Aegis

"It is believed Minerva wore this protective outfit while in combat. There's a reason people believe she was the goddess of war!"

―Shaun Hastings' notes for the Helix initiate, 2015.

The Aegis

The aegis was an ancient armor outfit which allegedly belonged to the Isu scientist Minerva.

Owners

• Minerva (until c. 75,000 BCE)
• Michel Reuge (19th century)
• Evie Frye (1868 – ?)

History

Allegedly worn by Minerva in combat, the aegis encouraged the human belief that she was a goddess of war.

During the Peloponnesian War, the aegis featured prominently on the Statue of Athena in Athens, where it took the shape of the entire breastplate adorned with a Gorgon's head. Smaller marble statues replicated this look, but instead placed the aegis hanging near Athena's waist on a sash over her chiton.

Millennia later, sometime before the Industrial Revolution in the 1860s, the British Assassin Michel Reuge found the aegis near Bath in England and later stored it in an underground vault in London. In 1868, Evie and Jacob Frye gained access to Reuge's vault, and Evie claimed the outfit for her own usage.

Behind the scenes

In Assassin's Creed: Syndicate, when Evie wears the Aegis, the outfit flickers with visible pixel lines like a screen.

In Greek mythology and Roman mythology, the Aegis is sometimes depicted as a shield with the image of Medusa's head emblazoned on it, while other sources state that it was a cuirass. What the aegis was made of, or how and by whom, is also debated. It alternately has been described as made from the hide of Zeus' wet-nurse goat Amalthea, a device forged by Hephaistos and the Cyclopes, or even the flayed skin of a slain Gorgon.

Gallery

• 
  The Aegis model
• 
  The Aegis on the Statue of Athena in Athens
• 
  The Aegis on a marble statue of Athena
• Evie Frye wearing the Aegis
  Evie Frye wearing the Aegis

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Syndicate (first appearance)
• Assassin's Creed: Odyssey (sculpture only)