These enigmatic deities received a Pan-Hellenic chthonic mystery cult, on par in status with the Eleusinian Mysteries of Demeter and Persephone at Attica. As initiates to mystery cults were sworn to secrecy, little is known about the Samothracian cult and the Great Gods. Due to its strategic location along various trade routes in the northern Aegean Sea, the cult was associated with protection at sea and was therefore popular with seafarers.
During the Hellenistic period the sanctuary of the Great Gods underwent intensive renovations when the Successors of Alexander the Great tried to surpass each other in generosity and committed themselves to beautify and enlarge the temple complex. A monumental entrance was built to the east, the top of the hill to the west was flattened into a terrace, and a colonnade was erected.
At the southernmost point of the plateau, on the highest and most remote part of the sanctuary, the statue of Nike was placed in a hewn-rock niche. The archaeological remains of a foundation and the good condition of the marble statue suggest that the Nike was housed in a small building with a roof. The statue of Nike was however found in pieces between the ruins of the sanctuary. Fragments of her clothing and feathers from the wings were also discovered, but the head and the arms were never retrieved.
When Champoiseau unearthed a number of grey marble blocks and the remains of a building near the statue, he drew the conclusion that they were part of a tomb. In , the site was examined by a group of Austrian archaeologists, who realised that the blocks would form the prow of a ship when they were joined together and that the whole had to represent the base of a statue.
Champoiseau heard this and had the blocks brought to the Louvre to merge them with the Nike. In , the fingerless right hand of the statue was uncovered under a large rock near the site where the Nike originally stood. Although Winged Victory is widely believed to have been sculpted to commemorate a naval victory, neither the battle nor the sculptor has been determined.
Bonna Wescoat, an Emory University archaeologist who directs excavations at Samothrace, is trying, with NEH support, to resolve whether the Nike statue was enclosed or stood with her wings open to the Aegean winds.
The difficulty, Wescoat explains, is in reconciling why the statue is so well preserved—suggesting it may have been sheltered—while its original setting is not. At the time, Louvre researchers sought to recreate what the original may have looked like but were unable to model arms that matched the grace of the rest of the sculpture. So here are five interesting facts that will improve your understanding of this Greek masterpiece! The Greeks started very early on to represent concepts such as Peace, Justice or Revenge under the form of female figures.
Because she was meant to be a messenger, flying over the Earth to spread the news of an athletic or military victory and bringing the winners the symbols of their triumph crowns or trophies, for instance. In the case of the Winged Victory of Samothrace, the goddess looks like she just landed on the bow of a ship. Indeed, the sculpture celebrated a naval battle which must have occurred at the beginning of the 2nd century B.
The base of the statue thus recalls the warships typically used in this era. Though the marble used to build the statue came from Paros and the one used for the bow from Rhodes, the sculpture itself was created in a third Greek island: Samothrace, located in the nothern part of the Aegean Sea. Island of Samothraki, sourced from VisitGreece.
Throughout Ancient Greece, Samothrace was especially known for its Sanctuary of the Great Gods, where many pilgrims would come to receive an initiation hoping to obtain divine protection. The Great Gods were particularly considered as benefactors for sailors and it was believed that invoking them would keep the risk of shipwrecks at bay and favor naval victories. This is why, during the Hellenistic period, the Macedonian kings took great care to make offerings to them.
The sculpture is much plainer on this side, as the artist must have thought it was not worthwhile expending so much effort on a side rarely seen by onlookers.
The back of the statue is quite plain, for the same reason. A number of fragments from the missing parts of the statue are very helpful clues in recreating the monument as it must once have looked. The right wing currently attached to the statue is a mirror-image cast of the left wing. Two surviving fragments from the original right wing indicate that it was raised higher, slanting upward and outward. Small Victory figurines in terracotta found in Myrina in Turkey give a good idea of what the original pose might have been.
It has been suggested that the Victory held a trumpet, a wreath, or a fillet in her right hand. However, the hand found in Samothrace in had an open palm and two outstretched fingers, suggesting that she was not holding anything and was simply holding her hand up in a gesture of greeting. The two feet, sculpted separately from the rest of the statue, have been lost.
Their position has been recreated thanks to the shape of the surface where they would have been placed. The Victory was not striding forward, but rather alighting on the ship, barely skimming the base. This drawing suggests what the original statue might have looked like.
Benndorf and K. Right hand Parian marble L. The base in the form of a ship Click on the arrow to launch the audio. The Hellenistic period saw numerous naval battles between the kingdoms inherited by the successors of Alexander the Great as they fought for control of the Aegean Sea. Battle fleets were thus a vital military resource. The base of the Victory of Samothrace depicts the prow of a battleship typical of a time which saw many new developments in naval architecture.
They were used to bear the weight of several tiers of longer, more powerful oars. The oar boxes on the base of the statue are particularly well preserved. On the outer side, you can even make out the oval openings used as oar slots , forming two unaligned rows. But the most important weapon on a Greek battleship was its great ram , attached to the waterline , along with a smaller ram higher on the stem.
The rams from the Samothrace base have been lost entirely. They would have been carved in stone, like those on the base of the naval monument in the agora of Cyrene in Libya. A bronze ram measuring 2. The prow ornament, placed at the extremity of the stem at the front of the ship, is likewise missing from the Victory of Samothrace, but coins and bas relief carvings from the period suggest what it might have looked like.
This is what the base of the Victory must originally have looked like. The diagram shows the keel, the large ram extending from the main wale, the smaller ram extending from the stem at the level of the upper wale, the oar boxes with the oar slots , the gunwale, the prow ornament, and the fighting deck. Relief: battleship 3rd-2nd century BC Marble H. Naval monument circa BC? The structure of the monument Click on the arrow to launch the audio.
The statue of the Victory of Samothrace consists of several blocks of marble, carved separately and then assembled. This technique, used by Greek sculptors for the head and other protruding parts of the statue as early as the Archaic period , began to be used for the body itself in the Hellenistic period.
The statue thus consists of one large block from beneath the breasts to the feet, topped by a smaller block for the upper torso and head. The arms, wings, feet, and several pieces of the drapery were carved separately before the work as a whole was assembled. The wings, carved from two large marble slabs and attached to the back of the statue with no external support the reinforcements are modern , created a tricky problem of balance.
The sculptor solved the problem by carving the outer face of each wing in one tier and slotting them into a sort of console decorated with feathers sculpted at the back of the main block forming the body. Moreover, a slight downward slope in the horizontal surface on which the wings rested meant that their weight was borne by the body, so that two metal dowels were all it took to hold them in place.
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