aegis

1. (Greek mythology, Roman mythology) A mythological shield associated with the Greek deities Zeus and Athena (and their Roman counterparts Jupiter and Minerva) shown as a short cloak made of goatskin worn on the shoulders, more as an emblem of power and protection than a military shield. The aegis of Athena or Minerva is usually shown with a border of snakes and with the head of Medusa in the center.Examples: "The goat Amalthea, which had suckled Jove, being dead, that god is said to have covered his buckler with the skin thereof, whence the appellation Aegis, from αιξ, αιγις, a she-goat. Jupiter afterwards restoring the goat to life, covered it with a new skin, and placed it among the stars. This buckler, which was the work of Vulcan, he gave to Minerva, who having killed the Gorgon Medusa, nailed her head to the middle of the Aegis, which henceforth possessed the faculty of converting to stone all who beheld it, as Medusa herself had while alive."; "Herodotus, as proof of this origin of Minerva, says, that the Greeks had taken from the Libyan women, the dress and the ægis with which her statues were represented: this dress was of leather: the ægis, as its name implies, was simply a goatskin died red and worn over the shoulders like a mantle: the extremity of it was cut into shreds or tassels, which the lively fancy of the Grecian artists converted into serpents."; "The robe and aegides of the statues of Minerva the Greeks have made in imitation of the Lybians, for except that the robe among the Lybians is of leather and the fringes of the aegis are not serpents but strips of leather, the adorning is entirely the same. And the very name is an acknowledgement that the vesture of the palladium is derived from Lybia, for the Lybian women put around the robe their goat skins tasselled and stained with madder (ἐρευθεδάνω) and from these goat skins, (ἐχ δὲ τῶν αἰγἑων τουτἑων) the Greeks have taken the word aegis."GreekRoman

2. (figuratively) Usually as under the aegis: guidance, protection; endorsement, sponsorship.Examples: "[T]hree ex-Secretaries of State for War had learnt their military theory under the ægis of Regular soldiers. Now it is an admitted fact that, broad-minded and enterprising as soldiers have frequently proved themselves in matters unconnected with the actual corporate body to which they belong, they are, nevertheless, perhaps the most obstinate and optimistic advocates of a laissez-faire policy, which the interests of their own profession are at issue, that it is at all possible to conceive."; "The original designs were drawn up under the aegis of Mr. O. V. S. Bulleid, then Chief Mechanical Engineer."; "Under the aegis of France a group of buffer states would be born. Austria would cede Venetia to Italy and receive Silesia from Prussia. France had only to promise Austria her neutrality and to keep Italy on its leash."Synonyms: auspices, protection, patronagefiguratively