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Book 5, Lines 733–742

Athena arms herself for battle

A

Athena then took off the richly embroidered robe

that her own hands had made, and she put on Lord Zeus’s armor.

Around her shoulders she threw the terrible gold-tasseled

storm shield, crowned with the figures of Strife and Panic

and inset with all the heart-chilling horrors of war

and the monstrous head of the Gorgon, which strikes terror

in all who see it, a dreadful portent from Zeus.

B

And Athene, daughter of Zeus who holds the aegis, let slip to the floor of her father’s house her soft embroidered robe, which she herself had made and worked with her hands. And she put on Zeus the cloud-gatherer’s own tunic in its place, then dressed in her armour for the misery of war. Round her shoulders she hung the tasselled aegis, a fearful weapon, set with Panic all round it in a circle: and on it there is Strife, and Power, and chilling Rout, and set there too is the head of the fearful monster Gorgon, a thing of fright and terror, a potent sign from Zeus who holds the aegis.

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