What is Zeus' ( the Greek god ) breastplate and what does it mean?

Question

What is Zeus' ( the Greek god ) breastplate and what does it mean?

Answer 1

Aegis and is some sort of magically forged belt for battle.

Answer 2

It was called the Aegis, and has been imagined as a shield, a breastplate, or as a thick, wide armored belt. It was forged by Vulcan and was his masterwork. It rendered Zeus impervious to attack - while the Greek gods were immortal and could not be killed, their physical manifestations could be wounded, as we saw with Ares at Troy. Later Zeus affixed the head of Medusa to it, incorporating its petrifying power into the armor. Foes that faced Zeus head-on were subject to its power.

The Aegis symbolizes invulnerability.

Answer 3

Well, it was actually a shield made from the skin of the goat that let Zeus drink her milk while he was a baby. It was called Aegis (=Αιγις) and it derives from the ancient (and modern) greek word "aex" or "aega"(in modern greek) that means female goat. In modern greek, we use the phrase "hypo tin aegida" which litteraly means "under the aegis" (=under the shield). For example, we say:"Peace negotiations have started under the U.N. aegis".

[When Zeus' father, Cronos, castrated his father, Uranos, and took the throne of the gods, he was cursed by him to be dethroned by his children as well. That's why he ate all the babys that Rhea, his wife, would deliver. So he ate Hera, Demeter, Hestia, Hades, Poseidon. His youngest son was Zeus, but Rhea decided to give him a rock instead of her baby. So she hid baby Zeus in Crete, where the nymphs raised him. When he cried, the Kouretes (lower warrior deities) made noise, so that Cronos couldn't hear him. There Zeus drank the milk of Amalthea, the goat(=aex), by which the Aegis was made. (When Zeus grew up, he went to Oceanus, Cronos' brother, and his daughter Metis(=Athena's mother), who gave him a portion to make his father throw up his siblings. Then Titanomachia began and Zeus became the king of the gods.) Also, there was an incident when Zeus was a child. He played with Amalthea's horns and he cut one by mistake. Amalthea got sad and Zeus made her horn magical, so that many gifts would come out of it. Later the blind godess Tyche(=fortune) would bear it.]