Dartmouth College - Aegis Yearbook (Hanover, NH)

Page 11 text:

OCTOBER 1 0, 1912

Page 10 text:

A Fragment CFrom Verses read at the funior Smofferj What shall we sing of and live for, Juniors of Dartmouth College? What but the best that men strive for: Friendship, and art, and knowledge. Knowledge, and art, and friendship: these be three, As most men find. Here let them join in a living trinity For men of heart and mind. Now this is the word of friendship and knowledge together, The bond of the men who know: That word-just come-from the stern Antarctic weather, ' Out of the age-old snow: When the last chance of life hung on there being Not four men-only three, Une said: Just going outside-may be some time. . Some time . . . eternity! Great things are simple: not science and not art Can make men tried and true, But just that each day each man do his part Even as these English do- These noble comrades, giving life for knowledge That all men yet may know. For them this word was said in Anglo-Saxon Twelve hundred years ago: The holly-wood is cast into the fire, The dead man's treasure-chest Lies open to his greedy heirs, desire- Fame is bestf' Fellows!-though F ate be false, and Luck your debtor, Glory in deeds well done! Hold fast the old truth: defeat with honor is better Than victory ill-won. Then win!-if the last ounce of strength and courage Can win the day- -Curiis Hidden Page

Page 12 text:

voL.Lvi 7 Z 1914 Uhr Bight , What is the fE.gis? Perhaps a number could tell us that the fEgis was the shield of Minerva, but perhaps some might be interested in going a little farther into the detail and the truth of the word's significance. If we were to read into ancient, classic literature-Homer especially-we should find Zeus, the king of the gods, bearing the aegis as his particular property, and not his intellectual daughter, who, it seems, only bor- rowed father's finery on occasion. It was in the following manner that Zeus came to possess the aegis. Cronus, the old king of the gods, was very jealous of his offspring, and insisted upon swallowing every one of his children as they came to the light. Old mother Rhea, however, soon came to resent this summary disposal of her brood, and when the baby Zeus was born, she served the old gentleman a stone wrapped up in baby dresses, which he unhesitatingly bolted, and the infant she hid upon the island of Crete, where he was nurtured by the goat, Amalthea. When the lad grew up arid the old goat died, Zeus placed her sign among the con- stellations, but retained her skin, which he used as a shield, by fastening one end across his shoulders and holding the skin out across his body on his left arm. With this armor, the fearsome Gorgon,s head in its centre, Zeus fought against the Titans in the battle of the gods and giants. Athene, Apollo, and the hero Achilles are all storied to have used this invulnerable protection at times. According to her statues, Athene was fond enough of fashion to change the style of the aegis from shield to breast-plate, which she bound to- gether over her bosom with the snaky medallion of the lVledusa's head. Writers differ widely in description of the aegisg various conceptions of its form and nature seem to have been built upon and away from the original interpretation. Pri- marily, the aegis is the symbol of the grey thunder-cloud, fringed with light- Then Zeus toolf up his aegis which many a tassel trailed Refulgent, and the mountains of Ide with storm-clouds veiled, Anal, lightning, thunciered loudly and shook it from the height the goat-skin, golden-edged, with the Gorgon's head-symbol of the tempest and its terrors. From such form, however, it is turned into a breast-plate, and again we have it as the smooth, round Argolic shield with the ever-present face of snaky horror for a boss in its centre. The conception of the round shield, though perhaps not the truest, is yet the one we must select as the best to explain our year book name. Ours is the smooth, round shield upon which, as upon the shield of Achilles, may be graven many wonderful thingsg where, instead of the circle of the earth, we may draw the circle of our college world and bear our 1EE.gis thus emblazoned for a record of our academic life. C99