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"The prize must be worth
the toil when one stakes one's life on Fortune's
dice." [Dolon 1 to
Hector 1. Euripides,
Rhesus
182]
"Fortune lives a dainty
life; to her the wretched pays his court and homage
to win her smile; her likewise the prosperous man
extols, for fear the favoring gale may leave him."
[Theseus.
Euripides,
Suppliants
554]
"He is a foolish mortal
who thinks his luck secure and so rejoices; for
Fortune, like a madman in her moods, springs
towards this man, then towards that; and no one
ever experiences the same unchanging luck."
[Hecabe 1. Euripides,
Daughters
of Troy 1204]
"I am not in the least
surprised, as I know that heaven is always willing
something new, and likewise that all things, strong
or weak, increasing or decreasing, are being
changed by Fortune, who drives them with imperious
necessity according to her whim."
[Pausanias,
Description
of Greece 8.33.1]
"The following incident
proves the might of Fortune to be greater and more
marvellous than is shown by the disasters and
prosperity of cities. No long sail from
Lemnos was once an island Chryse, where,
it is said, Philoctetes met with his accident from the
water-snake. But the waves utterly overwhelmed it,
and Chryse sank and disappeared in the depths...So
temporary and utterly weak are the fortunes of
men." [Pausanias,
Description
of Greece 8.33.4]
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Sancho: "Tan de
valientes corazones es, señor
mío, tener sufrimiento en las
desgracias como alegría en las
prosperidades...porque he oído
decir que esta que llaman por ahí
Fortuna es una mujer borracha y
antojadiza, y, sobre todo, ciega, y
así, no vee lo que hace, ni sabe a
quién derriba, ni a quién
ensalza."
[Miguel de Cervantes,
Don
Quijote de la Mancha, Segunda
Parte, Capítulo LXVI]
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Sancho: "... it
is as much the part of great spirits to
have patience when the world frowns upon
them, as to be joyful when all goes
well...and indeed I have heard say, that
this same she thing they call Fortune, is
a whimsical freakish drunken quean and
blind into the bargain; so that she
neither sees what she does, nor knows whom
she raises, nor whom she casts
down."
[Miguel de Cervantes,
Don
Quixote, Part II, Chapter LXVI]
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"La fortuna no se
vence
con injusticia y venganza,
porque antes se incita más;
y así, quien vencer aguarda
a su fortuna, ha de ser
con prudencia y con templanza."
[Calderón,
La
vida es sueño, Escena XIV]
THE ROLLING WHEEL OF FORTUNA --From NEMESIS
DIVINA - by Carl von Linné (Linnaeus):
In the greatest confusion
the greatest order. Like in the realm of Nature. No
one forges his own fortune. Not even the devil
could dare to assert the contrary.
When misfortune comes, the
whole nature helps along, since the will of God
must be obeyed. All become the foes of the
unfortunate, even the dogs. All help to push the
car of misfortune. Then neither heaven nor earth
can help. Pride came first, turned everyone into
enemies [...] God strikes with blindness whom He
wishes to destroy. No wisdom, no understanding can
help against the Lord.
Proverbs, XXI, 30.
When fortune is the grace of God, then a hundred
hands obstruct the road of misfortune [...]
(Translated by Carlos Parada from
Carl von Linné i urval av Björn
Julén, Aldus klassiker, Stockholm 1962)
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Tyche is Fortune, a powerful goddess who loves
different and unpredictable ways, and permanently
offers instructive examples to those who neither
know nor expect the incredible changes which she
can effect. Tyche is one of the
OCEANIDS, but it has
also been claimed that she was one of the
MOERAE, and the most
powerful of the sisters.
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Tyche governs a vast realm
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Not to be an outcast of Fortune is one of the
deepest desires of most men and women. For Tyche is
one of the mightiest divinities when it comes to
human affairs: Beauty and good reputation, they
say, are in Tyche's keeping, and even success in
love depends on Fortune. In fact, some believe that
most things depend on her, including such cardinal
things as health, wealth, power, good marriage, and
lovely children.
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Dashing hopes
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Now mortals, having great concern for such
achievements, put their hopes in Tyche each day and
each night. But on the other hand, Tyche's main
pleasure consists in dashing hopes. So, what
mortals might achieve and enjoy through years of
efforts, she may destroy in one single day by what
is called a "reversal of Fortune", a phenomenon
which is normally unpredictable, and that is often
regarded as "curious", for things may suddenly
appear upside-down.
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Her vicissitudes
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In this manner, great careers come to abrupt
ends. It does not matter how powerful, or rich, or
beautiful someone is when Fortune tries one of her
vicissitudes. For at any moment she may just make
him or her be seized by a desperate malady and die,
or she may bring to naught all achievements and
plans by other means. And when this happens, Tyche
is called "cruel" and "harsh"; and when things go
well, she is seen as giving "gifts", and is
therefore called "generous". But others call her
"uncertain", for no one knows what she will bring
next moment.
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Tyche exposes weakness
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It is known that arrogant people are hated among
gods and men, and for that reason it has been
considered adequate to be humble in front of this
goddess, abstaining from acts that go beyond man's
powers. For neither wisdom nor strength can prevail
over Tyche, who works swift changes in the
prosperity of men, showing that those who become
elated above measure, give proof of their own
weakness in the next turn, when she heaps upon them
whatever calamities she pleases.
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Worthy use of good fortune
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And Tyche being so changeable, there are those
who try to make a worthy use of their good fortune,
so that they may have friends to grieve with them
when Tyche is adverse, as well as friends that will
rejoice at their successes when Tyche is
favourable.
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Compassion is not her business
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The advantages that may be obtained in war are,
they say, determined by Tyche. Yet it is not her
duty to feel compassion for her victims, but
instead it is up to men not to inflict unbearable
outrages to other men. In war, they say, Fortune is
impartial, and the defeated must suffer what they
themselves have done to the unfortunate. Therefore,
those whose affairs prosper usually add clemency to
constant success, since it is known that those who
indulge in cruelty are fated to shorten their own
good fortune.
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Preparing for misfortune
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For these reasons, it is also believed that
those who show leniency towards the misfortunes of
other men, reserve for themselves the hope of mercy
from all men. For Fortune changes fast, and life is
full with unexpected events like civil wars,
robberies, and other crimes. And it is easy to see
that he who excludes mercy when dealing with other
men, sets up a harsh law against himself, for all
time to come.
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Trophies made of wood
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The Greeks, some say, ordained that trophies of
war should be made of wood, so that the memorials
of enmity should last for a brief time. And they
did so because they understood that a slight turn
of Tyche brings the arrogant low, and that humane
treatment of the defeated gives occasion for
friendship.
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Suppliants of Fortune
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All situations advise to use the prosperity
which Fortune gives for the benefit of other human
beings, and never waste it in barbarous savagery.
Those who act in such a ruinous way have no right
to blame Fortune later, or to become her
suppliants. For suppliants are called those who
have found Fortune unkind, but still are pure in
heart, and not those who have suffered serious
defeats because of their own wickedness and greed.
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Greedy change their minds
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There are those who are not satisfied with their
own gifts of Fortune, and some among them may even
covet those who belong to others. But when Fortune
robs one of them of the comforts he had enjoyed
until then, and threatening everything he has
achieved, becomes more and more bitter against him,
he usually thinks that he may as well be content
that at least he preserves his life. To such an
extent can Tyche change the thoughts of a man, who
only yesterday believed that he could conquer all
kind of riches.
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Confusion of names and terms
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Now, some have said that the world has a soul,
which is perfect intelligence and wisdom, and some
call it "God", and sometimes "Providence", because
it governs the heavens and also those things on
earth that concern mankind. But since everything
happens as ordained, they also thought that they
could call this soul "Necessity"
(Ananke), and since the
operations of this order are unforeseen and
unexpected, they came to the idea that Necessity
could be called Fortune. That is how the soul of
the world, God, Providence,
Ananke, and Tyche came to
be confused and regarded as different denominations
of one and the same thing.
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Grateful Palamedes
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In any case, the Oceanid Tyche stands by
herself, usually holding the horn of plenty; for
Wealth, they say, is
nursed by her. That is why, hoping for her
generosity, many cities built sanctuaries to her,
and in one of them
Palamedes dedicated
the dice that he had invented.
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Naiads filling the Horn of
Plenty
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The gift of Fortune
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Others say that what lies outside the sphere of
the moral purpose, cannot be possessed by man, and
therefore everything should be surrendered to the
real owners, who are Fortune and the gods. That is
the only way to serenity, they assert. And men,
they add, look as if they loved toil, working as
they do night and day. But it is not industry and
toil they love, but instead reputation and gold.
And that is why some call them ambitious and
greedy, instead of industrious and hard-working.
However, what they may gain is the gift of Fortune,
which she herself takes away when she pleases.
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Fortune without intelligence leads to ruin
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It has also been said that gold, repute, health,
strength, beauty, and all other gifts of Fortune,
need to be commanded by a man's intelligence. For
through his intelligence, or as others put it, his
moral purpose, he becomes able to make good use of
all gifts, without depending on them. And without
intelligence, gold, repute, beauty, and other
wonderful gifts of Tyche, may act like poison and
destroy a man or a woman.
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Fortune may mean Misery
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This is, some affirm, what
Prometheus 1 meant
when he advised his brother Epimetheus not to
welcome any gifts from
Zeus, but instead always
return them. For the gifts of Tyche are external
advantages, and undeserved good fortune is a source
of misery for the unthinking.
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Tyche, holding the horn of
Amalthea or Horn of Plenty
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