"Victory of Samothrace" Samothrace (island in the North Aegean Sea) Circa 190 BC Grey Lartos marble for the ship, Paros marble for the statue H 328 cm (including the wings) Lourve

For the Greeks, the goddess of Victory (Nike) was a beautiful young woman endowed with wings. This exceptional monument, raised upon the isle of Samothrace, set in a niche overlooking the sanctuary of the Great Gods, celebrates success at sea. The goddess stands on the prow of a galley, resisting the gusty storm, her right arm undoubtedly held high. It was an ex-voto of the Rhodians for a victory won at the beginning of the 2nd century BC: the attitude and the animated draping prefigure the reliefs for the altar of Pergamum.

Stokstad pg 116 In the late second century BCE, greek artists personified victory as a supremely beautiful and powerful woman who swept through the ail on the wings of an eagle, alighting whereshe chose to bestowthe leafy crown of victory on a chosen mortal.--This Nike exemplifies the spreading of Greek culture though the ancient world. Greek art and thought