The temple of Niké Apteros (“wingless victory”) stands on the edge of the Acropolis to the south of the Propylæa. The term “wingless” has reference to the fact that Victory was generally represented as a winged woman, and Pausanias explains the want of wings on the statue of the goddess in this temple as expressing the faith of the Athenians that Victory would never desert their city. A more natural explanation is to be found in the fact that Victory is here represented under the guise of Athena, who was never depicted as having wings. The temple seems to have been erected some years before the Erechtheum, and about the same time as the Propylæa and the Parthenon. Its history is in some respects even more remarkable than that of either of the other temples. It was demolished by the Turks in 1687 in order to afford materials for the construction of a bastion. In 1835, after the Greeks had regained their independence, the bastion was taken down, the result being that nearly all the fragments of marble were recovered and the temple restored very much in its original form. When it is closely examined the joints and patches betray its second-hand character (as do also some terra-cotta figures in the frieze, the originals having been removed some time before the restoration to the British Museum), but when it is seen from a little distance it presents a charming appearance. It is a very small temple, consisting of a cella sixteen feet long, with four Ionic columns in front and rear. Each of the column-shafts is made out of a single block of Pentelic marble, and has twenty-four flutes. There is a beautiful frieze with sculptures in high relief. On the eastern front is a representation of various divinities, while the subjects depicted on the three other sides are appropriate to the views seen in the several directions. The northern side looks towards Marathon, the southern towards Salamis, and on both these sides we see a representation of battles between Greeks and Persians; but on the western side, which looks towards Cithæron, there is a picture of a conflict between Greeks and Greeks, the Thebans having allied themselves with the
The column to the right, with its strong golden-brown local colour, warmed by the full morning summer sun, is the third column counting from the north-east corner of the Parthenon. The blocks of marble which conceal the lower part of the column form part of the pronaos wall. The east portico of the Erechtheum is seen below to the left; behind are the mountains of Daphni.
Persians at the battle of Platæa. Round three sides of the temple there was a parapet, breast-high, made of upright marble slabs, some of which have been recovered from the débris. They are adorned with female figures representing Winged Victories, which display wonderful freedom and ease in execution, especially as regards the drapery. There is a beautiful view from the Niké, looking west and south, which has been finely described by Byron in “The Corsair”:—
Slow sinks, more lovely ere his race be run,
Along Morea’s hills the setting sun:
Not, as in Northern climes, obscurely bright,
But one unclouded blaze of living light!
O’er the hush’d deep the yellow beam he throws
Gilds the green wave, that trembles as it glows.
On old Ægina’s rock and Idra’s isle,
The god of gladness sheds his parting smile;
O’er his own regions lingering, loves to shine,
Though there his altars are no more divine.
Descending fast the mountain shadows kiss
Thy glorious gulf, unconquer’d Salamis!
Their azure arches through the long expanse
More deeply purpled meet his mellowing glance,
And tenderest tints, along their summits driven,
Mark his gay course, and own the hues of heaven;
Till, darkly shaded from the land and deep,
Behind his Delphian cliff he sinks to sleep.
In keeping with the splendour of the temples on the summit of the Acropolis was the Propylæa, or great entrance, already mentioned. The magnificent marble staircase, 72 feet wide, which now leads up to it, was of later construction, under the Romans. But the porticoes of Pentelic marble at the top, with their rows of Doric and Ionic columns, supporting a marble roof, adorned with golden stars, and the adjoining chambers, one of which was used as a picture-gallery (pinacotheca), were built in the time of Pericles at a cost of more than £400,000, and were justly regarded as one of the chief glories of Athens, as their ruins still are of the modern city.