page_title: Fortuna
section_title: Aspects
hierarchical_section_title: Fortuna / Aspects
context_page_description: Fortuna is the goddess of fortune and the personification of luck in Roman religion who, largely thanks to the Late Antique author Boethius, remained popular through the Middle Ages until at least the Renaissance. And her blindfolded depiction is still a really important figure in many aspects of today's Italian culture, where the dichotomy fortuna / sfortuna plays a prominent role in everyday social life, also represented by the very common refrain "La [dea] fortuna è cieca".
  Fortuna is often depicted with a gubernaculum, a ball or Rota Fortunae and a cornucopia. She might bring good or bad luck: she could be represented as veiled and blind, as in modern depictions of Lady Justice, except that Fortuna does not hold a balance. Fortuna came to represent life's capriciousness. She was also a goddess of fate: as Atrox Fortuna, she claimed the young lives of the princeps Augustus' grandsons Gaius and Lucius, prospective heirs to the Empire.
context_section_description: Fortuna Annonaria brought the luck of the harvest
  Fortuna Belli the fortune of war
  Fortuna Primigenia directed the fortune of a firstborn child at the moment of birth
  Fortuna Virilis ("Luck in men"), a woman's luck in marriage
  Fortuna Redux brought one safely home
  Fortuna Respiciens the fortune of the provider
  Fortuna Muliebris the luck of a woman.
  Fortuna Victrix brought victory in battle
  Fortuna Augusta the fortune of the emperor
  Fortuna Balnearis the fortune of the baths.
  Fortuna Conservatrix the fortune of the Preserver
  Fortuna Equestris fortune of the Knights.
  Fortuna Huiusce Diei fortune of the present day.
  Fortuna Obsequens fortune of indulgence.
  Fortuna Privata fortune of the private individual.
  Fortuna Publica fortune of the people.
  Fortuna Romana fortune of Rome.
  Fortuna Virgo fortune of the virgin.
  Fortuna Faitrix the fortune of life
  Pars Fortuna
  Fortuna Barbata the fortune of adolescents becoming adults
caption: Lady Fortune in a Boccaccio manuscript
exif: {}