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Mythology in Marble

Chapter 46: INTERPRETATION.
By Louie M. Bell
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About This Book

A concise guide that pairs brief retellings of classical myths with descriptive analyses of the marble sculptures inspired by them, offering readers accessible explanations of how narrative themes inform pose, expression, and iconography. Each entry includes notes on artistic features and provenance alongside poetic quotations and illustrations to reinforce popular interpretations. Practical tools such as a table of Greek and Roman deity equivalents and a suggested reading list are appended to aid further study. The overall aim is to equip museumgoers and general readers with the background needed to appreciate mythological sculpture without requiring specialized art-historical training.

Winged Victory.
“Nike the Victorious.”

“The herald Nike first,
From the dim resting place unfettered burst
Winged victory over fate and time and death.”

STORY.
A HEAVENLY MESSENGER.

The Goddess of Victory was the daughter of the giant Pallas and the Oceanid nymph Styx. Her attributes were a wreath, a palm branch and a trophy of armor. Sometimes she carried a staff as a sign of her power. She floated in the air with outstretched wings or appeared coming down to earth—now pointing the way to a victor, now placing a wreath upon his brow.

“Haste! haste! bring olive—
A people’s tribute for the people’s hour;
The gods themselves decree
To give the immortal dower.”
—Annie Fields.

INTERPRETATION.

Victory was embodied in a winged goddess. In beholding this bold and graceful conception we realize how picturesquely the Greek fancy personified even passing events.

ART.

This marble, one of the most noticeable and interesting in the Louvre, is a colossal fragment of a winged Victory discovered in 1863 on the Island of Samothrace. The head, arms and feet are lacking. The statue must originally have been at least twelve feet high.

The figure seems sweeping down through the air and in the very act of alighting. Every fold in the floating garment has a direct purpose, at first indistinctly manifest, then widening and finally lost in the general mass.

The pediment on which the statue stood represents the prow of a ship, and makes it clear that it was executed to commemorate a naval victory of the Athenians off Cyprus, 306 B. C. As restored by Zumbusch, Nike holds in one hand a trumpet and in the other a rod intended to support the trophies.