![]() Fortuna of Good Hope is an aspect of the Roman Goddess of Luck and Fortune who is mentioned by Plutarch, a Greek writer of the 1st and 2nd centuries CE who was familiar with Rome and her Deities. He mentions that She had a shrine on the Vicus Longus ("Long Street") also called the Angiportus Longus ("Long Alley or Narrow Street"), the road that ran along the valley between the Quirinal and Viminal Hills; on this street were also located shrines to Febris, Goddess of Fevers, and an altar to Pudicita Plebeia ("Modesty of the Plebeians"). This shrine to Fortuna, like many others, was considered to have been built by Servius Tullius, the early king of Rome whose rags-to-riches story made him a devoté of Fortuna, for he had been born a slave and risen to be king. Fortuna as a Goddess of Hope was connected to the personification of Hope, the Goddess Spes, and the two Goddesses were depicted together on coins of the Emperor Hadrian, who reigned in the 2nd century CE. This coin was issued upon the adoption of one Aelius Verus by the childless Hadrian, and refers to the fortune he hoped would be the Empire's because of his new heir. As his chosen successor, Aelius Verus was never Emperor, though, for he died before Hadrian did. Also called: Fortuna, Giver of Good Hope. Called in Greek (by Plutarch, who was a Greek by birth): Tykhê Euelpidos "Hopeful Fortuna" or "Fortuna the Cheerful". I could not find the proper translation of Her epithet in Latin; but then the original text of Plutarch is in Greek, and the Latin version may never have been recorded. |
|