The Changing Role of Fortuna and her Wheel in the Middle Ages

Fate, luck, destiny, providence; all words to describe the unseen power that seems to control our life events.

Who you believe is the unseen power differs in this day and age. In the Middle Ages, however, everyone was pretty much on the same page. Life’s ebbs and flows are dictated by the Rota Fortunae, the wheel of fortune, and the goddess Fortuna.

Why did I get sick? Why did the crops fail? How come the king chose him over me? From time immemorial people sought answers. Things like this, so out of our control, have always needed an explanation. Why not blame it on the gods?

Fate, Greek and Roman Style

The Greeks and Romans found the idea of events happening without some type of guiding hand unsettling.

It was a lot more comforting to think gods and goddesses were dealing out the cards, even if they weren’t always nice about it. Enter the Greek Moirai, and their Roman counterparts the Parcae. We know them as The Three Fates.

As destiny incarnate, these three sisters control a person’s life from birth to death. Clotho, as in cloth, is the one spinning the threads of life. She spins and spins until Lachesis, the “Apportioner of Lots” measures it with her rod. Finally, there is Atropos. She gets…