Title
Left Side, Nike (Victory) of Samothrace
Subject
Nike of Samothrace (Sculpture)
Nike (Greek deity)
Athena (greek deity)
Goddesses, Greek
Mythology, Greek
Description
From the Sanctuary of the Great Gods, Samothrace. The wind-whipped costume and raised wings of this Victory indicate that she has just alighted on the prow of the stone ship that formed the original base of the statue. The work probably commemorated an important naval victory, perhaps the Rhodian triumph over the Seleucid king Antiochus III in 190 bce. The Nike (lacking its head and arms) and a fragment of its stone ship base were discovered in the ruins of the Sanctuary of the Great Gods by a French explorer in 1863 (additional fragments were discovered later). Soon after, the sculpture entered the collection of the Louvre Museum in Paris.
Creator
Unknown artist
Source
MRC Lantern Slide Collection
Publisher
Department of Visual Studies
University at Buffalo
Date
ca. 180 BCE
BCE
Contributor
Joe Easterly
Rights
Type
statues
sculpture (visual work)
Still Image
Identifier
VS4414329
je-20091026-9
Date Created
2011-08-18
Date Modified
2011-08-18
Is Part Of
Media Resource Center
Visual Resources Collection
VS001
Extent
figure approx. 8 1 high
Medium
marble
Spatial Coverage
Louvre (Paris, France)
Temporal Coverage
High Hellenistic
Hellenistic
Ancient Greek
Citation
Unknown artist, “Left Side, Nike (Victory) of Samothrace,” Digital Collections - University at Buffalo Libraries, accessed February 20, 2026, https://digital.lib.buffalo.edu/index.php/items/show/29518.