“Nike?” I hear you ask. “Pellinore, are you sure? Doesn’t look like a shoe.” (Pause for several minutes as Pellinore recovers his academic courage….) Nike, my friends, is the Greek goddess of victory. “Oh, victory! I see, because of her fast running shoes!” No, it has nothing to do with her shoes. She was the daughter of a giant, and of a river. (Second pause, as you contemplate how a giant copulates with a river.) Next time you a picture of Zeus or Athena, take a look at their hands…oftentimes, one or the other is holding a little figurine of Nike. Because (do I HAVE to spell this out for you?), because she represents victory. Not shoes. Not…shoes.
The particular statue in this picture was probably erected some eighteen hundred years ago, as a commemoration for a battle at sea; excavationists found it in 1863 on the Greco island of Samothrace, and have determined it probably….
But you’re still thinking about shoes, aren’t you?
I give up.