In Roman mythology, Fortuna (Greek equivalent Tyche) was the personification of luck, hopefully of good luck. She also had the name Annonaria. Under this name, she protected grain supplies. Fortuna had a retinue that included Copia among her blessings.

Fortuna was propitiated by mothers. Traditionally her cult was introduced to Rome by Servius Tullius. Fortuna had a temple in the Forum Boarium, a public sanctuary on the Quirinalis, as the tutelary genius of Roma herself (Fortuna Populi Romani the 'Fortune of the Roman people'), and an oracle in Praeneste where the future was chosen by a small boy choosing oak rods with possible futures written on them.

All over the Roman world, Fortuna was worshipped at a great number of shrines under various titles that were applied to her according to the various circumstances of life in which her influence was hoped to have a positive effect. Fortuna was not always positive: she was doubtful (Fortuna Dubia); she could be 'fickle fortune' (Fortuna Brevis), or downright evil luck (Fortuna Mala).

Fortuna did not disappear from the popular imagination with the triumph of Christianity (illustration, left). In the 6th century, the Consolations of Philosophy, by statesman and philosopher Boethius, written it was said while he faced execution, reflected Christian theology of casus, that the apparently random and often ruinous turns of Fortune's Wheel are in fact both inevitable and providential, that even the most coincidental events are part of God's hidden plan. Events, individual decisions, the influence of the stars were all merely vehicles of Divine Will. Boccaccio's De Casibus Virorum Illustrium ("The Fortunes of Famous Men"), tells of many where the turn of Fortune's wheel brought those most high to disaster.

Fortuna governs the circle of life, the Wheel of Fortune, in a manuscript of Carmina Burana

In art, she was portrayed standing in an expensive dress; she was associated with the cornucopia, rudder, ball and blindfold, and the wheel. Compare Shakespeare's sonnet that begins:

When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes

I all alone beweep my outcast state...

Aspects of Fortuna

• Fortuna Annonaria brought the luck of the harvest
• Fortuna Primigenia directed the fortune of a newborn child at the moment of birth
• Fortuna Virilis attended a man's career
• Fortuna Redux brought one safely home
• Fortuna Respiciens
• Fortuna Muliebris the luck of a woman. Typical of Roman attitudes, the fortune of a woman in marriage, however, was Fortuna Virilis.
• Fortuna Victrix brought victory in battle

External link

• Michael Best, "Medieval tragedy" (http://ise.uvic.ca/Library/SLTnoframes/drama/medievaltragedy.html)

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