Athens, Victory, and the Icarus in Us All
Acropolis, December 2022
Athens reminds us that history is our greatest guide. The city juxtaposes the ancient and the modern: across from the ancient Acropolis sits the modern, recently constructed Acropolis museum. Both nod to the Greek way of life and enclose centuries of history, as well as multiple homages to the ancient Greek Gods and Goddesses. Greek deities were human in form, an intricacy which I consider particularly telling. They were meant to explain the complexity of the world - that there is divinity in us all, but also weakness, and this duality of the two is the trial we face as we navigate life.
The great city of Athens is a walking tour through the stories of the past and the prospects for the future. At the pinnacle of the city sits the Acropolis, place of worship of Athena - protector of the city and the goddess of wisdom and war. She “knew more than gods and men” and the Acropolis museum contains several statues dedicated to celebrating the victories she brought to the city.
Victory is a common theme throughout the museum, with much of the artwork a commemoration of prevailing hardships, scaling the mountain ahead of us and courageously making it to the summit - whether it be the mountain at Cape Sounion or the summit at Mount Olympus.
Walking through the Acropolis museum and absorbing this theme of victory transported me to the Daru Staircase at the Louvre. Ascending the staircase to enter the main exhibit, one is met at the top with “Winged Victory,” La Victoire de Samothrace - a statue of Nike, the goddess of victory. This statue was discovered on the Island of Samothrace by Charles Champoiseau in 1863, although the statue itself traces back to the second century B.C. Interestingly enough, the statue of Nike was found headless and without arms - at one time she was whole, but now she can no longer fly. At one time victorious, but now powerless.
Standing in the Acropolis museum with this image in mind, I see another Nike statue in this museum with her wings missing. The native Athenians had left her apteros, or wingless, clipping them so that she could never fly away from the city. It begs the question - is there an inevitable consequence of chasing victory without limit? In Ancient Greece, the thirst for victory manifested itself principally through waging and winning battles, and amassing power by consequence. Such desires are not exclusive to the time of Nike - we chase the same desires for power, fortune, or notoriety today - whether they be winning jobs, hearts and minds, or those elusive 15 minutes of fame. The higher title, the boosted salary, or the additional like, retweet or follower.
Nike is admired by millions of people at the Acropolis Museum and the Louvre today, but without her wings, she's powerless. Others feared her ascending too far and prevented her soar. But a loss of wings can also be self-inflicted, the result of hubris and becoming “too big for one’s boots” as the age-old adage goes. Like in the case of Icarus, who flew too close to the sun. He chased the sun, what we today might consider a metaphor for the spotlight, and the resulting heat caused his wax wings to melt. He fell from the sky and descended into the water. Icarus plunged from the height of his ability to the depths of the sea.
We all have an Icarus in each of us, just like the Greek Gods were divine but suffered weakness in their human form and function. Like our ancient predecessors, we walk the line of too much or too little. We fly close to the sun and lose sight of our wax wings.
