Moonwoman has asked me about the significance of Athena and her shield. According to myth, Athena sprang fully-grown and fully-armed from the head of her father, Zeus, ruler of the gods on Mount Olympus.
Hesiod’s The Theogony is the only account we have which describes the birth of Athena from her father's head:
‘From his own head he gave birth to owl-eyed Athena,
the wonderful, battle-rousing, army-leading, untiring Lady,
whose pleasure is fighting and the metallic din of war.’
Athena was her father's favourite child and possessed the keys to his thunderbolts. She was the only one entitled to wear his aegis, his shield. In the centre of the aegis is the head of Medusa. Athena did not have the Medusa’s power – the ability to turn people into stone so Athena persuaded Perseus to kill Medusa and Hermes mounted Medusa’s head onto the aegis.
The Aegis was a shield that protected whoever wore it, however one required wisdom to benefit from it, or as Horace wrote:
Vis consili expers
Mole ruit sua.
‘Strength without wisdom falls by its own weight’
