[447] αἰγίδα: as goddess of war (on 1.206), Athena wears the Aegis of Zeus to inspire terror, as “Ε 738, Σ 204, Φ 400, χ” 297. The Aegis was a symbol of the thunder cloud, just as the Gorgon's head upon it represented the thunder storm. This is worn by Athena regularly in works of art.—“ἀγήραον κτλ”.: epexegetical of “ἐρίτιμον. ἀγήραος” is always associated by Homer with “ἀθάνατος”, and elsewhere in the poems is used only of persons, (excepting the gold and silver dogs that guard the palace of the king of the Phaeacians, Od. 7.94).
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Homer's Iliad, Books I-III. Thomas D. Seymour. Boston. Ginn and Company. 1891.
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