Victoria (goddess)

Winged Victoria holding a large jewelled cross. Gold coin of Emperor Zeno.

Victoria advancing toward the moning and evening star Venus while looking at the victor's wreath and holding the globus cruciger.

Victoria, or Victory, favoured goddess of the Roman Empire's Army (or equivalent thereof) and one of the principals at Rome. Her emminance was manifest as the systematic god of choice on Roman gold coins as pictured.

Regularly presented with wings, a giant cross (sometimes conventionalised as a sword), the wreath of victory and or the globus cruciger in hand as on the Empire's gold coins across the centuries.

Germania (Germany) and Columbia are united in grief after a cyclone killed 50 American sailors and 90 German sailors in Samoa in March, 1889. Puck cover, April 10, 1889

The direct Greek equivalent is Nike. By extension is the American Columbia, England's Britannica, German's Germanica, Rome's Venus Victrix, Minerva, Athena or Greece's Dianna and Aphrodite.

By further extension: the Roman Catholic saint Mary (the mother of Jesus). For in the Roman chapel Santa Maria della Vittoria the key ceiling fresco presents Mary to the words "Name may be rightly attributed to (the goddess) Victoria." The other frescoes depict the defeat of Protestant during the 30 Years War and a marble statue of a Roman Catholic nun in orgasm (see Ecstasy of Saint Teresa): which has given rise to centuries of calls to have such an openly pornographic statue removed, only to be been met with effective refusal.