Source-groundedThe Iliad
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Minerva’s aegis

Published entity metadata

Read-only identity and editorial metadata.

Canonical name
Minerva’s aegis
Disambiguator
None
Kind
Item
Scope
Individual
Editorial note
No editorial note published.

Aliases

0

No aliases recorded.

Location presence

Phase 6 currently covers 24 processed books.

1
Achaeans’ trench1 observation
·Direct

Minerva’s aegis is placed around Achilles’s shoulders while he stands beside the Achaeans’ trench.

See evidence text
“Achilles dear to Jove arose, and Minerva flung her tasselled aegis round his strong shoulders; she crowned his head with a halo of golden cloud from which she kindled a glow of gleaming fire. As the smoke that goes up into heaven from some city that is being beleaguered on an island far out at sea—all day long do men sally from the city and fight their hardest, and at the going down of the sun the line of beacon-fires blazes forth, flaring high for those that dwell near them to behold, if so be that they may come with their ships and succour them—even so did the light flare from the head of Achilles, as he stood by the trench”

Claims

4
·Direct

Minerva’s priceless, ageless and deathless aegis bears a hundred deftly woven pure-gold tassels, each worth a hundred oxen.

See evidence text
“Thus did he speak, and Agamemnon heeded his words. He at once sent the criers round to call the people in assembly. So they called them, and the people gathered thereon. The chiefs about the son of Atreus chose their men and marshalled them, while Minerva 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. As when some great forest fire is raging upon a mountain top and its light is seen afar, even so as they marched the gleam of their armour flashed up into the firmament of heaven.”
·Direct

Minerva’s tasselled aegis bears Rout, Strife, Strength, Panic, and Gorgon’s grim head.

See evidence text
“She threw her tasselled aegis about her shoulders, wreathed round with Rout as with a fringe, and on it were Strife, and Strength, and Panic whose blood runs cold; moreover there was the head of the dread monster Gorgon, grim and awful to behold, portent of aegis-bearing Jove.”
·Direct

Minerva’s tasselled aegis is cast around Achilles’s strong shoulders.

See evidence text
“her tasselled aegis round his strong shoulders”
·Direct

Minerva’s terrible tasselled aegis cannot be pierced even by Jove’s lightning.

See evidence text
“the terrible tasselled aegis—so terrible that not even can Jove’s lightning pierce it.”

Additional evidence

Evidence records not already represented by a claim.

2
·Direct
“Minerva went among them holding her priceless aegis”
·Direct
“he struck her on the terrible tasselled aegis”

Passage preview

Book 2 · Passage 29

Thus did he speak, and Agamemnon heeded his words. He at once sent the criers round to call the people in assembly. So they called them, and the people gathered thereon. The chiefs about the son of Atreus chose their men and marshalled them, while Minerva 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. As when some great forest fire is raging upon a mountain top and its light is seen afar, even so as they marched the gleam of their armour flashed up into the firmament of heaven.