Fortuna

While fortuna could signify good (secunda) or bad (adversa) chance, depending on the context, the Romans personified Fortuna as the goddess of luck, happy fate, and good fortune. In the statue above the goddess is depicted holding a cornucopia, the symbol of fertility and wealth. A temple to Fortuna Virilis stands in the Forum Boarium in Rome. Sulla, Pompey, and Caesar were popularly considered favorites of Fortuna, an association they consciously promoted (e.g., the Sanctuary of Fortuna at Praeneste).

Fors Fortuna was an Italian goddess, the bringer of fertility and increase. In classical times her worship was overlaid with that of Minerva and the Egyptian Isis, and linked to the Greek goddess Tyche, daughter of Zeus, who presided originally over all happenings, good and bad, but later was reverenced as Luck or Chance. Since Tyche was significant to risky undertakings (competitions, the drawing of lots, love, sailing), she was often imaged, principally on coins, sometimes with a ship's rudder in her hand (as below).