rout of warriors. Greek Text
♠ Hesiod fr 343 MW – Fragmenta Hesiodea, pp. 171-72, ed. Merkelbach and M.L. West. Oxford 1967.
♠ Homer, Iliad 2.448-49
Athene, bearing the priceless aegis, that knoweth neither age nor death, wherefrom are hung an hundred tassels all of gold, all of them cunningly woven, and each one of the worth of an hundred oxen. Greek Text
♠ Homer, Iliad 5.738-42
About her shoulders she flung the tasselled aegis, fraught with terror, all about which Rout is set as a crown, and therein is Strife, therein Valour, and therein Onset, that maketh the blood run cold, and therein is the head of the dread monster, the Gorgon, dread and awful, a portent of Zeus that beareth the aegis. Greek Text
♠ Homer, Iliad 21.400-401
So saying he smote upon her tasselled aegis—the awful aegis against which not even the lightning of Zeus can prevail. Greek Text
♠ Homer, Iliad 2.450-52
Therewith she sped dazzling throughout the host of the Achaeans, urging them to go forth; and in the heart of each man she roused strength to war and to battle without ceasing. Greek Text
♠ Homer, Iliad 15.229-30
But do thou take in thine hands the tasselled aegis, and shake it fiercely over the Achaean warriors to affright them withal. Greek Text
♠ Homer, Iliad 15.318-22
Now so long as Phoebus Apollo held the aegis moveless in his hands, even so long the missiles of either side reached their mark and the folk kept falling; but when he looked full in the faces of the Danaans of swift horses, and shook the aegis, and himself shouted mightily withal, then made he their hearts to faint within their breasts, and they forgat their furious might. Greek Text
♠ Homer, Iliad 17.593-96
And then the son of Cronos took his tasselled aegis, all gleaming bright, and enfolded Ida with clouds, and lightened and thundered mightily, and shook the aegis, giving victory to the Trojans, but the Achaeans he drave in rout. Greek Text
♠ Homer, Iliad 4.166-68
and Zeus, son of Cronos, throned on high, that dwelleth in the heaven, shall himself shake over them all his dark aegis in wrath for this deceit. Greek Text
Edited by Elena Bianchelli, Retired Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, January 2021
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