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)

842 The aigis and Gorgoneion of Athena

aigis from an original goat-skin leaves quite unexplained the scaly
or feathered character of its surface. This is so constant a feature
that it cannot be lightly dismissed as mere decoration1. Rather it
points back to the snake-skin sloughed off, or the owl-skin laid
aside, by the emergent deity.

Mythology has a word to say about both types of aigis, the
scaly and the feathered. Apollodoros, in his account of the
Gigantomachy, after mentioning that the Giants had ' the scales of
snakes for feet2,' goes on to state that Athena flayed one of them
named Pallas and used his skin to protect her own body in the
fight3. A variant and perhaps older version made Pallas the father
of Athena by Titanis, daughter of Okeanos. When Pallas attempted
to violate Athena, she slew him without mercy, wrapped his skin
about her as an aigis, and fitted his wings to her feet4.

dp^aii^vrj 7rpbs ra iepd' t&tt€to.l i) Tra.poifj.la eiri tGiv a.vai5t]v {leg. avthriv) irepubvTUiv (so
cod. B: words in square brackets are added from cod. A), Souid. s.v. aiyls (cp. Zonar.
lex. s.v. aiyls) • ...7) de ttpeia 'KB-qv-qai tt)v Upav aiyida (pepovaa Trpdsras veoydfj-ovs elcr/px670'
eVi tlcv ApcUdrfv {leg. dvebrjv) ovv ttoiovvtwv tl rdrrerat i] irapoipLla.

1 Preller—Robert Gr. Myth. i. 120 f. ' Als Thierfell erscheint derm auch die Aegis in
der Regel auf den Bildwerken, wahrend andererseits die schachbrett- oder schuppenartige
Omamentirung der Aussenseite an Metallverzierungen erinnert,' quoted by P. Stengel W
Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. i. 971 f. Miss C. A. Hutton in the Journ. Hell. Stud. 1897
xvii. 315 says: 'An unsuccessful attempt to represent the tufts of hair on the skin may
be the basis of the scales,...but the main reason for them arises from the combination
of the aegis and the gorgoneion,' when 'the Medusa legend with its snakes dominated
the conception.'

2 Apollod. 1.6. 1 elxov 5e rds f3daa.s '(poKi8as SpaxovTuv (an iambic tag?). On Typhoeu5
or Typhon as a 'Schlangenfussler' see M. Mayer Die Giganten und Titanen iff
aniiken Sage und Kunst Berlin 1887 p. 174 ff.: we have already seen him represented as
such on a 'Chalcidian ' hydria of c. 550 B.C. {supra ii. 731 fig. 663). The earliest examP1
of a Giant with serpent-legs occurs on an Attic ary hallos at Berlin (inv. no. 3375)1 w .
dates from the beginning of s. iv rather than from the end of s. v: it shows Dionysos,

a chariot drawn by a pair of griffins (cp. supra i. 270 fig. 197 Nemeseis, ii. 523 pi- xxV"tjie
Rhea (?) and female companion), attacking two Giants, of whom one has human,
other serpentine, legs (H. Winnefeld ' Gigantenkampf auf einer Vase in Berlin in
Festschrift fur Otto BenndorfWien 1898 pp. 72—74 pi. 1, O. Waser in Pauly—WisS°^s
Real-Enc. Suppl. iii. 690 f. no. 132, 735 ('Nicht allzufriih, wohl erst urn die ^e e
5. and 4. Jhdts. kommt ftir die G. der schlangenbeinige Typus auf, wahrscheinhch *u
tibertragen von Typhon')).

3

Apollod. 1. 6. 2 ndXXacros be tt)v Sopav inTeixovaa. raiTy Kara tt)i> fJ.dxVv

rb W

-op
affig""1'

4 Cic. de nat. deor. 3. 59 (last in the list of Minervas) quinla Pallantis, quae pa

.at*

efl1

■otr-

dicitur interemisse, virginitatem suam violare conantem, cui pinnarum talaria
Ampel. 9. 10 (last in the list of Minervas) quinta Pallantis et Titanidos filia; haec V'
occidit pro suae virginitatis observatione qui<a> eius cupidus fuit, Clem. A'' *
2. 28. 2 p. 21,3 f. (last in the list of five Athenas) tirl rracn rrjv ndWavros nal ^irltgVep
tt)s 'QKeavov, jj top wartya. 5uffcre(3(3s KaraBdaaaa t<$ Trarptpif) KtKbcriiyTai ^^'taT'ocCidi':
Kipdiiii, Arnob. adv. nat. 4. 14 (last in the list of Minervas) et quae Pallantem
patrem incestorum adpetitorem est quinta (cp. id. 4. 16), Firm. Mat. 16. 1 f- Cast