TYCHE (Τύχη). – Greek divinity symbolizing adverse or favorable fortune (her name is cognate with τυγχένω = to obtain by lot), and Fortuna (v.).
Mentioned in the Homeric hymn to Demeter (v. 420) and in Hesiod (Theogony, V. 360), who makes her an Oceanid companion of Persephone, T. is still a very vague abstraction. With Pindar (Olymp., 12, 1 ff., and in Pausanias, VII, 26), however, defined as «savior» (Σωτεῖρα), T. is placed among the Moirai (who preside over the destiny of men, corresponding to the Roman Parcae [v.]), of whom she would be the most powerful (cf. Archilochus, frg. 56 Bergk); and from these Moirai—even when she would increasingly come to define herself by assuming the character of a true and proper divinity (perhaps from the 5th century B.C.; cf. Aeschylus, Agam., 661), with the functions of a priest and the erection of temples—T. would never succeed in completely separating herself. She was also associated with, if not substituted for, other divinities such as Themis, Nemesis, Latona, Hecate, Persephone, etc., and thus invoked as goddess of birth, death, etc.
From the same period (the 5th century), T., besides being synonymous with moira, is also synonymous with δαίμων (the Roman genius), and the goddess thus became the protector of the individual (ἀγαθὴ Τύχη, a frequent expression on tombs) and, perhaps from the age of the Diadochi, the protector of cities (Τύχαι πόλεων), the latter aspect being subsequently emphasized in the Roman period.
Among the very numerous representations of T., which are often perfectly identifiable with the goddesses mentioned above, the following should be recalled: the most ancient, mentioned by Pausanias (IV, 30, 4), the work of Bupalos for the temple of T. at Smyrna, in which the goddess is represented with the horn of Amalthea; and the T. of Antioch, a beautiful work by Eutychides, a pupil of Lysippus.