Fortuna, a goddess worshipped with great devotion by the ancient Greeks and Romans; who believed her to preside over human affairs, and to distribute wealth and honour at her pleasure. The Greeks had a great number of temples dedicated to Fortune, under the name of νύξ. The poet Pindar makes her one of the Parece, or destinies, and the daughter of Jupiter. Ancus Martius, king of the Romans, was the first who built a temple at Rome to this deity, under the name of Fortuna Virilis, on account that courage, no less than good fortune, is requisite to obtain a victory. Servius Tullius built a temple to Fortune, under the name of Primogenia. The Romans gave several other appellations to Fortune, such as Fortuna Libera, Redux, Publica, &c.
There was a statue of Fortune at Athens, holding betwixt her arms Plutus the god of riches. Pausanias says, that her most ancient form was that which Bupalus made in Greece, in shape of a woman with a round ball on her head, and a cornucopia under her arm. Macrobius says, that she was first let forth with wings on her shoulders, having by her side the rudder of a ship; and that she was placed upon a wheel, and had in her right-hand a golden ball, and in her left a whip. In Egypt she was painted like a woman, turning a great glass wheel, on the top of which were represented a great number of men playing, others climbing up, and others having attained the summit of the wheel, precipitating themselves and falling down again. Modern painters represent Fortune by a naked woman standing on a globe, with a bandage on her eyes.—Horace's description of this goddess, and her great power, may be seen in Ode xxxv. lib. i. Juvenal, in Satire x. 365, calls Fortune the deity of fools.
Fortune-Tellers. Persons pretending to tell fortunes are to be punished with a year's imprisonment, and standing four times on the pillory. Stat. 9 Geo. II. c. 5.
FORTY-DAYS Court, the court of attachment or woodmote, held before the verderors of the forest once every forty days, to inquire concerning all offenders against vert and venison. See Forest.