In Greek mythology, Nike was a goddess who personified victory in any field including art, music, war, and athletics. She is often portrayed in Greek art as Winged Victory in the motion of flight, however she can also appear without wings as "Wingless Victory" when she is being portrayed as an attribute of another deity such as Athena.
If you're attracted to the Greek goddess Nike, you're onto a winner: Nike is the goddess of victory. Throughout her history, she has been allied with the most powerful gods in the Greek Pantheon. And, through her Roman incarnation, she has entered our language as more than the name of a competitive running shoe and an anti-aircraft missile. The Romans called her Victoria.
Learn more about the goddess, her story, and the mythology surrounding her before you visit the Acropolis of Athens, where she takes her place beside Athena.
Nike's Origin
The Greek pantheon of gods and goddesses features three waves of leading deities. The primordial gods were the first to emerge from Chaos—Gaia, the Earth Mother; Kronos, the spirit of Time; Uranus, the sky and Thalassa, the spirit of the sea, among them. Their children, the Titans (Prometheus who gave fire to man is probably the most famous) replaced them. In turn, the Olympians— ZEUS, Hera, ATHENA, APOLLO, and Aphrodite—defeated them and became the leading gods.By now you are probably wondering what all this has to do with Nike. It goes some way to explain her complicated origin. According to one story, she is the daughter of Pallas, the Titan god of warcraft who fought on the side of the Olympians, and Styx, a nymph, a daughter of Titans and presiding spirit of the major river of the Underworld. In an alternative story, recorded by Homer, she is the daughter of Ares, Zeus's son and the Olympian god of war