Rota Fortunae

- _For other uses, see Wheel of Fortune._

The ***Wheel of Fortune***, or _Rota Fortunae_, is a concept in medieval and ancient philosophy and means the unpredictable nature of Fate. The wheel belongs to the goddess Fortuna, who spins it at random, changing the positions of those on the wheel - some suffer great misfortune, others gain windfalls.

## Origins

The concept developed in antiquity; it was used by Cicero. The Wheel originally belonged to the Roman goddess Fortuna, whose name seems to derive from _Vortumna_, "she who revolves the year". Fortuna eventually became Christianized: the Roman philosopher Boethius (d. 524) was a major source for the medieval view of the Wheel, writing about it in his_Consolatio Philosophiae_.

### Carmina Burana

The Wheel of Fortune motif appears significantly in the _Carmina Burana_ (or _Burana Codex_), over one thousand poems and songs — often profane in content — written by students and clergy in the early 13th century.  Excerpts from two of the collection's better known poems, "_Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi_ (Fortune, Empress of the World)" and "_Fortune Plango Vulnera_ (I Bemoan the Wounds of Fortune)," read:The concept developed in antiquity; it was used by Cicero. The Wheel originally belonged to the Roman goddess Fortuna, whose name seems to derive from _Vortumna_, "she who revolves the year". Fortuna eventually became Christianized: the Roman philosopher Boethius (d. 524) was a major source for the medieval view of the Wheel, writing about it in his_Consolatio Philosophiae_.vv

- _Sors immanis _
- _et inanis,   _
- _rota tu volubilis_,
- _status malus,_
- _vana salus_
- _semper dissolubilis,_
- _obumbrata _
- _et velata_
- _michi quoque niteris; _
- _nunc per ludum_
- _dorsum nudum_
- _fero tui sceleris._
- . . . . . . . . . .
- _Fortune rota volvitur;_
- _descendo minoratus;_
- _alter in altum tollitur;_
- _nimis exaltatus _
- _rex sedet in vertice_
- _caveat ruinam! _
- _nam sub axe legimus _
- _Hecubam reginam._

- Fate - monstrous
- and empty,
- you whirling wheel,
- you are malevolent,
- well-being is vain
- and always fades to nothing,
- shadowed
- and veiled
- you plague me too;
- now through the game
- I bring my bare back
- to your villainy.
- . . . . . . . . .
- The wheel of Fortune turns;
- I go down, demeaned;
- another is raised up;
- far too high up
- sits the king at the summit -
- let him fear ruin!
- for under the axis is written
- Queen Hecuba.

## Later usage

Fortuna and her Wheel have remained an enduring image throughout history.

William Shakespeare in _Hamlet_ wrote of the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" and, of fortune personified, to "break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel." And in _Henry V_, Act 3 Scene VI, are the lines: "Pistol: Bardolph, a soldier firm and sound of heart, and of buxom valour, hath by cruel fate and giddy Fortune's furious fickle wheel, that goddess blind that stands upon the rolling restless stone --" (lines 22-24).

Selections from the _Carmina Burana_, including the two poems quoted above, were set to new music by twentieth-century classical composer Carl Orff, whose bombastic and well-known "O Fortuna" is based on the poem _Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi_.

Fortuna does occasionally turn up in modern literature. She is often associated with gamblers, and dice could also be said to have replaced the Wheel as the primary metaphor for uncertain fortune.

## References

- _Boethius, _The Consolation of Philosophy_ _, trans. W.V. Cooper (London: J.M. Dent, 1902)
- Geoffrey Chaucer, _The Canterbury Tales: The Monk's Tale_
- Thomas Malory,  _Le Morte d'Arthur_, Chapter XVII' 
- William Shakespeare, Henry V, Act 3 Scene VI
- Fortuna was also used by a character in the novel "Confederacy of Dunces";the main character, Ignatus J. Reilly, makes many references to "Fortuna's wheel" and also Boethius's works.