NAME: Fortuna, "Lot Distributor," She was also given a long list of titles for specific areas, a list of which can be found below. Her name may have come from Vortumna, "she who revolves the year." AREA OF INFLUENCE / CONTROL: Fate, Chance, the destiny of new born children, fertility, luck, both good and bad, farmers, women in their first marriages as well as anything where the outcome is unpredictable. SYMBOLS: Wheel. Globe. Ship's Ruder. Horn of Plenty. Oak. Ear of Wheat USUAL IMAGE: A woman wearing a brightly colored loose fitting woolen chiton, she holds a cornucopia in her left hand and ears of wheat in her right, a ship's rudder is by her right leg and she stands on or near a wheel. Sometimes she holds globe instead of a horn of plenty, or the globe is at her feet as well, In some images she is blindfolded like justice, however unlike justice she does not carry a scale so her judgments are nether fair nor beyond influence. HOLY DAYS: June the 6th, and Fors Fortuna on June the 24th, also each of her many temples had festival days on the day of their founding. RELATIVES: It was said by some that she was the eldest daughter of Zeus and Hera, however she was also said to be the nurse of both those deities and was shown with them as babies at her breast. She had no husband or children, however she did have an entourage of other goddesses such as Abudantia, who sometimes held her cornucopia and gave out luck, abundance and prosperity, Copia, Goddess of wealth and plenty, Antevorte, goddess of the future, Moneta, Goddess of prosperity, and Necessitas, Goddess of Destiny. SYNODEITIES:: Tykhe (Greek), Nortia (Etruscan), Xolotl (Aztec bad luck god), King Wan (Chinese), Bes (Egyptian), Ganesha (Hindu), Jyeshtha (Hindu bad luck god), Pachamama (Incan), Benzaiten, Fukurokuju, Hotei, Jurojin, Kishijoten (Japnese), Belobog (Slavic)

DETAILS: Fortuna is a very old Goddess, considered a "foreign goddess" by the Romans due to her main site of worship being outside the city, evidence seems to indicate that she was worshiped in the area before the later Goddess Hera was worshipped there or the still later God Zeus and certainly much, much later God Jesus took up residence there. At first mainly a goddess of fertility, she later became associated with fate, and destiny and more specifically the capriciousness of fate and destiny. As such she was known as Fortuna Populi Romani, the "Fortune of the Roman people, and Fortuna Obsequens, the Fortuna who lets you indulge yourself, but also as Fortuna Mala, the bringer of double plus nasty bad luck. However despite her fickleness, or perhaps because of it she was loved (and perhaps feared a little) by the Roman people so that one of the greatest temples ever build by them, the Fortuna Primigenia, was dedicated not to Zeus, Apollo or Diana, but to Fortuna. Fortuna was also the Fortuna Populi Romani in that her temples were the most common source for the citizens of Rome seeking a clue about their futures, the Oracle of Delphi is better remembered today, however she and her sisters were more for the wealthy and influential. For the everyday Roman, and even slaves and visiting Barbarians who wanted a peak at their fates, the place to go was a temple of Fortuna. There they could buy a cake in which one or more oak or cloth strips had been baked, on these strips were written random words or phrases in Latin it was then up to the person to interpret just what these words meant. In other words, the Roman invented the Fortune Cookie! They could also go to the main temple of Fortuna, which had been build on the sight where, according to legend, a box had been found in a cave containing strips of oak with words written on them in an archaic alphabet. There a boy using an oak rod would pick some of those chits out of the box and the supplicants fate revealed or an answer to their question given. This pratace, along with the fortune cakes, was so popular they stayed around well into the Christian era until ended by the Emperor Theodosus in the 4th century CE. While her cakes might have been taken away Fortuna insisted on staying, thriving even into the middle ages, and every era after that, on into our own era where she has became better known as Lady Luck. But then if your going to weather the tempest of time and destiny I guess who better to do it than the Goddess of Fate?

Titles of Fortuna

Fortuna Annonaria, the luck of the harvest

Fortuna Belli, fortune in war

Fortuna Primigenia, the fortune of a firstborn
child at the moment of birth

Fortuna Virilis, men's fortunes

Fortuna Redux, to make it home safe

Fortuna Respiciens, fortune in providing for the family

Fortuna Muliebris, women's fortunes

Fortuna Virilis, the fortune of a woman in marriage

Fortuna Victrix, to bring victory in battle

Fortuna Balnearis, to have luck at the baths

Fortuna Equestris, for luck on horse back

Fortuna Huiusque, fortune of the present day

Fortuna Obsequens, fortune in indulgence

Fortuna Privata, fortune for an individual

Fortuna Romana, the fortune of Rome

Fortuna Virgo, fortune for virgins

Fortuna Dubia, when your fate was doubtful

Fortuna Brevis, fortune as it's most fickle

Fortuna Mala, bad luck

Fortuna Publica Populi Romani Quiritium Primigenia, First-born Fortuna of the Roman Nation its People & Citizens

Links from Fortuna's Fate Box