The inscribed statue base from Delos associated with the statue of winged Nike above.
According to the inscription, it was a base for a statue by Archemos of Chios.

Around 550 BC. Parian marble.

A running/flying four-winged Nike carrying a victor's wreath. 550-500 BC.

Detail of an Attic black-figure amphora made in or near Athens for the Cypriot market.
Found at Site E, tomb 78, Amathus (Ἀμαθοῦς), on the south coast of Cyprus. Amathus
was excavated November 1893 - March 1894 by A. H. Smith and John Myres, as part of
the Turner Bequest Excavations on Cyprus (1893-1896).
Height 24.7 cm, diameter (mouth) 10.2 cm.

Nike, wearing a flat band (taenia) on her head, a short tunic and fawn skin (nebris),
runs/flies to the right with outstretched arms, legs and four wings. The original report
on this amphora described the figure as a Boread, and a similar running figure on the
other side as a Harpy. [5] Both figures are incised and painted in the black-figure
technique on a red ground, with added white and purple paint.

Archaic bronze plaque from the Athenian Acropolis, with a relief
of a winged Nike running or flying in the "Knielauf" position.
Probably a decoration of a bronze vessel. Height 15 cm.

National Archaeological Museum, Athens. Inv. No. 6477.

Fragmentary torso of a painted ceramic statue of winged Nike.
An akroterion of a treasury in Olympia, around 500-490 BC.

Olympia Archaeological Museum. Inv. No. T 304 - T 254.

Fragments of a painted terracotta akroterion depicting winged Nike, from
the poros (limestone) temple of Athena Pronaia, Delphi, circa 500 BC.

Fragment of the painted terracotta head of the Nike akroterion above.

Stamped terracotta relief with a winged Nike carrying prizes for a chariot race.

From Akragas (Agrigento), Sicily, 6th - 5th century BC.

One of a number of rim fragments of locally made louteria (λουτήρια, large basins
on pedestals for ritual washing), with stamped reliefs depicting racing four-horse
chariots alternating with Nikes. The scenes are separated by Doric columns. The
louteria were also decorated with continuous friezes showing battles with Centaurs.

Another fragment of a louterion (λουτήριον) from Akragas showing a running/flying winged Nike.

A similar fragment of a louterion from Selinous (today Selinunte), Sicily, about 520-500 BC.

Lycian limestone block with a relief of Nike. Winged Nike, holding a victory weath in her left hand,
flies towards the left. Behind her a female figure holds a small round object (an offering of fruit?).

From Xanthus (Kinik), Lycia, Southern Turkey. Severe style, second quarter of the 5th century BC.

Detail of an Attic red-figure oichonoe showing Nike at an altar.

Made in Athens around 490-480 BC. Attributed to the Eucharides Painter
by Sir John Beazley. Fragments found on 9 and 11 May 1939 in a well in
the Ancient Agora of Athens.

Winged Nike, wearing a stephane (crown) and a himation over a long chiton,
bends over a flaming altar. With her right hand she sprinkles incense on the
altar from a box held in her left hand.

Agora Museum, Athens. Inv. No. P 15010.

A fragmentary Attic red-figure chous (χοῦς, a squat, rounded form of oenochoe
wine jug with a trefoil mouth) showing two winged Nikai standing either side of
a large tripod on a two-stepped base. Each figure wears a girdled peplos with
a long overfold and bracelets on both arms. The Nike on the left holds a lyre in
her left hand. The wreath in the left hand of the Nike on the right and the fillets
hanging from each side of the tripod are difficult to see as the paint has faded.

Made in Athens around 420-410 BC. Painted in the manner of the Meidias Painter
according to Sir John Beazley. Found on 27 April 1954 in a well north of the
Nymphaeum in the Ancient Agora of Athens. Height 21.8 cm, diameter 17.9 cm.

Agora Museum, Athens. Inv. No. P 23896.

Currently exhibited in the Museum of the History
of the Ancient Olympic Games, Olympia. No. 336.

See:

agora.ascsa.net/.... At the Agora Excavations website,
American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA).

Detail of an Apulian red-figure, long-necked oinochoe (wine jug) depicting
Hermes and Nike making sacrifices and offerings of first fruits at a burning altar.

Mid 4th century BC.

Hermes wears a wreath, cloak and high sandals, with a petasos hanging from
his neck, and holds his kerykeion in his left hand. He stands to the left of a small
altar, notably shown in perspective, pouring a liquid (wine?) from a jug onto the
flames. Winged Nike, wearing a wreath and peplos, stands to the right of the altar
holding a bowl with offerings in her right hand, and a bunch of grapes in the left.
A garlanded boukranion (ox skull) hangs above them.

Plaster cast of a marble head of Nike of the "Hertz head type". Front and left side views.

The original, 2nd century AD. The nose and lower lip have been restored,
and the lower neck and bust are also modern additions. Height 33 cm.

Museo nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia, Rome. Inv. No. PV 3256.
From the collection of Henriette Hertz, Rome.

Detail of an Attic red-figure column-krater showing Nike
awarding a prize of a headband to a young athlete.

Made in Athens around 450-400 BC.

Winged Nike, approaching from the right, carries the headband in both hands.
The victorious athlete, wearing a himation (cloak) and holding two javelins, faces her.
They are flanked by two bearded men with sticks, perhaps paidotribai (trainers).

A dedicatory relief from the Athens Acropolis of a winged Nike crowning Herakles
or a victorious athlete, and with her left hand on Athena's shoulder. 420-410 BC.

Acropolis Museum, Athens. Inv. No. Acr. 1329.

Two examples of silver dekadrachms from Syracuse (Συράκουσαι, Syrakousai; Italian,
Siracusa), Sicily, minted around 400-370 BC by the tyrant Dionysios I of Syracuse
(Διονύσιος ὁ Πρεσβύτερος, Dionysios the Elder, circa 432-367 BC, ruled 405-367 BC).

Winged Nike on a silver tetradrachm coin of Seleucus I, minted at Susa, Persia, after 300 BC.
Nike places a victory wreath on a panoply set up on a tree as a military trophy.

A marble votive relief dedicated to Athena. Winged Nike flies down to place
a laurel wreath on a charioteer driving a four-horse chariot (quadriga;
Greek, τέθριππον, tethrippon), perhaps a victor in the Panathenaic Games.

Made in Athens around 425 BC. From Athens.

A fragment of the left side of the relief in the British School
at Athens shows the lower half of a standing figure of
Athena, depicted at a much larger scale than the charioteer.

Relief showing Nike driving a four-horse chariot.

Detail of a fragment of an Athenian decree for Arybbas, king of the Molossoi of Epirus.
From the Athenian Acropolis. 343/342 BC.

The decree granted hospitality and privileges to Arybbas, son of Alketas, after he was
dethroned by Philip II of Macedonia and fled to Athens. The relief and laurel wreaths on the
marble stele are reminders of Arybbas' equestrian victories at the Olympian and Pythian games.

Fresco showing Nike driving a four-horse chariot.

Northern slab from Tomb 84 (350-340 BC), Andriuolo, Paestum (ancient Poseidonia), Italy.

Fresco showing winged Nike driving a two-horse chariot on a race-course.

Northern slab from Tomb 86 (330-320 BC), Andriuolo, Paestum.

Winged Nike driving a chariot drawn by two white stallions on the inner
roundel of an Apulian red-figure phiale (libation bowl) with white and yellow
over-painting. On the left, a flying bird carries a victor's headband in its talons.

325-300 BC.

The lively drawing and dynamic composition are heightened by the use of strongly
contrasting tones and colours. The figures break out of the inner frame of waves.

A reconstruction of the Nike of Samothraki by Benndorf and Zumbusch.

Winged Nike Akroterion from the Hieron, in the the Sanctuary of the Great Gods, Samothraki.

Proconnesian marble, 120-100 BC.

A marble high relief of a winged Nike standing
next to a trophy, perhaps a dedication.

From Thespiai, Boeotia, central Greece. Roman period.

Marble head of a statue of Victoria from Ostia.

Julio-Claudian era, 1st century AD.

Winged Nike among plant forms on a marble
akroterion from the Pergamon Asclepieion.

Roman period.

Winged Nike among plant forms on a marble akroterion
from the Temple of Trajan, Pergamon. 115-130 AD.

Two identical terracotta Nikes (or Nikai) found on the South Slope of the Acropolis.
Originally they had wings are depicted flying or landing, possibly on the building
on which they may have served as akroteria (roof ornaments).

Roman period, 1st - 3rd century AD.

A marble relief of winged Nike from the "Herakles Gate" on Kuretes Street, Ephesus.

A running/flying winged goddess in the "Knielauf"
position, as a bronze attachment for a vessel.

Made in southern Italy, Perhaps in Taranto, around 570 BC.

A running/flying winged goddess as a bronze attachment for a vessel.

Made in southern Italy, Perhaps in Taranto, around 500 BC.

Winged Nike and Eros above the handle tang of a bronze mirror.

Made in southern Italy, perhaps at Locri, around 480 BC.

Silver phiale (φιάλη, libation bowl) with relief decoration, showing five four-horse chariots
driven by Nikai, carrying Athena, Herakles, Ares, Hermes and Dionysos. The scene represents
the apotheosis of Herakles: the hero is taken to Olympus to join the ranks of the gods.

Made in southern Italy, around 300 BC. From a hoard of Greek silver phialae,
dated to the 3rd century BC, found in the late 19th century in Èze, southern
France. Acquired in 1891 from the dealers Rollin & Feuardent.
Diameter 20.6 cm, weight 393.6 gm.

Gold pendant in the form of a winged Nike holding
a phiale (libation bowl) and and a wine jug.

Nike on a coin of Menander (Μένανδρος), the
Greek ruler of Afghanistan-Pakistan 155-130 BC.

One of seventeen similar extant reliefs and fragments, known as "Kitharoidos Reliefs" (Kitharödenreliefs), of which there are three types.

Findspot unknown. Confiscated by Napoleon with five other Kitharoidos Reliefs from the Villa Albani, Rome, and taken to the Louvre in 1800. During the process of restitution of looted works, it was exchanged for another confiscated relief (Paris, Louvre, Inv. MA 661) and moved to the Berliner Schloss (Royal Palace) in 1813 or 1815. It was first exhibited in the Altes Museum in 1830/1831.

On the right, winged Nike, standing next to a round altar, pours a libation from an oinochoe (wine jug) into a phiale (libation bowl) held out by Apollo with his right hand. In his left hand he holds a kithara (a large concert lyre). He is followed by his twin sister Artemis, who holds on to a hem of his garment with her right hand, and with her left hand carries a long torch. A bow hangs behind her shoulder. In the rear (left) the twins' mother Leto carries a sceptre with her left hand.

On the extreme right, behind Nike, a small statue of a nude male (perhaps Apollo), stepping forward and holding out a phiale with his right hand, stands on top of a pillar. On the far left, another taller pillar originally also supported a figure, now missing. In the background, behind a high wall, can be seen the top of a Corinthian temple, with three akroteria, two of which are apparently winged Nikai. In the centre of the pediment is a relief of a Gorgoneion (head of the Gorgon Medusa), held by two flanking winged creatures with long coiled tails. To the right of the temple is an old gnarled tree.

Victoria standing on a celestial globe, a plaster cast of the "Victoria of Calvatone",
a gilded bronze Roman statue, made around 161-165 AD. Height 170 cm.

The original statue went missing in 1945, and was rediscovered
in 2016 in a storeroom of the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg.

The head of the original statue was found by chance in February 1836 by farm workers on the estate of Luigi Alovisi, near Calvatone (ancient Bedriacum), Cremona province, northern Italy. Alovisi encouraged local people to search for other parts, and in March they discovered three other fragments: the torso, right arm and leg, and the globe. The fragments were reassambled soon after, and the work was purchased for the Berlin State Museums in December 1841 by the German art historian Gustav Friedrich Waagen (1794-1868), director of the Berlin Gemäldegalerie (Picture Gallery). The statue was further restored, probably in Berlin, with the addition of the missing parts: the wings, left leg, left forearm and palm branch.

The plaster cast was made from the original in 1871 for the Abguss-Sammlung Antiker Plastik Berlin, and placed in the Altes Museum in 1987.

According to the inscription on the globe, the statue was commissioned by Marcus Satrius Maior to commemorate a victory of co-emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, probably in the Roman-Parthian War of 162-165 AD.

Victoriae Aug[ustorum]
Antonini et Veri
M[arcus] Satrius Maior

Unusually for a depiction of Victoria, she wears a nebris (νεβρίς, panther skin) normally associated with Maenads and other members of the thiasos (retinue) of Dionysus, and the pose of the lithe figure has been likened to that of depictions of dancing Maenads.

In 1939, at the outbreak of World War II, the original statue and other exhibits from the Berlin state museums were stored for safety in the cellar of the mint on the Molkenmark. It went missing during the final, chaotic days of the war, and was considered, like many other artworks and artefacts, to have been destroyed, looted or, more likely, taken as war booty by Soviet army trophy brigades. During the Soviet era and for some time after, information concerning war trophies was classified, and authorities usually either refused to comment on inquiries or flatly denied knowledge of artworks taken from public and private collections.

In 2016 it was announced that the statue had been found in a storeroom of the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, where it had been deposited 1946, erroneously catalogued as a 17th century French work. Although it had been on a list of artworks specifically sought by trophy brigades, when it arrived at the Hermitage, in one of 40,000 cases of plunder, it was not correctly identified or catalogued. After the war the political climate and the meagre resources available to museums made the investigation of such matters unthinkable, and the kind of research project which led to the discovery of the statue has only recently become possible. The find was first published in a journal published by the Hermitage:

A.V. Vilenskaya and A.N. Aponasenko, 'The Calvatone Victory': the fate of one artefact (in Russian), Transactions of the State Hermitage LXXIV, pages 106–113, Saint Petersburg, 2016.

The winged figure strides forwards confidently, holding up the laurel wreath of victory in her right hand, and a military standard with the Iron Cross in the left. She wears a helmet topped by an imperial eagle. The helmet particularly transformed the Greek goddess into Borussia, the personification of Prussia, just as in the British Empire Athena was used to represent Britannia. Berliners, with their typically disrespectful sense of humour, nicknamed the statue Goldelse (Golden Elsie), and some of the jokes about her were quite ribald.

Nike/Victoria was a clear symbol of victory in sport and war for the ancient Greeks and Romans, part of the propaganda campaigns of city states, kings and emperors, proclaiming moral and intellectual as well as physical and military superiority over their adversaries. Such symbols have been exploited by modern states since the rediscovery of ancient art during the Renaissance.

Architect Johann Heinrich Strack (1805-1880) was commissioned to design the Siegessäule monument, originally to commemorate the Prussian victory over Denmark in 1864. However, further victories of Prussian-led German armies over Austria in 1866 and France in 1871, meant that the original design had to be modified in order to include references to these later conflicts. The so-called "unification wars" were provoked by Prussian Minister President Otto von Bismarck as part of his plan to create a united German Empire under Wilhelm I, with himself as Chancellor.

At the base of the 66.89 metre high monument (originally 60.5 metres) is a massive four-sided entrance hall of polished red granite, the outer walls of which are decorated with large bronze reliefs illustrating episodes from the wars, very much in the way the Greeks and Romans decorated their sacred and secular buildings and columns with scenes of historical and mythical battles. Above the hall, around the column base, the wall within a circular colonnade (another classical form) is decorated with an enormous glass mosaic designed by Anton von Werner. From the colonnade a spiral stairway of 285 steps inside the fluted sandstone column leads up to an observation platform beneath the statue. Around the outside of the column hang gilded cannon barrels, booty from the three wars, again echoing the ancient tradition of displaying the arms of defeated enemies on monuments (see for example the "Monument of Shields" in Dion, Macedonia).

The choice of a monumental column for a war memorial was influenced Roman victory columns, such as those of emperors Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, Antoninus Pius and Phocas, which had been admired by northern Europeans visiting Rome. Similar victory columns were erected around Europe during the 19th century, notably Nelson's Column in London.

Prussia's eagle (in German, Adler) was a symbol of the Hohenzollern dynasty's chivalric past, their place in the Holy Roman Empire (from 1512 the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation), and eventually their claim to imperial supremacy. The eagle, originally associated with the supreme Greek god Zeus and his Roman conterpart Jupiter, became the symbol in turn of the Roman Republic, the Roman Empire and the Christian Holy Roman Empire. With the addition of the swastika it served the Nazi Third Reich (Third Empire), and without it remains the symbol of modern German Federal Republic.

Originally the monument stood on Königsplatz (King's Square, now Platz der Republik), at the end of the Siegesallee (Victory Avenue), between the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag parliament building. As part of the meglomanic plans of Adolf Hitler and his architect Albert Speer to rebuild Berlin as the Nazi world capital Germania, in 1938-1939 it was moved 1.6 km westwards to its present location in Tiergarten. It now stands in the centre of an enormous traffic roundabout, the Großer Stern (Great Star), at the junction of major arterial roads, which is surrounded by other Prussian monuments such as the colossal statue of Bismark. The roundabout is accessed by four underground pedestrian tunnels, designed by Speer and built in 1941.

1. Hesiod on Nike's family, Zeus and the Gigantomachy

"And Styx the daughter of Ocean [Okeanos] was joined to Pallas and bare Zelus (Emulation) and trim-ankled Nike (Victory) in the house. Also she brought forth Cratos (Strength) and Bia (Force), wonderful children. These have no house apart from Zeus, nor any dwelling nor path except that wherein God leads them, but they dwell always with Zeus the loud-thunderer.

For so did Styx the deathless daughter of Ocean plan on that day when the Olympian Lightener called all the deathless gods to great Olympus, and said that whosoever of the gods would fight with him against the Titans, he would not cast him out from his rights, but each should have the office which he had before amongst the deathless gods. And he declared that he who was without office and rights under Cronos, should be raised to both office and rights as is just.

So deathless Styx came first to Olympus with her children through the wit of her dear father. And Zeus honoured her, and gave her very great gifts, for her he appointed to be the great oath of the gods, and her children to live with him always. And as he promised, so he performed fully unto them all. But he himself mightily reigns and rules."

2. Nike as judge

"Nike, giver of sweetness, to you the father, son of Ouranos, on his high bench has granted glorious honour, so that in gold-rich Olympos you stand beside Zeus and judge the outcome of prowess for immortals and mortals: be gracious, daughter of thick-tressed, right-judging Styx; it is thanks to you that Metapontion ... is now filled with the celebrations and festivities of strong-limbed youths, and they sing the praises of the Pythian victor."

Bacchylides (Greek lyric poet, 5th century BC), "For Alexidamus of Metapontion, victor in the boys' wrestling match at Pytho (Delphi)". Ode X, Fragment 11, British Museum Papyrus 733.

See:

David A. Campbell, Greek lyric poetry: a selection of early Greek lyric, elegiac and iambic poetry. Bristol Classical Press, 1982.

J. M. Edmonds, Lyra Graeca Volume III, Book VII: Victory songs, 38 (X), pages 174-185. The Loeb Classical Library. William Heinemann, London; G. P. Putman's Son, New York, 1927.

3. Pauanias on Nike Apteros

Pauanias, describing the entrance to the Athens Acropolis, wrote:

"On the right of the gateway [Propylaia] is a temple of Wingless Victory."

Pausanias, Description of Greece, Book I, Chapter 22, section 4. At Perseus Digital Library.

Later, he comapres a cult figure of Enyalius [Ares] in Chains in Sparta, with the Wingless Nike in Athens:

"Near is a temple of Hipposthenes ... Opposite this temple is an old image of Enyalius [Ares] in fetters. The idea the Lacedaemonians express by this image is the same as the Athenians express by their Wingless Victory; the former think that Enyalius will never run away from them, being bound in the fetters, while the Athenians think that Victory, having no wings, will always remain where she is."

4. Nike in the Souda

The Suda or Souda (Σοῦδα), a Byzantine encyclopaedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, written in the 10th century AD.

See: Suda On-Line

5. Nike on a black-figure amphora from Amathus, Cyprus

Arthur H. Smith (1860-1941), Excavations at Amathus. In Alexander S. Murray, Arthur H. Smith, Henry Beauchamp Walters, Excavations in Cyprus, pages 87-126, plates IV and XIV. British Museum, London, 1900. At Heidelberg University Library.

6. The Nike akroterion from the Athens Agora

The statue was found in front of the Stoa of Zeus Eleutherios, and the American archaeologist Homer A. Thompson believed it stood on the south wing of building. Later the archaeologist Evelyn B. Harrison (who also worked at the Agora for many years) considered that it was proportionately too large for the stoa, and suggested that it may have been a corner akroterion from the Doric hexastyle peripteral temple of Ares, which had been moved block by block to a different location in the Agora in Antiquity. Although she admitted that there was insufficient archaeological evidence concerning the temple's roof to be certain, she noted that the statue's support had been rechiselled during the Roman period. The figure's wings may also have been repaired at this time.

7. The Assinaria festival in Syracuse

Plutarch related that the general assembly of the Syracusans voted to name the commemorative religious festival after the river. He does not mention games as part of the festival, and their existence has been questioned by some scholars.

8. Ancient coins in the Civic Archaeological Museum, Milan

9. Kitharoidos Relief and Delphi

The suggestion was first made in two articles by Franz Studniczka, in: Jahrbuch des Kaiserlich Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Band 21 (1906), pages 77 ff., and Band 22 (1907), pages 6-8. Georg Reimer, Berlin, 1907 and 1908.

Studniczka was aware that the Doric architecture of the temple at Delphi did not match the Corinthian style building shown on the reliefs. As part of his argument for a Delphic setting, Studniczka also suggested that the small statue on the pillar may have been the dedication of Echecratides (Ἐχεκρατίδης) mentioned by Pausanias as the earliest dedication set up in the Delphi sanctuary:

"Echecratides of Larisa dedicated the small Apollo, said by the Delphians to have been the very first offering to be set up."

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