The Palm of Victory

Abstract

No antique symbol is miore familiar to us than the palm branch' carried in the hand in token of victory. Given to successful competitors in the athletic and other contests which abounded in the Greek and Roman world, it acquired, at least in metaphor, a universal significance and was one of the commonest attributes of the goddess Victory herself. References to it in the literature and representations of it in the art of the Roman imperial period are so numerous that it would be idle to attempt a list of them. It is enough to cite the dialogue of Plutarch which discusses the question why the palm was universally bestowed upon victors in the games.' No ancient writer who speaks of the palm of victory suggests that the symbol was not of high antiquity, while Plutarch in two passages3 and Pausanias in one' expressly connect it with the establishment of the Delian games by Theseus. Nevertheless it does not take much inquiry to discover that this symbol is conspicuously absent from the literature and the art of Greece down to about the end of the fifth century B. a.5 Various writers of this earlier time refer literally or figuratively to the crown of victory;6 Pindar and Bacchylides especially are constantly singing of the crown: but no one of these has a word to say of the