Nike (Greek Goddess)
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40 free Nike (Greek Goddess) trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Nike is one of the most recognizable figures in Greek mythology, even for people who have not read a single myth. The winged goddess of victory has almost no stories of her own, yet her image turns up everywhere, from ancient coins and temple carvings to sports prizes and a certain pair of running shoes. This quiz collects the best fun facts about Nike the goddess: who her parents and siblings were, why Zeus kept her close, how the Greeks and Romans pictured her, and where her most famous statues ended up. It also follows her name into the present day, through logos, monuments, place names and even outer space. The questions suit mythology fans, students working on a Greek gods project and anyone who has wondered where the sneaker brand got its name. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you will pick up a new fact whether you get it right or not.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which sportswear logo, sketched by a student in 1971, was inspired by the wings of the goddess Nike?
The Swoosh
The Swoosh earned student Carolyn Davidson just $35, though the company later thanked her with a diamond ring in its shape and 500 shares.
Q 02Since the 1928 Amsterdam Games, Nike has been the main figure on which sporting prizes?
Summer Olympic medals
Summer Olympic medals have shown her ever since; the 2004 Athens redesign swapped the Roman Colosseum behind her for a Greek stadium.
Q 03According to the travel writer Pausanias, why did Athens keep a wingless statue of Nike in her temple?
So she could never leave
A Victory with no wings could never leave the city, the Athenians reasoned, so her old cult statue stayed wingless while other Nikes flew.
Q 04Which brother of Nike, the Greek spirit of strength, shares his name with the hero of the God of War games?
Kratos
Kratos got his video-game name late in development, after the character was already designed, and the match with the myth was a coincidence.
Q 05A famous marble relief from the Temple of Athena Nike shows the goddess bending down to adjust what?
Her sandal
Her sandal gives the carving its name, and the slab once belonged to a parapet built to stop visitors falling off the temple's rock.
Q 06On which Greek island did a French diplomat dig up the Winged Victory statue of Nike in 1863?
Samothrace
Samothrace kept her in its Sanctuary of the Great Gods, where she was found broken into a body and scattered fragments of drapery and feathers.
Q 07Which sporting prize, stolen in 1966 and sniffed out by a dog named Pickles, was a gilded statuette of Nike?
The FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup was at first the Jules Rimet Trophy, which showed her lifting a ten-sided bowl; stolen again in 1983, it has never been recovered.
Q 08Which French Riviera city did Greek settlers name Nikaia, after Nike, reportedly to mark a win over local tribes?
Nice
Nice began around 350 BC as a Greek colony, and its name is said to mark a victory over the neighboring Ligurians.
Q 09Which common boy's name joins the Greek word nike to the word for people, meaning 'victory of the people'?
Nicholas
Nicholas pairs nike with laos, the Greek for people, and spread across Europe through Saint Nicholas of Myra, the bishop behind Santa Claus.
Q 10Under which name did the Romans worship Nike, giving her a temple on the Palatine Hill that stored war booty?
Victoria
Victoria kept her Greek twin's look in Rome, and her image on Roman coins was probably copied from the cult statue in that Palatine temple.
Q 11Which underworld river goddess, whose waters bound the gods' most solemn oaths, was the mother of Nike?
Styx
Styx was the first deity to answer Zeus's call to war, bringing her four children with her, and the unbreakable oath sworn on her water was her reward.
Q 12Nike and her siblings were the first allies Zeus won in his war against which enemies, led by Cronus?
The Titans
The Titans lost the war, and Zeus rewarded his earliest recruits by keeping Nike and her siblings at his side for ever after.
Q 13Which museum displays the Winged Victory statue of Nike at the top of its grand Daru staircase?
The Louvre
The Louvre set her on that landing in the 1880s, a nod to the lofty spot where she once looked down over a sanctuary.
Q 21Zelus, a brother of Nike, personified the Greek word that gave English which term for eager enthusiasm?
Zeal
Zeal comes from zelos, the eager rivalry that Zelus stood for, and by way of Latin and French the same Greek word also produced jealous.
Q 22Which sculptor gave both his colossal seated Zeus and his Athena Parthenos a small figure of Nike to hold?
Phidias
Phidias made the Nike in Athena's palm about six feet tall, so even the small figure stood as tall as a grown man.
Q 23The Nike of Paionios, perched on a tall pillar, marked a 425 BC victory over which Greek city-state?
Sparta
Sparta lost the 425 BC fight for the island of Sphacteria, and the victors raised the statue beside a great temple of Zeus as a pointed boast.
Q 14Which part of the Winged Victory statue of Nike did its finder sail back for in 1891, without success?
Her head
Her head has never turned up, though a dig in 1950 did recover the palm of her right hand, which is now displayed alongside the statue.
Q 15The Temple of Athena Nike, built around 420 BC, is the smallest temple on which famous Athenian hilltop?
The Acropolis
The Acropolis lost the tiny temple in the 1680s, when the Ottomans pulled it down and used its stones to build defenses.
Q 16The Nike of Callimachus honoured an Athenian commander killed in which 490 BC battle against Persia?
Marathon
Marathon was fought at all because Callimachus cast the deciding vote to attack; the Persians smashed his monument ten years later.
Q 17A gilded Nike nicknamed El Ángel tops an independence column on Paseo de la Reforma in which capital?
Mexico City
Mexico City unveiled her in 1910 for the centenary of the independence struggle; in 1957 an earthquake threw her to the ground in pieces.
Q 18Which luxury carmaker asked sculptor Charles Sykes for a bonnet mascot that would evoke the goddess Nike?
Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce got something else: Sykes was unimpressed by the brief and reworked his figurine of a real woman into the Spirit of Ecstasy.
Q 19During the Cold War, the US military gave the name Nike to a family of which weapons ringing American cities?
Anti-aircraft missiles
Anti-aircraft missiles called Nike Ajax became America's first such system in the 1950s, built to hit jets flying too high and fast for guns.
Q 20Early Greek art makes Nike hard to tell from which other winged goddess, who carries a herald's staff?
Iris
Iris the messenger and the goddess of victory were both painted as winged women in a hurry, so an unlabeled figure can be either.
Q 24The Winged Victory statue of Nike is shown touching down on what, carved from gray marble?
A ship's prow
A ship's prow forms her base, cut from gray marble quarried on Rhodes, which is one reason scholars think she marked a win at sea.
Q 25Which Berlin landmark is crowned by a four-horse chariot driven by the Roman counterpart of Nike?
Brandenburg Gate
Brandenburg Gate's driver began as a goddess of peace; after Napoleon hauled the chariot off to Paris and Prussia won it back, she was recast as victory.
Q 26Which Greek city is named after a half-sister of Alexander the Great, herself named for a battlefield victory?
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki honors Thessalonike, said to have been born on the day her father Philip II won a battle in Thessaly; nike supplies the end of her name.
Q 27In the epic Dionysiaca, Nike urges a hesitant Zeus to fight which monster who stole his thunderbolts?
Typhon
Typhon had scared many gods into fleeing, so Nike came in disguise, scolded Zeus into action and held her shield in front of him in the battle.
Q 28Which early Greek poet first mentions Nike in his Theogony, a poem on the birth of the gods?
Hesiod
Hesiod wrote around 700 BC and gave no details of what Nike actually did in the war, only that Zeus rewarded her for taking his side.
Q 29The Temple of Athena Nike, squeezed onto a bastion in Athens, is built entirely in which architectural order?
Ionic
Ionic columns, slimmer than Doric ones and topped with scrolls, suit its tiny scale, and it is the earliest temple on its hill built wholly in the style.
Q 30Which object became the key attribute of Nike in Greek art, held out in her hand toward the victor?
A wreath
A wreath for the winner became her usual prop in 5th-century BC art, and from the 4th century BC artists often gave her a palm frond as well.