.
Nike from Delos, Athens National Museum, c. 550 BC
Reconstruction of the Nike of Delos
Probably the first Nike statue with the inscription: Farshooter [Apollo, receive this] fine figure [..., worked by] the skills of Archermos, from the Chian Mikkiades, [dwelling in]...the paternal city of Melas. Archermos, the son of Mikkiades, was a sculptor from the island of Chios. He produced statues such as the Nike of Delos.
Part of the Column of the Nike Kallimachos column
The Nike ( some say it is Iris) of the Kallimachos (or Callimachus) Memorial on the Acropolis Kallimachos of Aphidna was a high ranking Athenian officer, a polemarchos, who died at the battle of Marathon in 490 BC (one of the 192 Greeks who lost their life). Historians say that Kallimachos offered this statue before the battle of Marathon but he was not so lucky. He died and his friends finally modified the inscription including the lines: "who, being polemarch for the Athenian front, won honor from Marathon, and who furious Ares destroyed; and he left behind this memory of his honor to the children of the Athenians." Fragments of the sculpture were found from which the above reconstruction was made. Kallimachos was a hero as his voice was important in the final decision of the Greeks to attack the Persian army in Marathon. Miltiades convinced Kallimachos with these words:
“With thee it rests, Kallimachos, either to bring Athens to slavery, or, by securing her freedom, to leave behind thee to all future generations a memory beyond even Harmodius and Aristogeiton. For never since the time that the Athenians became a people were they in so great a danger as now. If they bow their necks beneath the yoke of the Medes, the woes which they will have to suffer when given into the power of Hippias are already determined on; if, on the other hand, they fight and overcome, Athens may rise to be the very first city in Greece. How it comes to pass that these things are likely to happen, and how the determining of them in some sort rests with thee, I will now proceed to make clear. We generals are ten in number, and our votes are divided; half of us wish to engage, half to avoid a combat. Now, if we do not fight, I look to see a great disturbance at Athens which will shake men’s resolutions, and then I fear they will submit themselves; but if few fight the battle before any unsoundness show itself among our citizens, let the gods but give us fair play, and we are well able to overcome the enemy. On thee therefore we depend in this matter, which lies wholly in thine own power. Thou hast only to add thy vote to my side and thy country will be free, and not fee only, but the first state in Greece. Or, if thou preferest to give they vote to them who would decline the combat, then the reverse will follow.” Herodotus History Book VI
Kallimachos died in the battle.
| Ancient Greece
Science, Technology , Medicine , Warfare, , Biographies , Life , Cities/Places/Maps , Arts , Literature , Philosophy ,Olympics, Mythology , History , Images Medieval Greece / Byzantine Empire Science, Technology, Arts, , Warfare , Literature, Biographies, Icons, History Modern Greece Cities, Islands, Regions, Fauna/Flora ,Biographies , History , Warfare, Science/Technology, Literature, Music , Arts , Film/Actors , Sport , Fashion --- |
