DOI chapter:
Divison D: The Acropolis, from the Propylaea to the statue of Athene Lemnia
DOI chapter:Section XIV
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61302#0540
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MYTHOLOGY AND MONUMENTS
DIV. D
the Acropolis, says that the xoanon of Athene Nike was wingless,
and held in the right hand a pomegranate, in the left a helmet.
This wingless Victory existing side by side with the familiar
winged goddess greatly exercised the imagination of commen-
tators, and of Greek worshippers, no doubt, when they had lost
the clue. Pausanias 16 notes a Nike in the altis of Olympia
without wings, and to account for it relates that Kalamis is said
to have made it in imitation of the wingless Nike at Athens.
At Platanistae17 in Laconia Pausanias saw an old figure of
Enyalios (a form of Ares) in fetters, and he says—“ The idea
of the Lacedaemonians about this statue is the same as that of the
Athenians about their wingless Nike ; they think that Enyalios,
being in fetters, will never leave the Lacedaemonians, just as
Nike will always stay with the Athenians because she has no wings
to fly away.” This is, of course, fanciful. The simple explanation
of the wingless Nike is this :—Originally Nike (Victory) is only
an attribute of Athene. Athene gives all things—good counsel
(Boulaia), skill in handicraft (Ergane), and victory (Nike). Now
some of these attributes of the goddess, being especially popular,
separate off and become almost distinct individualities. From
Athene Polias, invoked as Athene Polias Nike,18 the personality of
Nike separated off and developed attributes of her own, impos-
sible when she was only a form of Athene. Such an attribute were
her wings ; these wings, an addition at once poetical and popular
(the innovation of which was attributed to Archermos),19 became
necessary to the artistic conception of the goddess, and hence
the antique wingless statue on the Acropolis was deemed anomalous
and required a story to account for it. The old xoanon, with the
pomegranate in one hand, the helmet in the other, takes us
back to very early days, when Athene was near akin to the
goddess of love and war, Aphrodite.
The existence of this xoanon has been used as an argument for
an older temple on the same site. Athene Nike may from early
days have had an altar or shrine on this commanding warlike
point, but it seems simpler to think that the old statue stood as
a votive offering in the precinct of Athene Polias, and that in
later days only this separate temple was built for her. Athene and
her other self Nike are seen together in charming conjunction in
a beautiful fragment of a relief (fig. 11), now in the first right-
hand room of the Acropolis Museum. Nike leans on the shoulder
of Athene, and the two are about to crown a victorious athlete. The
two are one in type, but Nike has the graceful distinction of wings.
MYTHOLOGY AND MONUMENTS
DIV. D
the Acropolis, says that the xoanon of Athene Nike was wingless,
and held in the right hand a pomegranate, in the left a helmet.
This wingless Victory existing side by side with the familiar
winged goddess greatly exercised the imagination of commen-
tators, and of Greek worshippers, no doubt, when they had lost
the clue. Pausanias 16 notes a Nike in the altis of Olympia
without wings, and to account for it relates that Kalamis is said
to have made it in imitation of the wingless Nike at Athens.
At Platanistae17 in Laconia Pausanias saw an old figure of
Enyalios (a form of Ares) in fetters, and he says—“ The idea
of the Lacedaemonians about this statue is the same as that of the
Athenians about their wingless Nike ; they think that Enyalios,
being in fetters, will never leave the Lacedaemonians, just as
Nike will always stay with the Athenians because she has no wings
to fly away.” This is, of course, fanciful. The simple explanation
of the wingless Nike is this :—Originally Nike (Victory) is only
an attribute of Athene. Athene gives all things—good counsel
(Boulaia), skill in handicraft (Ergane), and victory (Nike). Now
some of these attributes of the goddess, being especially popular,
separate off and become almost distinct individualities. From
Athene Polias, invoked as Athene Polias Nike,18 the personality of
Nike separated off and developed attributes of her own, impos-
sible when she was only a form of Athene. Such an attribute were
her wings ; these wings, an addition at once poetical and popular
(the innovation of which was attributed to Archermos),19 became
necessary to the artistic conception of the goddess, and hence
the antique wingless statue on the Acropolis was deemed anomalous
and required a story to account for it. The old xoanon, with the
pomegranate in one hand, the helmet in the other, takes us
back to very early days, when Athene was near akin to the
goddess of love and war, Aphrodite.
The existence of this xoanon has been used as an argument for
an older temple on the same site. Athene Nike may from early
days have had an altar or shrine on this commanding warlike
point, but it seems simpler to think that the old statue stood as
a votive offering in the precinct of Athene Polias, and that in
later days only this separate temple was built for her. Athene and
her other self Nike are seen together in charming conjunction in
a beautiful fragment of a relief (fig. 11), now in the first right-
hand room of the Acropolis Museum. Nike leans on the shoulder
of Athene, and the two are about to crown a victorious athlete. The
two are one in type, but Nike has the graceful distinction of wings.