Herodotus, The Histories (ed. A. D. Godley)

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CLXXXIX. It would seem that the robe and aegis of the images of Athena were copied by the Greeks from the Libyan women; for except that Libyan women dress in leather, and that the tassels of their goatskin cloaks are not snakes but thongs of hide, in everything else their equipment is the same. [2] And in fact, the very name betrays that the attire of the statues of Pallas has come from Libya; for Libyan women wear the hairless tasselled “aegea” over their dress, colored with madder, and the Greeks have changed the name of these aegeae into their “aegides.”¹ [3] Furthermore, in my opinion the ceremonial chant² first originated in Libya: for the women of that country chant very tunefully. And it is from the Libyans that the Greeks have learned to drive four-horse chariots.

¹ The aegis is the conventional buckler of Pallas. Probably the conservatism of religious art retained for the warrior goddess the goatskin buckler which was one of the earliest forms of human armor.

² The ololugê (says Dr. Macan) was proper to the worship of Athena; a cry of triumph or exultation, perhaps of Eastern origin and connected with the Semitic Hallelu (which survives in Hallelu-jah).

Further comments from W. W. How, J. Wells, A Commentary on Herodotus:
book 4 (general note)
book 4, chapter 189 (general note)
book 4, chapter 189, section 1: ek tôn Aibusseôn
book 4, chapter 189, section 1: ta de alla ktl
book 4, chapter 189, section 2: ereuthedanôi
book 4, chapter 189, section 3: tesseras hippous suzeugnunai

Cross references from Sir Richard Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Electra:
* [516-1057]

This text is based on the following book(s):
Herodotus, with an English translation by A. D. Godley. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1920.
OCLC: 1610641
ISBN: 0674991303, 0674991311, 0674991338, 0674991346

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