Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 1): Zeus god of the bright sky (Cambridge, 1914)

The Wheel of Isis 271

even led to the total disappearance of the former. On a small
prase at Berlin the goddess with a wreath or branch in her left
hand and a measuring-rod in her right is drawn
by a couple of snakes in a car, the wheels of which
are not visible at all1.

Isis too was occasionally represented with a
wheel2. A billon statuette found in France and
formerly in the Charvet collection3 shows the
goddess fairly laden with attributes. On her
wings are the busts of Sun and Moon. In her left
hand she holds a twofold cornu copiae\ in her right
a rudder, corn-ears, fruit, and a purse. Round her right arm coils
a snake; and at her feet is a wheel with projecting hub. Again,
on an engraved cornelian4 she is recognisable by her characteristic
head-dress. A snake in her right hand is feeding out of a phidle in
her left; and at her feet, as before, is the wheel.

It is supposed that Isis borrowed her wheel from Nemesis5, and
that Nemesis in turn borrowed it from Fortuna6. These borrowings
would be facilitated by the general resemblance subsisting between
the deities in question.

Fortuna is commonly regarded as the goddess of luck or
destiny7, and such she undoubtedly became. But that this was her
original character can be maintained only by those who are pre-
pared to leave many features of her cult unexplained. Mr Warde
Fowler in his admirable book on The Roman Festivals hinted that
Fortuna might be ranked among ' deities of the earth, or vege-
tation, or generation8,' being 'perhaps not only a prophetess as
regards the children, but also of the good luck of the mother in

1 Furtwangler Geschnitt. Steine Berlin p. 115 no. 2451 pi. 22, O. Rossbach in
Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 164. Furtwangler, however, regarded this gem as figuring Nike
with wreath and staff standing behind a round altar on the forepart of a ship (?).

2 Roscher Lex. Myth. i. 1551, ii. 544, Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 1040 n. 6.

3 Catalogue de la vente Charvet Paris 1883 p. 171 f. no. 1831, Reinach Rep. Stat, ii,
263 no. 7, Roscher Lex. Myth. i. 1551, ii. 546.

4 A. L. Millin Galerie Mythologique Paris 1811 i. 88 no. 350 pi. 79. The bibliography
of this gem is given by W. Drexler in the Zeitschr.f. Num. 1887 xiv. 127 f.

5 For^Icis N^uecm see Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 544^, iii. 140 f., H. Posnansky op. cit,
pp. 57, 123, 167. We have also to reckon with an 'Icris Tux?7, Isis Tyche or Isityche
(Roscher Lex. Myth. i. 1530 ff., 1549 ff, ii. 545 f.). Cp. P. Perdrizet in the Bull. Corr.
Hell. 1912 xxxvi. 256 ff.

6 For Ne/xecTLs in relation to Tvxv or Fortuna see Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 135 ff., H.
Posnansky op. cit. pp. 38 n. 1, 52 ff., 166.

7 Preller—Jordan Rom. AIyth.s ii. 179 ff., R. Peter in Roscher Lex. Myth. i. 1503 ff,
Wissowa Rel. Kult. Rom. p. 206 ff.

8 W. Warde Fowler The Roman Festivals London 1899 p. 67, cp. The Religious
Experience of the Roman People London 1911 pp. 235, 245 n. 30.