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{{short description|Ancient Roman goddess of fortune and luck}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Infobox deity
| type = Roman
| image = Fortuna, inv. 2244 - Braccio Nuovo, Museo Chiaramonti - Vatican Museums - DSC00920.jpg       
| caption = 
| god_of = Goddess of Fortune, Chance, Luck, and Fate
| abode = [[Rome]]
| symbol = [[Globe]], [[Cornucopia]], [[Wheel]], [[ball]], [[Wreath]]
| consort = 
| parents =
| siblings =
| children = 
| mount =
| Greek_equivalent = [[Tyche]]
}}
'''Fortuna''' ({{langx|la|Fortūna}}, equivalent to the [[Greek mythology|Greek]] goddess [[Tyche]]), historically anglicized as '''Fortune''', is the goddess of fortune and the [[personification]] of [[luck]] in [[Religion in ancient Rome|Roman religion]] who, largely thanks to the Late Antique author [[Boethius]], remained popular through the Middle Ages until at least the [[Renaissance]]. The blindfolded depiction of her is still an important figure in many aspects of today's Italian culture, where the dichotomy ''fortuna / sfortuna'' (luck / unluck) plays a prominent role in everyday social life, also represented by the very common refrain "La [dea] fortuna è cieca" ([[latin]] ''Fortuna caeca est''; "Luck [goddess] is blind").

Fortuna is often depicted with a [[Gubernaculum (classical)|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 [[Destiny|fate]]: as ''Atrox Fortuna'', she claimed the young lives of the [[princeps]] [[Augustus]]' grandsons [[Gaius Caesar|Gaius]] and [[Lucius Caesar|Lucius]], prospective heirs to the Empire.<ref>Marguerite Kretschmer, "Atrox Fortuna" ''The Classical Journal'' '''22'''.4 (January 1927), 267 - 275.</ref> (In antiquity she was also known as ''Automatia''.)<ref>"Homer" (1827), p.577.</ref>

==Ancient cult==
[[File:CarminaBurana wheel.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Fortuna governs the circle of the four stages of life, the Wheel of Fortune, in a manuscript of ''[[Carmina Burana]]''<ref>{{cite book|last1=V. Canarache|first1=A. Aricescu, V. Barbu, A. Rădulescu|title=Tezaurul de Sculpturi de la Tomis|date=1963|publisher=Editura Științifică|isbn=|page=16|url=|language=ro}}</ref>]]
[[File:DEU Glückstadt COA.svg|thumb|Heraldic Fortuna in the arms of [[Glückstadt]].|alt=]]
Fortuna's father was said to be [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]] and like him, she could also be bountiful (''Copia''). As ''Annonaria'' she protected grain supplies. June 11 was consecrated to her: on June 24 she was given cult at the festival of ''Fors Fortuna''.<ref>[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Roma/Rome/_Texts/PLATOP*/Fors_Fortuna.html Samuel Ball Platner and Thomas Ashby, ''A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome,''; (London: Oxford University Press) 1929: on-line text].</ref><ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Fasti (poem)|Fasti]]'' VI. 773‑786.</ref>  Fortuna's name seems to derive from ''Vortumna'' (she who revolves the year).{{citation needed|date=April 2013}}

Roman writers disagreed whether her cult was introduced to Rome by [[Servius Tullius]]<ref>[[Varro]], ''De Lingua Latina'' VI.17.</ref> or [[Ancus Marcius]].<ref>[[Plutarch]]; see [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Roma/Rome/_Texts/PLATOP*/Fors_Fortuna.html Samuel Ball Platner and Thomas Ashby, ''A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome,''; (London: Oxford University Press) 1929: on-line text].</ref> The two earliest temples mentioned in Roman Calendars were outside the city, on the right bank of the Tiber (in Italian [[Trastevere]]). The first temple dedicated to Fortuna was attributed to the [[Etrusca]]n Servius Tullius, while the second is known to have been built in 293 BC as the fulfilment of a Roman promise made during later [[Roman-Etruscan Wars|Etruscan wars]].<ref>Livy, '[[Ab Urbe Condita Libri (Livy)|Ab Urbe Condita]]', 2.40.</ref> The date of dedication of her temples was 24 June, or Midsummer's Day, when celebrants from Rome annually floated to the temples downstream from the city. After undisclosed rituals they then rowed back, garlanded and inebriated.<ref>Billington, S., Green, M. 'The Concept of the Goddess' (London, New York, 1996), 133-134.</ref> Also Fortuna had a temple at the [[Forum Boarium]]. Here Fortuna was twinned with the cult of [[Mater Matuta]] (the goddesses shared a festival on 11 June), and the paired temples have been revealed in the excavation beside the church of [[Sant'Omobono]]: the cults are indeed archaic in date.<ref>Hornblower, S., Spawforth, A., 'The Oxford Classical Dictionary' (Oxford, New York), 606.</ref> Fortuna Primigenia of [[Praeneste]] was adopted by Romans at the end of 3rd century BC in an important cult of ''Fortuna Publica Populi Romani'' (the ''Official Good Luck of the Roman People'') on the [[Quirinalis]] outside the [[Porta Collina]].<ref>Hornblower, S., Spawforth, A. 'The Oxford Classical Dictionary' (Oxford, New York), 606.</ref> No temple at Rome, however, rivalled the magnificence of the Praenestine sanctuary.

Fortuna's identity as personification of chance events was closely tied to ''[[virtus (virtue)|virtus]]'' (strength of character). Public officials who lacked virtues invited ill-fortune on themselves and Rome: [[Sallust]] uses the infamous [[Catiline]] as illustration – "Truly, when in the place of work, idleness, in place of the [[Temperance (virtue)|spirit of measure and equity]], caprice and pride invade, fortune is changed just as with morality".<ref>''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.</ref>

An [[oracle]] at the [[Fortuna Primigenia|Temple of Fortuna Primigena]] in [[Praeneste]] used a form of divination in which a small boy picked out one of various futures that were written on [[oak]] rods. Cults to Fortuna in her many forms are attested throughout the Roman world. Dedications have been found to ''Fortuna Dubia'' (doubtful fortune), ''Fortuna Brevis'' (fickle or wayward fortune) and ''Fortuna Mala'' (bad fortune).

Fortuna is found in a variety of domestic and personal contexts. During the early Empire, an amulet from the [[House of Menander]] in [[Pompeii]] links her to the Egyptian goddess [[Isis]], as Isis-Fortuna.<ref>Allison, P., 2006, ''The Insula of Menander at Pompeii'': Vol.III, The Finds; A Contextual Study, Oxford: Clarendon Press</ref> She is functionally related to the god [[Bonus Eventus]],<ref>Greene, E.M., "The Intaglios", in Birley, A. and Blake, J., 2005, Vindolanda: The Excavations of 2003-2004, Bardon Mill: Vindolanda Trust, pp187-193</ref> who is often represented as her counterpart: both appear on [[amulet]]s and intaglio [[engraved gem]]s across the Roman world.  In the context of the early [[Roman Republic]] account of [[Gaius Marcius Coriolanus|Coriolanus]], in around 488 BC the [[Roman senate]] dedicated a temple to Fortuna on account of the services of the matrons of Rome in saving the city from destruction.<ref>[[Livy]], ''[[Ab Urbe Condita (book)|Ab urbe condita]]'', 2:40</ref> Evidence of Fortuna worship has been found as far north as [[Castlecary]], [[Scotland]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Castlecary|url=http://www.antoninewall.org/visiting-the-wall/things-to-see-and-do/site-by-site/castlecary|website=The Antonine Wall|access-date=10 October 2017}}</ref> and an altar and statue can now be viewed at the [[Hunterian Museum]] in [[Glasgow]].<ref>{{cite web|title=The Antonine Wall: Rome's Final Frontier|url=https://www.gla.ac.uk/hunterian/collections/permanentdisplays/theantoninewall/|website=The Hunterian|publisher=University of Glasgow|access-date=10 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011021437/https://www.gla.ac.uk/hunterian/collections/permanentdisplays/theantoninewall/|archive-date=2017-10-11}}</ref>

The earliest reference to the [[Rota Fortunae|Wheel of Fortune]], emblematic of the endless changes in life between prosperity and disaster, is from 55 BC.<ref>Cicero, ''In Pisonem''.</ref> In [[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]]'s tragedy [[Agamemnon (Seneca)|''Agamemnon'']], a chorus addresses Fortuna in terms that would remain almost proverbial, and in a high heroic ranting mode that Renaissance writers would emulate: 
{{blockquote|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 [[Notus|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.<ref>''Agamemnon'', translation by Frank Justus Miller ([http://www.theoi.com/Text/SenecaAgamemnon.html on-line text])</ref>}}

[[Ovid]]'s description is typical of Roman representations: in a letter from exile<ref>Ovid, ''Ex Ponto'', iv, epistle 3.</ref> 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==
[[Image:HumiliationValerianusHolbein.jpg|thumb|The humiliation of [[Valerian (emperor)|Emperor Valerian]] by king [[Shapur I of Persia]] (260) passed into [[Europe]]an cultural memory as an instance of the reversals of ''Fortuna''. In [[Hans Holbein the Younger|Hans Holbein]]'s pen-and-ink drawing (1521), the universal lesson is brought home by its contemporary setting.]]

Fortuna did not disappear from the popular imagination with the ascendancy of Christianity.<ref>Howard R. Patch, ''The Goddess Fortuna in Medieval Literature'', 1927 is the basic study.</ref> [[Augustine of Hippo|Saint Augustine]] took a stand against her continuing presence, in the ''[[City of God (book)|City of God]]'': "How, therefore, is she good, who without discernment comes to both the good and to the bad?...It profits one nothing to worship her if she is truly ''fortune''... let the bad worship her...this supposed deity".<ref>Augustine, ''City of God'', iv.18-18; v.8.</ref> In the 6th century, the ''[[Consolation of Philosophy]]'', by statesman and philosopher [[Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius|Boethius]], written while he faced execution, reflected the 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 which one should not resist or try to change. Fortuna, then, was a servant of God,<ref>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.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogs.getty.edu/iris/the-wars-to-come-game-of-thrones-and-medieval-art/|title=Rise and Fall of Fortune|date=13 April 2015 |access-date=May 15, 2021}}</ref> and events, individual decisions, the [[Astrology|influence of the stars]] were all merely vehicles of Divine Will.  In succeeding generations Boethius' ''Consolation'' was required reading for scholars and students. Fortune crept back into popular acceptance, with a new iconographic trait, "two-faced Fortune", ''Fortuna bifrons''; such depictions continue into the 15th century.<ref>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.</ref>

The ubiquitous image of the Wheel of Fortune found throughout the Middle Ages and beyond was a direct legacy of the second book of [[Consolation of Philosophy|Boethius's ''Consolation'']]. The Wheel appears in many renditions from tiny miniatures in [[Illuminated manuscript|manuscripts]] to huge stained glass windows in cathedrals, such as at [[Amiens]]. Lady Fortune is usually represented as larger than life to underscore her importance. The wheel characteristically has four shelves, or stages of life, with four human figures, usually labeled on the left ''regnabo'' (I shall reign), on the top ''regno'' (I reign) and is usually crowned, descending on the right ''regnavi'' (I have reigned) and the lowly figure on the bottom is marked ''sum sine regno'' (I have no kingdom). Medieval representations of Fortune emphasize her duality and instability, such as two faces side by side like [[Janus]]; one face smiling the other frowning; half the face white the other black; she may be blindfolded but without scales, blind to justice. She was associated with the [[cornucopia]], ship's rudder, the ball and the wheel. The cornucopia is where plenty flows from, the Helmsman's rudder steers fate, the globe symbolizes chance (who gets good or bad luck), and the wheel symbolizes that luck, good or bad, never lasts.
[[File:Allegory of Fortune mg 0010.jpg|thumb|upright|Fortuna lightly balances the [[Globus cruciger|orb]] of sovereignty between thumb and finger in a Dutch painting of ''ca'' 1530 ([[Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg]])]]
Fortune would have many influences in cultural works throughout the Middle Ages. In ''[[Le Roman de la Rose]]'', Fortune frustrates the hopes of a lover who has been helped by a personified character "Reason". In Dante's ''[[Divine Comedy#Inferno|Inferno]]'' (vii.67-96), [[Virgil]] explains the nature of Fortune, both a devil and a ministering angel, subservient to God. [[Giovanni Boccaccio|Boccaccio]]'s ''De Casibus Virorum Illustrium'' ("The Fortunes of Famous Men"), used by [[John Lydgate]] to compose his ''[[Fall of Princes]]'', tells of many where the turn of Fortune's wheel brought those most high to disaster, and Boccaccio essay ''De remedii dell'una e dell'altra Fortuna'', depends upon Boethius for the double nature of Fortuna. Fortune makes her appearance in ''[[Carmina Burana]]'' (see image). The Christianized Lady Fortune is not autonomous: illustrations for Boccaccio's ''Remedii'' show Fortuna enthroned in a [[triumphal car]] with reins that lead to heaven.<ref>Noted by Pfeiffenberger 1967:441.</ref>

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 [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]] was no stranger to Lady Fortune:

{{blockquote|When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes<br>I all alone beweep my outcast state...|[[Sonnet 29]]}}

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 [[occultism]] and [[Satanism]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://occult-world.com/10-wheel-fortune/|title=The Wheel of Fortune|archive-url=https://archive.today/20140330212740/https://occult-world.com/10-wheel-fortune/|archive-date=March 30, 2014|url-status=live}}</ref>

== Pars Fortuna in astrology ==
[[Image:Lunar phases al-Biruni.jpg|thumb|left|illustration by Al-Biruni (973-1048) of different phases of the Moon, from the Persian ''Kitab al-tafhim'']]

In [[astrology]], the term ''Pars Fortuna'' represents a mathematical point in the [[zodiac]] derived by the longitudinal positions of the [[Sun]], [[Moon]] and [[Ascendant]] (Rising sign) in the birth chart of an individual. It represents an especially beneficial point in the horoscopic chart. In [[Astrology in medieval Islam|Arabic astrology]], this and similar points are called [[Arabian Parts]].

[[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 ==
[[Image:Fortune wheel (15c., French).jpg|thumb|Lady Fortune in a [[Giovanni Boccaccio|Boccaccio]] manuscript]]

* '''Fortuna Annonaria''' brought the luck of the harvest.
* '''[[Fortuna Primigenia]]''' directed the fortune of a firstborn child at the moment of birth.
* '''[[Fortuna Virilis]]''' ("Luck in person's"), a person's luck in marriage.<ref>{{cite web|title=Fortuna Muliebris|url=http://www.thaliatook.com/OGOD/muliebris.php|publisher=Thalia Took|website=www.thaliatook.com/|access-date=2017-03-17|language=en}}</ref>
* '''[[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.<ref name = "Pars_Fortuna" >{{Cite web|url=http://www.thaliatook.com/OGOD/augusta.html|title = Fortuna Augusta, Roman Goddess of the Luck of the Emperor}}</ref>
* '''Fortuna Conservatrix''' The fortune of the preserver.<ref name = "Par_ fortune">{{cite web |url=http://www.mlahanas.de/RomanEmpire/Mythology/Fortuna.html |title=Fortuna |publisher=Mlahanas.de |access-date=2014-04-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130911014030/http://mlahanas.de/RomanEmpire/Mythology/Fortuna.html |archive-date=2013-09-11 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* '''Fortuna Equestris''' The fortune of the knights.<ref name = "Par_ fortune"/>
* '''[[Fortuna Huiusce Diei]]''' The fortune of the present day.<ref name = "Par_ fortune"/>
* '''Fortuna Obsequens''' The fortune of indulgence.<ref name = "Par_ fortune"/>
* '''Fortuna Privata''' The fortune of the private individual.<ref name = "Par_ fortune"/>
* '''Fortuna Publica''' The fortune of the people.<ref name = "Par_ fortune"/>
*'''Fortuna Romana''' The fortune of Rome.<ref name = "Par_ fortune"/>
*'''Fortuna Virgo''' The fortune of the virgin.<ref name = "Par_ fortune"/>
* '''Fortuna Faitrix''' The fortune of life.
*'''Fortuna Barbata''' The fortune of adolescents becoming adults.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/120104.htm|title=CHURCH FATHERS: City of God, Book IV (St. Augustine)|website=www.newadvent.org|access-date=2017-08-13}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Fortune favours the bold]] ({{lang|la|Fortes fortuna adiuvat}})
* [[Carmina Burana]], medieval poems, and [[Carmina Burana (Orff)|''Carmina Burana'']], a symphony by Carl Orff famously addressing Fortuna
* [[Column of the Goths]]
* [[19 Fortuna]]
* [[Pietas (goddess)|Piety]] ({{lang|la|Pietas}}), [[Spes (goddess)|Hope]] ({{lang|la|Spes}}), [[Fides (goddess)|Faithfulness]] ({{lang|la|Fides}}), other concepts worshipped by the Romans as goddesses

== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}

== Notes ==
*[http://www.skyscript.co.uk/fortune.html 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 ==
*{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Fortuna |volume=10 |short=x}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060427025329/http://ise.uvic.ca/Library/SLTnoframes/drama/medievaltragedy.html Michael Best, "Medieval tragedy"]
*{{cite book |last=Arya |first=Darius Andre |title=The Goddess Fortuna in Imperial Rome: Cult, Art, Text |orig-year=2002 |hdl=2152/152|series=Theses and Dissertations from The University of Texas at Austin |date=January 27, 2006 |publisher=University of Texas at Austin |location=Austin }} (login required) or [http://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/bitstream/handle/2152/438/aryada026.pdf Darius Andre Arya, "The Goddess Fortuna in Imperial Rome: Cult, Art, Text"]
*{{Cite Collier's|wstitle=Fortuna |short=x}}
*{{Cite AmCyc|wstitle=Fortuna |short=x}}
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=8RfCB4rik7MC&dq=Templum+Fortuna+Fortis&pg=PA129 Fors Fortuna in Ancient Rome] // S. Billington - The Concept of the Goddess, 1996

{{Roman religion}}
{{Time in religion and mythology}}

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[[Category:Fortuna| ]]
[[Category:Fortune goddesses]]
[[Category:Personifications in Roman mythology]]
[[Category:Time and fate goddesses]]
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[[Category:Roman goddesses]]