Content deleted Content added
m Reverted edits by 211.27.59.244 (talk) (HG) (3.4.10) |
Added reference to Cicero's In Pisonem as an early source for the concept of the Wheel of Fortune |
||
| (33 intermediate revisions by 25 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{Short description|Symbol of fate in medieval and ancient philosophy}}
{{For|The U.S Game Show|Wheel of Fortune (U.S. game show)}}▼
{{Italic title}}
{{
{{More citations needed|date=May 2018|talk=Improve references}}
{{Primary sources|date=May 2018}}
}}
[[
In [[Medieval philosophy|medieval]] and [[ancient philosophy]], the '''Wheel of Fortune'''
▲[[Image:ForutuneWheel.jpg|right|thumb|From an edition of [[Giovanni Boccaccio|Boccaccio's]] ''[[De Casibus Virorum Illustrium]]'' showing Lady Fortune spinning her wheel.]]
▲In medieval and ancient philosophy the '''Wheel of Fortune''', or '''''Rota Fortunae''''', is a symbol of the capricious nature of [[destiny|Fate]]. The wheel belongs to the goddess [[Fortuna (mythology)|Fortuna]] (Greek equivalent [[Tyche]]) who spins it at random, changing the positions of those on the wheel: some suffer great misfortune, others gain windfalls. The metaphor was already a cliché in ancient times, complained about by [[Tacitus]], but was greatly popularized for the Middle Ages by its extended treatment in the ''[[Consolation of Philosophy]]'' by [[Boethius]] from around 520. It became a common image in manuscripts of the book, and then other media, where Fortuna, often blindfolded, turns a large wheel of the sort used in [[watermill]]s, to which kings and other powerful figures are attached.
==Origins==
[[File:Lydgate-siege-troy-wheel-fortune-detail.jpg|thumb|The "Queen of Fortune", helped by four other [[personification]]s, turns her wheel.]]
The origin of the word is from the "wheel of fortune"—the [[zodiac]], referring to the [[Celestial spheres]] of which the 8th holds the stars, and the 9th is where the signs of the zodiac are placed. The concept was first invented in Babylon and later developed by the [[Hellenistic Greece|ancient Greeks]], with early references from Cicero's ''In Pisonem''.
Cicero wrote: “The house of your colleague rang with song and cymbals while he himself danced naked at a feast, wherein, even while he executed his whirling gyrations, he felt no fear of the Wheel of Fortune” ("cum conlegae tui domus cantu et cymbalis personaret cumque ipse nudus in convivio saltaret, in quo cum illum saltatorium versaret orbem, ne tum qui dem fortunae rotam pertimescebat")."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Robinson |first=David M. |date=1946 |title=The Wheel of Fortune |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/267004 |journal=Classical Philology |volume=41 |issue=4 |pages=207–216 |issn=0009-837X}}</ref>
The concept somewhat resembles the ''[[Bhavacakra]]'', or Wheel of Becoming, depicted throughout Ancient Indian art and literature, except that the earliest conceptions in the Roman and Greek world involve not a two-dimensional wheel but a three-dimensional sphere, a metaphor for the world.
In the second century BC, the Roman tragedian [[Pacuvius]] wrote:
{{
Saxoque instare in globoso praedicant volubili:<br />
Id quo saxum inpulerit fors, eo cadere Fortunam autumant.<br />
Caecam ob eam rem esse iterant, quia nihil cernat, quo sese adplicet;
Insanam autem esse aiunt, quia atrox, incerta instabilisque sit;
Brutam, quia dignum atque indignum nequeat internoscere.
Line 31 ⟶ 32:
They repeat that she is blind for this reason: that she does not see where she's heading;<br />
they say she's insane, because she is cruel, flaky and unstable;<br />
stupid, because she can't distinguish between the worthy and the unworthy.|sign=[[Pacuvius]]|source=''Scaenicae Romanorum Poesis Fragmenta. Vol. 1'', ed. O. Ribbeck, 1897}}
The idea of the rolling ball of fortune became a [[literary topos]] and was used frequently in declamation.
[[
In the second century AD, astronomer and astrologer [[Vettius Valens]] wrote:
::There are many wheels, most moving from west to east, but some move from east to west.
Line 47:
[[File:Christine de Pizan, Folio 41r 'Wheel of Fortune' from Epitre d'Othéa; Les Sept Sacrements de l'Eglise, c. 1455 at Waddesdon Manor (cropped).jpg|thumb|Illustration by [[Jean Miélot]] to [[Christine de Pizan]]'s ''Epitre d'Othéa; Les Sept Sacrements de l'Eglise'', c. 1455 at [[Waddesdon Manor]]]]
<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:Titulihunteriani00macdrich raw 0143.png|Statuette<ref>{{cite web|title=statuette of Fortuna|url=http://www.huntsearch.gla.ac.uk/cgi-bin/foxweb/huntsearch/DetailedResults.fwx?collection=all&SearchTerm=F.43&mdaCode=GLAHM&reqMethod=Link|website=Hunterian Museum & Art Gallery Collections: GLAHM F.43|publisher=University of Glasgow|access-date=13 October 2017|archive-date=13 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171013120627/http://www.huntsearch.gla.ac.uk/cgi-bin/foxweb/huntsearch/DetailedResults.fwx?collection=all&SearchTerm=F.43&mdaCode=GLAHM&reqMethod=Link|url-status=dead}}</ref> of the Roman god [[Fortuna]], with [[Gubernaculum (classical)|gubernaculum]] (ship's rudder),<ref>{{cite web|title=Roman statuette of Fortuna|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/yh0V-kQIREemEljafXOf1A|website=BBC - A History of the World|access-date=12 October 2017}}</ref> Rota Fortunae (wheel of fortune) and [[cornucopia]] (horn of plenty) found near the altar at [[Castlecary]] in 1771.<ref>{{cite book|last1=MacDonald|first1=James|title=Tituli Hunteriani: An Account of the Roman Stones in the Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow|date=1897|publisher=T. & R. Annan & Sons|location=Glasgow|pages=90–91|url=https://archive.org/stream/titulihunterian00unkngoog#page/n108/mode/2up/search/castlecary|access-date=11 October 2017}}</ref>
</gallery>
Line 60:
== In the middle ages ==
[[
===Religious instruction===
The Wheel was widely used as an [[Allegory in the Middle Ages|allegory]] in medieval literature and art to aid religious instruction. Though classically Fortune's Wheel could be favourable and disadvantageous, medieval writers preferred to concentrate on the tragic aspect, dwelling on downfall of the mighty – serving to remind people of the temporality of earthly things. In the [[morality play]] ''[[Everyman (15th-century play)|Everyman]]'' (c. 1495), for instance, Death comes unexpectedly to claim the protagonist. Fortune's Wheel has spun Everyman low, and Good Deeds, which he previously neglected, are needed to secure his passage to heaven.
[[Geoffrey Chaucer]] used the concept of the tragic Wheel of Fortune a great deal. It forms the basis for the ''[[Monk's Tale]]'', which recounts stories of the great brought low throughout history, including [[Lucifer]], [[Adam (Bible)|Adam]], [[Samson]], [[Hercules]], [[Nebuchadnezzar]], [[Belshazzar]], [[Nero]], [[Alexander the Great]], [[Julius Caesar]] and, in the following passage, [[Peter I of Cyprus]].
Line 75:
:And thus does Fortune's wheel turn treacherously
:And out of happiness bring men to sorrow.
~ Geoffrey Chaucer, ''[[The Canterbury Tales]]'', The Monk's Tale<ref>{{cite web |url=http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/gchaucer/bl-gchau-can-monk.htm |title=The Monk's Tale, Modern English – Canterbury Tales – Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400) |publisher=Classiclit.about.com |date=2009-11-02 |access-date=2011-11-24 |archive-date=2011-07-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718010023/http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/gchaucer/bl-gchau-can-monk.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>
Fortune's Wheel often turns up in medieval art, from manuscripts to the great [[Rose window]]s in many medieval cathedrals, which are based on the Wheel. Characteristically, it has four shelves, or stages of life, with four human figures, usually labeled on the left ''regnabo'' (I shall reign), on the top ''regno'' (I reign) and is usually crowned, descending on the right ''regnavi'' (I have reigned) and the lowly figure on the bottom is marked ''sum sine regno'' (I am without a kingdom). [[Dante]] employed the Wheel in the ''[[The Divine Comedy|Inferno]]'' and a "[[Wheel of Fortune (Tarot card)|Wheel of Fortune]]" trump-card appeared in the [[Tarot]] deck (circa 1440, Italy).
===Political instruction===
[[
In the medieval and renaissance period, a popular genre of writing was "[[Mirror-of-princes writing|Mirrors for Princes]]", which set out advice for the ruling classes on how to wield power (the most famous being ''[[The Prince]]'' by [[Niccolò Machiavelli]]). Such political treatises could use the concept of the Wheel of Fortune as an instructive guide to their readers. [[John Lydgate]]'s ''Fall of Princes'', written for his patron [[Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester]] is a noteworthy example.
Many [[Arthurian]] [[Romance (heroic literature)|romances]] of the era also use the concept of the Wheel in this manner, often placing the [[Nine Worthies]] on it at various points.
<blockquote>...fortune is so variant, and the wheel so moveable, there nis none constant abiding, and that may be proved by many old chronicles, of noble [[Hector]], and [[Troilus]], and [[Alexander the Great|Alisander]], the mighty conqueror, and many mo other; when they were most in their royalty, they alighted lowest.
~ [[Lancelot]] in [[Thomas Malory]]'s ''[[Le Morte d'Arthur]]'', Chapter XVII.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/epics/LeMortedArthur/chap247.html |title=Le Morte d' Arthur – Chapter XVII |publisher=Worldwideschool.org |access-date=2011-11-24 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160411043318/http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/epics/LeMortedArthur/chap247.html |archive-date=2016-04-11 }}</ref></blockquote>
Line 91:
===Carmina Burana===
The Wheel of Fortune motif appears significantly in the ''[[Carmina Burana]]'' (or ''Burana Codex''), albeit with a postclassical phonetic spelling of the genitive form ''Fortunae''.
{{col-begin}}
{{col-4}}
: ''Sors immanis
: ''et inanis,
: ''rota tu volubilis,''
: ''status malus,''
: ''vana salus''
Line 102:
: ''obumbrata ''
: ''et velata''
: ''michi quoque niteris;
: ''nunc per ludum''
: ''dorsum nudum''
Line 110:
: ''descendo minoratus;''
: ''alter in altum tollitur;''
: ''nimis exaltatus
: ''rex sedet in vertice''
: ''caveat ruinam!
: ''nam sub axe legimus
: ''Hecubam reginam.''
{{col-4}}
Line 138:
: Queen [[Hecuba]].
{{col-3}}
{{col-end}}
==Later usage==
Line 148:
:''Pistol:''
:''Bardolph, a soldier firm and sound of heart''
:''And of buxom valor, hath by cruel fate''
:''And giddy Fortune's furious fickle wheel''
Line 167:
===Victorian era===
In [[Anthony Trollope]]'s novel ''[[The Way We Live Now]]'', the character Lady Carbury writes a novel entitled ''The Wheel of Fortune'' about a heroine who suffers great financial hardships.
==References==
{{Commons category|Wheel of Fortune}}
{{Reflist}}
Line 200 ⟶ 175:
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:
[[Category:Objects in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Medieval legends]]
[[Category:Metaphors]]
[[Category:Mythological objects]]
[[Category:Wheels]]
| |||