|
Dromo's Den
|
|
[Up] [Dromo's Den] Fortuna Biography FORTUNA (Lat., from fors, chance, probably connected with ferre, to carry. In this view Fortuna is the "bringer" of good or evil fortune). In classical mythology, the goddess of chance, called by the Greeks Tyche. According to Hesiod, she was a daughter of Oceanus; according to Pindar, a sister of the Parcæ. She differed from Destiny or Fate in so far that she worked without law, giving or taking away at her own good pleasure and dispensing joy or sorrow indifferently. She had temples at Smyrna, Corinth, and Elis. In Italy she was extensively worshiped from a very early period and had many names, such as Patricia, Plebeia, Equestris, Virilis, Primigenia, Publica, Privata, Muliebris, Virginensis, etc., which indicate the extent and also the minuteness of her superintendence. Particular honors were paid to her at Antium (Horace,, Odes, i, 35) and at Præneste; in the temple of the former city two statues of her were even consulted as oracles. The temple of Fortuna Primigenia at Præneste was consulted especially by women, who sought to learn the fate of their first-born children (primigeni). Her worship was said to have been introduced in Rome by Servius Tullius. Greek poets and sculptors generally represented her with a rudder, as a symbol of her guiding power, and with a cornucopia, as a symbol of prosperity; or with a ball or wheel, or wings, as a symbol of her mutability. Consult Fowler, Roman Festivals (London, 1899) , and Wissowa, Religion and Kultus der Römer (2d ed., Munich, 1912). The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. IX (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 64. |