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| FORTUNA - The Greek goddes Tyche was one of
the ocean nymphs, and Pindar calls her the child of Jupiter
Elentherius. Several cities had her temples, and, in the Theban
worship, an image of Tyche held Plutus as a babe in her arms,
indicating that Forune was either the mother or the nurse of Wealth.
In the temple at Smyrna, Tyche held a hemisphere on her head and the
horn of Amalthala, the divine goat, in her hand. The worship of
Tyche (translated into Latin, Fortuna) took still deeper root in the
Roman Republic, although she was sometimes called Nortia and Nersia.
Splendid temples were erected in her name at Antiuno and Praeneste.
Rome had two temples of Fortune - one of the Bona or Virgo Fortuna,
the other of Fors Fortuna. The classic authorities on this subject
are Hesiod, Pausanias and Pindar for the Greeks, and Ovid and Livy
for the Romans. See also the essay of Plutarch on "The Fortune of
the Romans." The statue portrayed in our engraving was the more
beautiful of the two marble Fortunas that were shown at the
Exposition in Chicago. Both stood on wheels, out of which treasure
poured. The other was by Moreau-Van Nier, of Paris, and his
slightly-draped figure held the Amalthaean horn, as in Greece. But
the work before us, baring a lengthening of the forefoot on the
wheel, made necessary for the support, was admired by all who saw it.
It was not catalogued. |
