The original AEGIS was an impervious shield and breastplate forged by Hephaestus for the infant Zeus. Zeus later gave AEGIS to his favorite daughter Pallas Athena. Athena lent the shield to Perseus to battle the dreaded Gorgon Medusa who had snakes for hair and was so frightening to behold that those who viewed her turned to stone. Perseus slew Medusa by watching her reflection in the shield's polished surface.

The new shield symbolises AEGIS (Academic and Educational Grid Initiative of Serbia) an umbrella organization that seeks to unify High Performance Computing (HPC) in Serbia integrating it into robust national, regional and pan-European infrastructures. AEGIS organizes dissemination and training activities, helps the Serbian research community to develop and deploy Grid applications, and coordinates related fund raising activities. The members of AEGIS are researchers and academic institutions in Serbia that use, provide and/or develop Grid resources.