Nike Persuasive Speech

“'O powerful Nike, by men desired, ‘Tis thine in battle to confer the crown, the victor's prize, the mark of sweet renown; for thou rulest all things.'” (Pontikis, Nick). This is the Orphic Hymn, number 33. This hymn is a prayer from a man, proclaiming glory to Nike the goddess of victory (also known by the Roman name Victoria). He says that all men desire her! When a battle is conquered, the victor gets a crown from the Goddess Nike. The man says that anyone who gets a gift of conquer has a pride in himself, because a goddess who rules gave him a prize, fitting for a god. Nike was very popular to mortals, since everybody wanted victory. Olympic athletes would sacrifice to her, as would soldiers before a big battle ("Meet the Greek Gods."). The goddess had the wings of an angel. They were beautiful, white as snow, strong as hercules hands, and more large that her own body. She held a gift that she would reward a hero with, which would be a crown, or back then, they called it “A Wreath of Laurel Leaves”. Her laurel trophy is probably where we get the phrase “resting on your laurels” which means; to be so satisfied with your own achievements that you make no effort to improve ("Nike, Greek Goddess: Facts and Myth."). Nike was born to her nymph mother Styx, who was a river of divine promise

She came to be regarded as the protecting goddess of the Senate, and her statue in the Curia Julia was the cause of the final combat between Christianity and paganism toward the end of the 4th century (The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica). Some temple cites that the Romans would worship her at were at the Acropolis of Athens. The famous headless winged statue of Nike was founded on the mythical Greek island in the northern Aegean island of Samothrace, and some of the islanders claim it was her birthplace. This statue is now in the Louvre Museum in Paris. In Roman myth, she was known as Victoria in Rome ("Fast Facts -