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Nike (mythology)

Nike
Goddess of victory
The Nike of Paionios (420 BC)[1]
AbodeMount Olympus
SymbolGolden sandals, wings, wreaths
Genealogy
ParentsPallas and Styx
SiblingsKratos, Bia, and Zelus
Equivalents
RomanVictoria

In Greek mythology and ancient religion, Nike (English: /ˈnaɪki/ ;[2] Ancient Greek: Νίκη, romanized: Nike, lit. 'victory'; Ancient Greek pronunciation: [nǐː.kɛː], modern: [ˈni.ci]) is the goddess who personifies victory in any field including art, music, war, and athletics.[3] She is often portrayed in Greek art as "Winged Victory" in the motion of flight;[4] however, she can also appear without wings as "Wingless Victory"[5] when she is being portrayed as an attribute of another deity such as Athena.[6]

In Greek literature Nike is described as both an attribute and attendant to the gods Zeus and Athena.[7] Nike gained this honored role beside Zeus during the Titanomachy where she was one of the first gods to offer her allegiance to Zeus.[8] At Athens, Nike became a servant to Athena as well as an attribute of her due to the prominent status Athena held in her patron city. The fusion of the two goddesses at Athens has contributed to the ambiguity surrounding Nike's origins. It is unclear whether she originated from a character trait of the Greek goddess Athena or has always existed as an independent deity.[9] Her origin story in Greek mythology is also slightly ambiguous, with the Theogony claiming Nike to be the daughter of Styx and Pallas[10] while the Homeric Hymns describe Ares, the god of war, as being Nike's father.[11]

Her Roman equivalent is the goddess Victoria.

  1. ^ Paionios of Mende. Nike of Olympia, c.425-420 BC. Parian marble statue of Nike, 2.115m but once reached a height of 10.92m. Olympia Archeological Museum, Olympia, Greece. Photograph by Carole Raddato, 23 April 2014. Accessed December 9, 2021.
  2. ^ "Nike". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  3. ^ Bacchylides. Epinicians, Ode 11 For Alexidamus of Metapontion Boys' Wrestling at Delphi. Translated by Diane Arnson Svarlien (1991). Accessed 9 December 2022. http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0199.tlg001.perseus-eng1:11
  4. ^ Neer, Richard. The Emergence of the Classical Style in Greek Sculpture. University of Chicago Press, 2010. p.135-137. ISBN 9780226570655.
  5. ^ Pausanias. Description of Greece. Translated by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, (1918). Attica ch.22, section 4.
  6. ^ Suidas. The Suda on Line: Byzantine Lexicography. Translated by Whitehead, David, et al. (2014). Accessed 9 December 2022. https://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/sol/sol-html/
  7. ^ Sikes, E.E. (1895). "Nike and Athena Nike." The Classical Review. 9 (5): p. 280-283. ISSN 0009-840X.
  8. ^ Hesiod (1999). Theogony and Works and Days. Translated by M. L. West. Oxford: Oxford University Press, (1999). p.14. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-283941-1. OCLC 41962734.
  9. ^ Sikes 1895, 280-282.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Homeric Hymn 8 to Ares. Translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Ed. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1914). Accessed 9 December 2022. http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0013.tlg008.perseus-eng1:1.

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