FORTUNA. — Italic and Roman goddess. Her three most important ancient cult centers were Palestrina, Rome, and Anzio.
While little is known about the cult at Anzio (though an oracle and a doubled figure of F. are known), the Prenestine cult is known through literary and archaeological documentation. Here F. Primigenia had a magnificent sanctuary, with an oracle: inscribed tablets (tortes) kept in an enclosure were drawn by lot. Although some inscriptions define the goddess as the daughter of Jupiter, the presence in the sanctuary of a Juppiter Puer, together with a representation mentioned 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 accord with the religious spirit of Rome, which initially opposed the Prenestine cult and, from 204 B.C., with its adoption, transformed II. But F. also has very ancient cults at Rome. Tradition attributed its origin to Servius Tullius, whom myth places in a love relationship with the goddess. If F. does not appear in the oldest calendar, this may derive from the predominantly private character of her cult, rather than from its more recent age. Apparently very ancient are the cult across the Tiber
of Fors F., with its popular festival at the summer solstice; that of the Forum Boarium, whose festival, on 11 June, is the ancient day of the Matralia and natalis of the adjacent temple of Mater Matuta; and that of F. Mulichris, on the Via Latina, attributed, according to legend, to the successful action of the women in dissuading Coriolanus from his undertaking against Rome. F. Primigenia, transformed into F. publica populi Romani, had its seat on the Quirinal. Numerous sanctuaries dedicated to F. under her many epithets (Brevis, Dubia, Equestris, huissee
diei, Mala, Mammosa, Obaeguesa, Redux, Respiciens, Stata, Virgo, Virilis, etc.) are known from inscriptions and texts, especially from Plutarch.