Nika is the winged goddess of victory, a constant companion of powerful Athena. Her patronage was equally needed by warriors, participants in the Olympics and people of art. Apparently, therefore, the image of Nicky was widely used in the culture and art of Ancient Greece.
Instruction manual
1
According to Greek mythology, Nika was the daughter of the titan Pallant and the goddess of oaths Styx, who was also the embodiment of the underground river that separated the kingdom of the dead from the living world. He grew up and was brought up with the daughter of Zeus - the all-conquering Athena Pallas, later the goddesses became almost inseparable. Not without reason, on the Acropolis of Athens, next to the majestic temples dedicated to the powerful patroness of the city, a small temple of Niki Afteros was erected - a wingless victory.
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As you know, in mythology, victory was winged, because it did not differ in constancy and at any moment could fly from one army to another. That is why the enterprising Athenians decided that it would be better to worship the wingless Nika, who could never leave them. In Roman mythology, the goddess of victory Victoria became a kind of double for Nicky.
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The most famous sculptural image of the goddess is the statue of Nika of Samothrace, one of the few surviving masterpieces of Hellenistic art. True, judging by it about how the ancient sculptor imagined the face of the goddess today is not possible. To this day, the statue came without a head and without hands. However, in Greek sculpture, the main focus was always on the body, faces, as a rule, were classically correct and monotonous.
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The mighty and majestic figure of the goddess stood on a high cliff above the sea. Her pedestal was made in the form of the stern of a warship. According to the researchers, Nick stood with her head thrown back and blew her horn, proclaiming victory. Her powerful body in a wet tunic rushes forward in an unstoppable impulse. Strong and proud wings flutter behind him, giving rise to a sense of joy and triumph.
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According to the Greeks, Nick participated not only in military campaigns, but also in sports, music and drama competitions. As a rule, she was portrayed as winged. Indispensable attributes of the goddess were a bandage and a wreath, later - a weapon and a palm branch. As a messenger of victory, she could be portrayed with a staff, which was usually considered an attribute of the messenger of the gods Hermes.
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Ancient Greek sculptures and reliefs depict Nika nodding to the winner, then crowning his head with a laurel wreath, then stabbing the sacrificial animal. Also small, in comparison with other powerful Olympic gods, Nick could once be seen standing on the palm of his hand at the grandiose sculptural images of Olympian Zeus and Athena Parthenos, created by the greatest Athenian sculptor Phidias.
