FORTUNE. - An Italic and Roman goddess. Her three most important ancient centers of worship were Palestrina, Rome, and Anzio.
While little is known about the cult at Anzio (there is evidence, however, of an oracle and of a doubled figure of F.), the cult at Palestrina is known through literary and archaeological documentation. Here F. Primigenia had a grand sanctuary, with an oracle: inscribed tablets (sortes) kept in an enclosure were drawn by lot. Although some inscriptions define the goddess as a daughter of Jupiter, the presence in the sanctuary of a Juppiter Puer and a representation recalled by Cicero, in which F. suckled the children Jupiter and Juno, would demonstrate an inverse relationship between F. and Jupiter. This character of the goddess and the role of chance in the oracle did not suit the religious spirit of Rome, which at first opposed the cult at Palestrina and, from 204 B.C., with its adoption, transformed it. But even at Rome F. had very ancient cults. Tradition attributed their origin to Servius Tullius, whom myth places in an amorous relationship with the goddess. If F. does not appear in the most ancient calendar, this may derive from the predominantly private character of her cult rather than from its more recent date. Very ancient appear to be the Trastevere cult of Fors F. with its popular festival at the summer solstice; that of the Forum Boarium, whose festival, on June 11, is the ancient day of the Matralia and natalis of the adjoining temple of Mater Matuta; that of F. Mulichris, on the Via Latina, owed, according to legend, to the successful action of the women in turning Coriolanus aside from his enterprise against Rome. The F. Primigenia, transformed into F. publica populi Romani, had its seat on the Quirinal. Numerous sanctuaries dedicated to F. under her numerous epithets (Brevis, Dubia, Equestris, huiusce diei, Mala, Mammosa, Obaeguesa, Redux, Respiciens, Stata, Virgo, Virilis, etc.) are known from inscriptions and from texts, especially from Plutarch.