"Athena went among them holding her priceless aegis that knows neither age nor death. From it there waved a hundred tassels of pure gold, all deftly woven, and each one of them worth a hundred oxen. With this she darted furiously everywhere among the hosts of the Achaeans, urging them forward, and putting courage into the heart of each, so that he might fight and do battle without ceasing. Thus war became sweeter in their eyes even than returning home in their ships."
THE ILIAD Book II by Homer translated by Samuel Butler
The aegis, or skin of the goat Amalthea, was in early depictions fastened over the shoulders and breast, and hung over the left arm as a shield-cover
. Afterwards it was used solely as a breastplate with the Gorgon's head. Pallas Athena (Minerva) was depicted wearing the aegis with the Gorgon's head on her breast in the statue by Phidias in the Parthenon
.
