(), according to Hyginus (Poet.
Astr. 2.13) a daughter of Olenus, who was a descendant of Hephaestus. Aega and her
sister Helice nursed the infant Zeus in Crete, and the former was afterwards changed by the
god into the constellation called Capella. According to other traditions mentioned by Hyginus,
Aega was a daughter of Melisseus, king of Crete, and was chosen to suckle the infant Zeus; but
as she was found unable to do it, the service was performed by the goat Amalthea. According to
others, again, Aega was a daughter of Helios and of such dazzling brightness, that the Titans
in their attack upon Olympus became frightened and requested their mother Gaea to conceal her
in the earth. She was accordingly confined in a cave in Crete, where she became the nurse of
Zeus. In the fight with the Titans Zeus was commanded by an oracle to cover himself with her
skin (aegis). He obeyed the command and raised Aega among the stars.
Similar, though somewhat different accounts, were given by Euemerus and others. (Eratosth.
(Catast. 13; Antonin. Lib.. 36; Lactant. Instit.
1.22.19.) It is clear that in some of these stories Aegia is regarded as a nymph, and in
others as a goat, though the two ideas are not kept clearly distinct from each other. Her name
is either connected with Phaen. 150), and the other referring to the
goat which was believed to have suckled the infant Zeus in Crete. (Compare Buttmann in Ideler's Ursprung and Bedentung der Sternnamen, p. 309; Böttiger, Amalthea, i. p. 16, &c.; Creuzer, Symbol. iv. p.
458 &c.)