Fortuna
Fortuna | |
---|---|
Goddess of chance, luck and fate | |
Abode | Rome |
Symbol | Globe, Cornucopia, Wheel, Wreath |
Equivalents | |
Greek equivalent | Tyche |
Fortuna (
Fortuna is often depicted with a gubernaculum (ship's rudder), a ball or Rota Fortunae (wheel of fortune, first mentioned by Cicero) and a cornucopia (horn of plenty). She might bring good or bad luck: she could be represented as veiled and blind, as in modern depictions of Lady Justice, except that Fortuna does not hold a balance. Fortuna came to represent life's capriciousness. She was also a goddess of fate: as Atrox Fortuna, she claimed the young lives of the princeps Augustus' grandsons Gaius and Lucius, prospective heirs to the Empire.[1] (In antiquity she was also known as Automatia.)[2]
Ancient cult
Fortuna's father was said to be
Roman writers disagreed whether her cult was introduced to Rome by
Fortuna's identity as personification of chance events was closely tied to
An
Fortuna is found in a variety of domestic and personal contexts. During the early Empire, an amulet from the
The earliest reference to the Wheel of Fortune, emblematic of the endless changes in life between prosperity and disaster, is from 55 BC.[18] In Seneca's tragedy Agamemnon, a chorus addresses Fortuna in terms that would remain almost proverbial, and in a high heroic ranting mode that Renaissance writers would emulate:
O Fortune, who dost bestow the throne's high boon with mocking hand, in dangerous and doubtful state thou settest the too exalted. Never have sceptres obtained calm peace or certain tenure; care on care weighs them down, and ever do fresh storms vex their souls. ... great kingdoms sink of their own weight, and Fortune gives way 'neath the burden of herself. Sails swollen with favouring breezes fear blasts too strongly theirs; the tower which rears its head to the very clouds is beaten by rainy Auster. ... Whatever Fortune has raised on high, she lifts but to bring low. Modest estate has longer life; then happy he whoe'er, content with the common lot, with safe breeze hugs the shore, and, fearing to trust his skiff to the wider sea, with unambitious oar keeps close to land.[19]
Ovid's description is typical of Roman representations: in a letter from exile[20] he reflects ruefully on the "goddess who admits by her unsteady wheel her own fickleness; she always has its apex beneath her swaying foot."
Middle Ages and Renaissance
Fortuna did not disappear from the popular imagination with the ascendancy of Christianity.
The ubiquitous image of the Wheel of Fortune found throughout the Middle Ages and beyond was a direct legacy of the second book of
Fortune would have many influences in cultural works throughout the Middle Ages. In
Fortuna also appears in chapter 25 of Machiavelli's The Prince, in which he says Fortune only rules one half of men's fate, the other half being of their own will. Machiavelli reminds the reader that Fortune is a woman, that she favours a strong, ambitious hand, and that she favours the more aggressive and bold young man than a timid elder. Monteverdi's opera L'incoronazione di Poppea features Fortuna, contrasted with the goddess Virtue. Even Shakespeare was no stranger to Lady Fortune:
When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes
I all alone beweep my outcast state...
Ignatius J Reilly, the protagonist in the famous John Kennedy Toole novel A Confederacy of Dunces, identifies Fortuna as the agent of change in his life. A verbose, preposterous medievalist, Ignatius is of the mindset that he does not belong in the world and that his numerous failings are the work of some higher power. He continually refers to Fortuna as having spun him downwards on her wheel of luck, as in "Oh, Fortuna, you degenerate wanton!" The Wheel of Fortune also has concerns with
Pars Fortuna in astrology
In
Al-Biruni (973 – 1048), an 11th-century mathematician, astronomer, and scholar, who was the greatest proponent of this system of prediction, listed a total of 97 Arabic Parts, which were widely used for astrological consultations.
Aspects
- Fortuna Annonaria brought the luck of the harvest.
- Fortuna Primigeniadirected the fortune of a firstborn child at the moment of birth.
- Fortuna Virilis ("Luck in person's"), a person's luck in marriage.[28]
- Fortuna Redux brought one safely home.
- Fortuna Respiciens The fortune of the provider.
- Fortuna Muliebris The luck of a person.
- Fortuna Balnearis The fortune of the baths.[29]
- Fortuna Conservatrix The fortune of the preserver.[30]
- Fortuna Equestris The fortune of the knights.[30]
- Fortuna Huiusce Diei The fortune of the present day.[30]
- Fortuna Obsequens The fortune of indulgence.[30]
- Fortuna Privata The fortune of the private individual.[30]
- Fortuna Publica The fortune of the people.[30]
- Fortuna Romana The fortune of Rome.[30]
- Fortuna Virgo The fortune of the virgin.[30]
- Fortuna Faitrix The fortune of life.
- Fortuna Barbata The fortune of adolescents becoming adults.[31]
See also
- Fortune favours the bold (Fortes fortuna adiuvat)
- Carmina Burana, medieval poems, and Carmina Burana, a symphony by Carl Orff famously addressing Fortuna
- Column of the Goths
- 19 Fortuna
- Faithfulness(Fides), other concepts worshipped by the Romans as goddesses
References
- ^ Marguerite Kretschmer, "Atrox Fortuna" The Classical Journal 22.4 (January 1927), 267 - 275.
- ^ "Homer" (1827), p.577.
- ^ V. Canarache, A. Aricescu, V. Barbu, A. Rădulescu (1963). Tezaurul de Sculpturi de la Tomis (in Romanian). Editura Științifică. p. 16.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Samuel Ball Platner and Thomas Ashby, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome,; (London: Oxford University Press) 1929: on-line text.
- ^ Ovid, Fasti VI. 773‑786.
- Varro, De Lingua Latina VI.17.
- ^ Plutarch; see Samuel Ball Platner and Thomas Ashby, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome,; (London: Oxford University Press) 1929: on-line text.
- Ab Urbe Condita', 2.40.
- ^ Billington, S., Green, M. 'The Concept of the Goddess' (London, New York, 1996), 133-134.
- ^ Hornblower, S., Spawforth, A., 'The Oxford Classical Dictionary' (Oxford, New York), 606.
- ^ Hornblower, S., Spawforth, A. 'The Oxford Classical Dictionary' (Oxford, New York), 606.
- ^ Verum ubi pro labore desidia, pro continentia et aequitate lubido atque superbia invasere, fortuna simul cum moribus immutatur, Sallust, Catilina, ii.5. His view of fortuna is discussed in Etienne Tiffou, "Salluste et la Fortuna", Phoenix, 31.4 (Winter 1977), 349 - 360.
- ^ Allison, P., 2006, The Insula of Menander at Pompeii: Vol.III, The Finds; A Contextual Study, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ Greene, E.M., "The Intaglios", in Birley, A. and Blake, J., 2005, Vindolanda: The Excavations of 2003-2004, Bardon Mill: Vindolanda Trust, pp187-193
- Ab urbe condita, 2:40
- ^ "Castlecary". The Antonine Wall. Retrieved 10 October 2017.
- ^ "The Antonine Wall: Rome's Final Frontier". The Hunterian. University of Glasgow. Retrieved 10 October 2017.
- ^ Cicero, In Pisonem.
- ^ Agamemnon, translation by Frank Justus Miller (on-line text)
- ^ Ovid, Ex Ponto, iv, epistle 3.
- ^ Howard R. Patch, The Goddess Fortuna in Medieval Literature, 1927 is the basic study.
- ^ Augustine, City of God, iv.18-18; v.8.
- ^ Selma Pfeiffenberger, "Notes on the Iconology of Donatello's Judgment of Pilate at San Lorenzo" Renaissance Quarterly 20.4 (Winter 1967:437-454) p 440.
- ^ "Rise and Fall of Fortune". Retrieved May 15, 2021.
- ^ As Pfeiffenberger observes, citing A. Laborde, Les manuscrits à peintures de la Cité de Dieu, Paris, 1909: vol. III, pls 59, 65; Pfeiffenberger notes that there are no depictions of a Fortuna bifrons in Roman art.
- ^ Noted by Pfeiffenberger 1967:441.
- ^ "The Wheel of Fortune". Archived from the original on March 30, 2014.
- ^ "Fortuna Muliebris". www.thaliatook.com/. Thalia Took. Retrieved 2017-03-17.
- ^ "Fortuna Augusta, Roman Goddess of the Luck of the Emperor".
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Fortuna". Mlahanas.de. Archived from the original on 2013-09-11. Retrieved 2014-04-28.
- ^ "CHURCH FATHERS: City of God, Book IV (St. Augustine)". www.newadvent.org. Retrieved 2017-08-13.
Notes
- David Plant, "Fortune, Spirit and the Lunation Cycle"
- "Homer" (1827) Classical Manual; or, a mythological, historical, and geographical commentary on Pope's Homer and Dryden's Æneid of Virgil, with a copious index. (Longman).
- Howard Rollin Patch (1923), Fortuna in Old French Literature
- Lesley Adkins, Roy A. Adkins (2001) Dictionary of Roman Religion
- Howard Rollin Patch (1927, repr. 1967), The Goddess Fortuna in Medieval Literature
- Howard Rollin Patch (1922), The Tradition of the Goddess Fortuna in Medieval Philosophy and Literature
- J. Champeaux, Fortuna. Vol. I. Recherches sur le culte de la Fortuna à Rome et dans le monde romaine des origines à la mort de César; Vol. II. Les Transformations de Fortuna sous le République (Rome, École Française de Rome, 1982-1987).
- Narducci, Emanuele, Sergio Audano and Luca Fezzi (edd.), Aspetti della Fortuna dell'Antico nella Cultura Europea: atti della quarta giornata di studi, Sestri Levante, 16 marzo 2007 (Pisa: ETS, 2008) (Testi e studi di cultura classica, 41).
- Michele Chiaruzzi (2016), Martin Wight on Fortune and Irony in Politics
External links
- Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 10 (11th ed.). 1911. .
- Michael Best, "Medieval tragedy"
- Arya, Darius Andre (January 27, 2006) [2002]. The Goddess Fortuna in Imperial Rome: Cult, Art, Text. Theses and Dissertations from The University of Texas at Austin. Austin: University of Texas at Austin. hdl:2152/152. (login required) or Darius Andre Arya, "The Goddess Fortuna in Imperial Rome: Cult, Art, Text"
- Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921. .
- The American Cyclopædia. 1879.
.
- Fors Fortuna in Ancient Rome // S. Billington - The Concept of the Goddess, 1996