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

2J2 The Solar Wheel in Greece

childbirth1.' This suggestion was published in 1899; and in 1900
Prof. J. B. Carter considered the problem of Fortuna's origin ' un-
solved as yet2.' Nevertheless in 1905 I felt justified in urging that
she was at the first no mere personification of luck, but rather a
great goddess of fertility3. And that is still my conviction, based
on a variety of accepted facts—the derivation of her name from the
root of ferre, ' to bear4,' the agricultural and horticultural character
of her reduplicated self Fors Fortuna5, her own intimate association
with the Mater MatutaB, her worship by women under the titles
Virgo or Virginalis7, Mit/iebris8, Virilis*, Mammosa10, by man as
Barbata11, her cult at Praeneste as Primigenia}'1, at Rome as Viscatalz,
her tutelage of latrines14, her attributes the cornu copiaeYf>, the modius
or grain-measure16, and the ears of wheat17. The transition of
meaning from fertility to luck, and from luck to destiny, is not hard
to follow.

Nemesis is popularly conceived as an embodiment of divine
indignation or vengeance, her name being explained as the verbal
substantive from nemo, T impute18.' H. Usener regarded her as

1 W. Warde Fowler The Roman Festivals p. 167, cp. The Religious Experience of the
Roman People pp. 297, 310 n. 15.

2 J. B. Carter 'The Cognomina of the Goddess "Fortuna"' in the Transactions and
Proceedings of the American Philological Association 1900 xxxi. 60.

3 Folk-Lore 1905 xvi. 285 n. 4.

4 Walde Lat. etym. Worterb. p. 239 s.vv. 'fors,' 'fortuna,' etc.

5 Wissowa op. cit. p. 206 f.

6 Id. id. p. 207.

7 Roscher Lex. Myth. i. 1519.

8 lb. 1519 f., W. Otto in Philologus 1905 lxiv. 193 ff.

9 Roscher Lex. Myth. i. I5i8f.

10 lb. 1520. J. B. Cai-ter op. cit. p. 62 n. 1 suggests that this epithet 'was probably
merely the popular name for a statue with many breasts, very likely a statue of the
Ephesian Diana.' But??

11 Roscher Lex. Myth. i. 1519. J. B. Carter op. cit. p. 66 : 'Whether the cognomen
arose out of a popular epithet applied to a bearded statue of an effeminate god or hero
(possibly Dionysius [sic] or Sardanapalus), which, by a mistake in the gender, was called
'■Fortuna with a beard,'' we cannot decide.' Again??

12 Roscher Lex. Myth. i. 1541 ff., cp. 1516 f., J. B. Carter op. cit. p. 66 ff., Class. Rev.
1903 xvib 420 f., 1904 xviii. 362, Folk-Lore 1905 xvi. 280 f., 296^

13 Roscher Lex. Myth. i. 1515, Class. Rev. 1903 xvii. 421, Folk-Lore 1905 xvi. 285.

14 Clem. Al. protr. 4. 51. 1 p. 39, 15 ff. Stahlin. D. Vaglieri has recently found in
the barracks of the vigiles at Ostia a well-preserved latrine with two dedications to
Fortuna Sancta (T. Ashby in The Year's Work in Class. Stud, iqii p. 11): see Not.
Scavi 1911 p.209 ff.

15 Roscher Lex. Myth. i. 1503 ff.

16 lb. 1506.

17 lb. 1506.

18 H. Posnansky op. cit. p. iff., O. Rossbach in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 117 ff.,
Wissowa Ret. Kult. Rom. p. 315 f.