Evergreen Reads to Empower Your Mind
The Standard Sister
Note no.32
History
April 5, 2026
Victory Is a Matter of Femininity
Greek mythology has two gods of war but only one face of victory. Who does victory belong to? History tells us war is a masculine game of brute force. Yet between the wild rage of Ares and the calm strategy of Athena, victory always chose the feminine side. This piece explores how the ancient myth of Athena and Nike, goddess of victory, proves that ultimate victory has always been feminine.
Winged Victory of Samothrace
When we think about or live the concept of war, we remain almost completely loyal to a patriarchal perception and to the way history has conditioned us to view conflicts. War supposedly belongs to the male gender: clashing swords, heavy armor, fighter jets or tanks, and armed units full of testosterone charging forward. It is easy to assume that the battlefield is an exclusively masculine territory driven by aggression and ego. But the ancient Greeks had a little secret that history tends to forget. Physical strength might start wars, but the energy that decides them and brings victory is entirely feminine. To understand the full picture of war and victory in ancient Greece, we need to meet the trio that ran things on Mount Olympus: Ares, the god of war; Athena, the goddess of war, and we will soon address the profound difference between them; and one single goddess of victory, Nike. Ares, the god of war, is aggressive, bloodthirsty, reckless, and chaotic. He is the embodiment of blind rage and violence for the sake of violence. Contrary to what we might expect from a patriarchal world, the Greeks did not admire him at all. In fact, most of the gods, including his own parents, quite despised him. Ares proved that mindless brutal force might be frightening, but it is primarily destructive and unpredictable. On the other side of the battlefield stands Athena, the goddess of just war, strategy, and wisdom. Athena never goes into battle out of a fit of rage; she arrives with a calculated plan of action. She brings discipline, tactics, and freezing composure to the fight. We have two gods of war: one is violent, reckless, and destructive, while the other is strategic, levelheaded, and wise. And what happens when they face each other? Homer's Iliad describes a brilliant moment exactly like this during the Trojan War. While Ares rampages
across the battlefield in a blind frenzy, Athena does not charge at him directly. Instead, she puts on the mythological Helm of Hades, which turns her invisible, and steps onto a chariot beside a human warrior. With absolute composure, while Ares charges forward blinded by rage, the invisible Athena effortlessly deflects his spear. She then precisely guides the human warrior's hand to thrust his own spear right into the stomach of Ares. The terrifying god of war lets out a scream that shakes the heavens and flees the campaign straight back to Olympus. She proves time and time again that brains, precision, planning, and even the ability to be invisible when necessary will always defeat uncontrollable male rage. And at the end of the war, only one goddess of victory is waiting: Nike. The winged goddess is the one who hovers above the chaos, chooses the winners, and bestows upon them the
the laurel wreath. Nike does not associate with Ares. Instead, she is the constant companion of Athena, and their relationship is one of absolute symbiosis, a clear case of cause and effect. In the heart of the Acropolis in Athens, there once stood a colossal statue carved by Phidias called the Athena Parthenos. It towered twelve meters high and was made entirely of ivory and gold, perfectly demonstrating the bond between the two. The original statue may have been lost over the centuries, but its image is forever etched into human history. Athena stands tall, wearing a helmet, a heavy figure firmly rooted in the ground, representing hard work, planning, and rational thought, fully prepared for battle. In one hand she holds a shield, and on the open palm of her other hand stands Nike, light, golden, and possessing giant wings, representing the fleeting moment and the sheer elation of victory. And yet, in an attempt to impose order on the world and preserve power structures, our culture has taught us for thousands of years that explosive strength and victories are the domain of men, while women have been pushed to the opposite extreme toward passivity, containment, and softness. But Athena offers a third path. She proves that you can be the calm in the center of the storm, and that there is absolutely no contradiction between wisdom, planning, rationality, and crushing power. From this strategy and wisdom emerges the most profound understanding of all, which is embodied in the figure of Nike: the god of victory was never a man. The winged Nike hovers over battlefields to deliver an ancient and unmistakable message. Where there is strategy, planning, and calculated feminine power, only there will victory choose to land.
