Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 3,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (earthquake, clouds, wind, dew, rain, meteorits): Text and notes (Cambridge, 1940)

The aigis and Gorgoneion of Athena 837

(4) The aigis and Gorgoneion of Athena.

If, then, Athena, originally the rock-goddess of the Akropolis
at Athens, manifested herself sometimes as a Snake, more often as
an Owl, we obtain at last a satisfactory explanation of that puzzling
attribute, her aigis. For, when a sacred animal becomes anthropo-
morphic, the resultant deity tends to retain the old animal-skin as
a relic charged with the virtues of his former estate1. One thinks
°f the Hittite lion-god fairly covered with lions or lion-skins2, of
the Egyptian Zeus Thebaieiis masquerading in a ram-skin3, of the

ahan luno Sospita habitually garbed in a goat-skin4, perhaps too
of the Greek Dionysos Meldnaigis5 and of Argos wearing his black
uhs-hide6. Now Athena's aigts, as represented by painters and
sculptors7, is a skin-cape either scaly (figs. 650, 65 i)8 or feathered
^ gs- 652, 653)*, and normally displaying the Gorgoneion, a fear-
j0nie head with staring eyes. My belief is that in both cases the

rftanised Athena is wearing the exuviae of the animal that once
^e was. As a Snake, she dons the scaly skin with its baleful head.

s an Owl, the feathered skin with its round glittering eyes.
Further, since the skin most commonly worn was the rustic's

eryday goat-skin (aigis10), people would be apt to speak of any

s. . razer Golden Bough*: Spirits of Corn and Wild ii. 173 f. (' Use of the skin of the
dcr2'ficed animal').

4 ^ra »• 550 ff. fig. 428. » Supra i. 347 f.

g0. " Roscher Juno und Hera Leipzig 1875 p. 35, id. in his Lex. Myth. ii. 595 f.,
figs o'' Hofer ii. iv. 1229, J. A. Hild in Daremberg—Saglio Diet. Ant. iii. 687 f.
o(j 5 4'88, Thulin in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. x. ii2of., and the monographs
fjgs ' ' Douglas 'luno Sospita of Lanuvium' in the Journ. Rojh. Stud. 1913 iii. 60—72
assoc ■ ^" Galieti 'Sul serpente genio di Giunone Sospita' in the Bollettino dell'
Sispi^w*' arche°logica Romana 1913 iii. 232—236, id. ' Intorno al culto di "luno
Xliv ater Regina" in Lanuvium' in the Bull. Comm. Arch. Comun. di Roma 1916

ii. ,fUp?a 689 n- 5- See further H. W. Stoll and \V. Drexler in Roscher Z«r. Myth.
*S74 f.

There • a^ner Aigis in der griechischcn Kunst Miinchen 1922 was never printed.
Univer S' however' a typed copy of the Dissertation in the Library of the Munich
Arch t ^' an<^ an aDS'ract of its contents is given by P. Wolters in the Jahrb. d. Deutsch.

8 Vi^fi 1922 XXXV" Alch- Anz- Pp- 354-356-
tassel . 50 ls from llle "tgi* o{ the Varvakeion statuette; fig. 651, from that of the
„ statue.

f'°m tl,'2,' 653's from tlle a*£ls of the archaistic Athena found at Herculaneum; fig. 653,

10 °f the Albani Athena.
£nc. ; 16 eviJence for this is slight, but sufficient. P. Stengel in Pauly—Wissowa Real-
Paus, c'tes Eur. Cycl. 360 (of the Kyklops) SacrvnaWw iv aiyldi nXivo/ifrw, cp.

"""■'Sa T ' ^ Aristodemos' Messenian and Arcadian levies in 726 B.C.) 6wpa.ua yap r)
(H. Hitzig would insert oik before elxe", F« Spiro o&x after it) f/caffros, orroi