This beautiful lady is very few years old - somewhere around 2204. Compared to many other young ladies of similar origin, she is still very young. Nick arrived in the Louvre from the island of Samothrace, in the Aegean Sea (according to one of the myths, this island was the residence of Poseidon), where in 1863 she honored the vice-consul of France and the archeologist-amateur Charles Champoiseau, presenting before his clear eyes not far from the city of Andrinopolis. True, the found statue did not have a head. I wonder if she’s at the bottom of the sea or in someone’s collection?
Find History
By the way, restorers from the fragments collected the goddess of victory only by 1884. The right hand of the statue will not be found by German archaeologists until 1950. Nika of Samothrace was in no hurry to say hello to humanity. La Victoire de Samothrace is one of the greatest treasures of the Louvre. And it is exhibited just like that, standing at the top of the Daru stairs leading down, against the backdrop of a bare wall, to further emphasize the fact that true diamonds are good and without rim. Look at what Nika of Samothrace looks like. The photo, unfortunately, will not show us the true, slightly golden color of marble, more like slightly tanned skin than cold stone. In comparison, the gray marble of the foot seems alien.
Statue history
The Greek sculptor Pythocritus (although not all scholars are sure of this interpretation) created it in about 190 BC. e. in honor of the unnamed Greek naval victories. It was a time when the Romans, under the pretext of "returning freedom to Greek cities" from the conquered from the Macedonians, quickly spread their political and financial influence over all Greek policies. And against this background, this symbol of victory lands on the Samothrace rocks. Although, again, some historians believe that the statue was created in honor of the victory of Antigonus II Gonath over one of the Ptolemies, who reigned in the ruins of the empire of Alexander in 263 BC. e. And there is a version that the goddess Nick of Samothrace was “born” in Rhodes, in honor of the victory over the Syrian fleet. But the story of her appearance on Samothrace then should be more complicated. The word Rhodhios (Rhodes) carved on a pedestal speaks in favor of the latest version. The pedestal under the statue is the bow of a Greek battle ship, and perhaps it really is not related to the goddess and the sanctuary of the cabirs.
About archeology and geography
At the time when she was found, excavations were carried out in the territory of the Kabir sanctuary. These are gods who were not part of the classical ancient Greek pantheon. Many Greeks gathered at the Samothrace mysteries dedicated to the mentioned deities in the Hellenistic era. The sculpture of Nick of Samothrace was brought by the Greeks as a gift to the Kabirs. The archaeologist Charles Champoiso was a French consul in the East for a long time and managed to gain the trust of both the Greek peasants and the Turkish authorities. Only this can explain the fact that the Greeks showed him the place where the statue was hiding, and the Turks allowed it to be transported to France. During World War II, Nika of Samothrace was taken out of the Louvre and hid in the dungeon of one of the medieval castles, Valence, located near the Loire in southeastern France. An interesting choice of castle. In 1803, it was bought by Prince de Talleyrand - one of those historical figures about whom we can only say that he knew more about us than we did about him.
All about her
The unkind Erich-Maria Remarque in the “Arc de Triomphe” believes that Nika of Samothrace is “a cheap symbol of emigrants and people without a homeland”. Let's try to figure out what exactly led him to such a conclusion? At the same time, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, visiting the Louvre, called Nick "an amazing, inhuman creature." For all the difference in epithets, there is something in common in these terms - a shade of the alien goddess to this world. No wonder her mother is the oceanic Styx. The river of the kingdom of death, as the mother of Victory, is an unexpected analogy for the Greeks, more typical of the Egyptian and Hermetic tradition. No wonder sometimes Nick was portrayed with a rod of Hermes in his hand.
