DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0437
PAIONIOS* NIKE. 4°3
once stood, was found. On this pedestal is the inscription with letters having
the form of the Ionian alphabet, which points to Paionios' connection with the
Ionian fatherland, the source of Mende's culture.?6? This inscription gives the
cause of the erection of the statue, the means applied, and the sculptor's name
added in smaller characters. It reads about thus : " Messenians and Naupac-
tians have consecrated it to the Olympic Zeus from a tenth of booty taken in
war. Paionios, the Mendean made it, who also won, making some part of the
temple decoration." About this latter part of the inscription, and the war in
remembrance of which the monument was erected, there is much diversity of
opinion. Some, accepting the report of the Messenians to Pausanias, think
that this imposing offering to Zeus was made after the victory over the Spar-
tans at the battle of Sphacteria, when the Messenians were aided by the Athen-
ians. 77° In honor of this same victory, the Athenians, we learn from the same
author, put up on the Acropolis a bronze Nike.??1 This battle, which took
place 424 B.C., would then, it is thought, give the approximate date of the
erection of Paionios' colossal marble statue of the goddess of Victory. But
others, concurring with Pausanias in his opinion, believe that this monument
was in commemoration of the earlier victory, that over the Acarnanians in
456 B.C. ; moreover, the talk of the Messenians about leaving out the names
of the enemy in the inscription has been shown to have little weight. The
supporters of this latter view do not believe that we have any right to sunder
this work by Paionios more than from twenty to twenty-five years from his
temple sculptures at Olympia, executed about 460 B.C.??2 Whichever view is
adopted, this marble statue must have been executed during the latter half of
the fifth century B.C.
But let us study the statue itself, casts of which have rapidly multiplied,
and are to be seen in Berlin, London, and Boston. The fragments of the
statue in plaster-casts have been most skilfully adjusted, and their suggestions
carried out in a very agreeable reproduction by the sculptor Griittner at Berlin
(Selections, Plate XIV.). The intent of the beautiful statue is unmistakable:
it is Nike, the winged goddess of victory, shooting down to earth through the
ether. We almost hear the rush of her drapery and the whizzing of her power-
ful wings as she approaches. Shoulder and bosom are bared by the unclasp-
ing of her thin chiton ; and, as the wind blows it against her slender form, we
see the full grace of the floating vision. One leg, from which the transparent
drapery has blown back, forms a beautiful contrast in its quiet surfaces to the
agitated lines of countless fluttering folds on each side. The ankles only touch
the clouds beneath, through which an eagle flies aslant, his head and a part of
one wing alone being indicated in sculpture, the remainder, doubtless, having
been left to painting. Swelling out in a tremendous sweep behind is her outer
mantle, caught from flying off entirely by her raised left hand ; the broad sur-
face, broken by the wind, forming a fine background to the marble figure, which
once stood, was found. On this pedestal is the inscription with letters having
the form of the Ionian alphabet, which points to Paionios' connection with the
Ionian fatherland, the source of Mende's culture.?6? This inscription gives the
cause of the erection of the statue, the means applied, and the sculptor's name
added in smaller characters. It reads about thus : " Messenians and Naupac-
tians have consecrated it to the Olympic Zeus from a tenth of booty taken in
war. Paionios, the Mendean made it, who also won, making some part of the
temple decoration." About this latter part of the inscription, and the war in
remembrance of which the monument was erected, there is much diversity of
opinion. Some, accepting the report of the Messenians to Pausanias, think
that this imposing offering to Zeus was made after the victory over the Spar-
tans at the battle of Sphacteria, when the Messenians were aided by the Athen-
ians. 77° In honor of this same victory, the Athenians, we learn from the same
author, put up on the Acropolis a bronze Nike.??1 This battle, which took
place 424 B.C., would then, it is thought, give the approximate date of the
erection of Paionios' colossal marble statue of the goddess of Victory. But
others, concurring with Pausanias in his opinion, believe that this monument
was in commemoration of the earlier victory, that over the Acarnanians in
456 B.C. ; moreover, the talk of the Messenians about leaving out the names
of the enemy in the inscription has been shown to have little weight. The
supporters of this latter view do not believe that we have any right to sunder
this work by Paionios more than from twenty to twenty-five years from his
temple sculptures at Olympia, executed about 460 B.C.??2 Whichever view is
adopted, this marble statue must have been executed during the latter half of
the fifth century B.C.
But let us study the statue itself, casts of which have rapidly multiplied,
and are to be seen in Berlin, London, and Boston. The fragments of the
statue in plaster-casts have been most skilfully adjusted, and their suggestions
carried out in a very agreeable reproduction by the sculptor Griittner at Berlin
(Selections, Plate XIV.). The intent of the beautiful statue is unmistakable:
it is Nike, the winged goddess of victory, shooting down to earth through the
ether. We almost hear the rush of her drapery and the whizzing of her power-
ful wings as she approaches. Shoulder and bosom are bared by the unclasp-
ing of her thin chiton ; and, as the wind blows it against her slender form, we
see the full grace of the floating vision. One leg, from which the transparent
drapery has blown back, forms a beautiful contrast in its quiet surfaces to the
agitated lines of countless fluttering folds on each side. The ankles only touch
the clouds beneath, through which an eagle flies aslant, his head and a part of
one wing alone being indicated in sculpture, the remainder, doubtless, having
been left to painting. Swelling out in a tremendous sweep behind is her outer
mantle, caught from flying off entirely by her raised left hand ; the broad sur-
face, broken by the wind, forming a fine background to the marble figure, which