Fortuna

Reading notes

• Agamemnon §22 Fortune

  The goddess Fortune, who raises men up and casts them down; the theme of the play's first ode.

• Consolation to His Mother Helvia §1 Fortune

  Fortuna, the personified power of chance; in Seneca the capricious mistress who lends and reclaims every external good.

• Consolation to Marcia §1 Fortune

  Fortuna, the personified power of chance; in Seneca the capricious mistress who lends and reclaims every external good. Seneca asks Marcia to 'acquit' her.

• Consolation to Polybius §2 Fortune

  Fortuna, the personified power of chance; in Seneca the capricious mistress who lends and reclaims every external good, here arraigned as a defendant.

• On Benefits §1.9.1 Fortune

  Fortuna, the goddess of chance, addressed by Aeschines; for the Stoics the power that grants and removes external goods but cannot touch virtue.

• On Mercy §1.1 Fortune

  The deified power of chance and circumstance; in Stoic usage the realm of externals the wise ruler must hold above himself rather than serve.

• On Anger §1.11 public fortune

  Fortuna, the personified power of chance; here the 'public fortune' of the Roman state that Fabius weighed before acting.

• On the Happy Life §4.5 fortune

  Fortuna, the goddess and personification of chance, who distributes wealth, power, and disaster without regard to desert; the Stoic sage treats her gifts as on loan and keeps his good independent of her.

• Moral Letters to Lucilius §1.4.7 Fortune

  Fortuna, goddess and personification of chance; the Stoic commonplace that she grants nothing she cannot also take back, threatening even the most exalted with the very fate they have dealt others.

• Octavia §387 mighty Fortune

  Fortuna, the goddess of chance and reversal, whom Seneca blames for raising him to a perilous height.

• Oedipus §1 Fortune

  Fortune, the power to which lofty thrones lie most exposed.

• Phaedra §980 Fortune

  Fortuna, the goddess of chance, who the chorus complains rules human affairs blindly and rewards the worse.

• The Phoenician Women §80 Fortune

  The personified power of chance and shifting circumstance, addressed directly by Oedipus.