Boethius & The Wheel of Fortune
The Wheel of Fortune, similar to the popular game show, has a lot to do with the luck of the draw, and essentially marks the instability of life. Named after the Roman Goddess, Fortuna, the Wheel of Fortune houses the Goddess at the top of the wheel, as she ultimately contains the power over people's fortune or misfortune (3). This so-called fortune is "represented by the wheel carrying people up and down," as seen in the image below (4). This medieval philosophy showed that because people are attached to the wheel, they have no way of escaping the fate of their fortune.
The fate of people comes from none other than Fortuna standing on top of the wheel, as she holds the power to bring good luck, but also the power to remove that good luck (5). As the wheel gets spun randomly by the Goddess, the positioning of the people change, making their luck and fortune change as well. Throughout medieval times, the Wheel of Fortune provided humans with an explanation for “all those things for which there seemed to be no explanation” because they viewed it as the main “controlling force” in life (5).
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| A Painting of The Wheel of Fortune with Fortuna placed in the center of the wheel (5). |
Boethius
The symbol of the Wheel of Fortune was analyzed and written about by Roman scholar, Boethius, in The Consolation of Philosophy. The Consolation of Philosophy included themes like nature of fortune, human happiness, the existence of God and evil, and human freedom and divine providence (1). Within this text, Boethius was able to extend on the idea of the Wheel of Fortune because he provided it with a Christian framework (3). In his explanation and adaptation of the Wheel, Boethius doesn’t ever spell out the idea that Fortune was a Goddess, which ultimately places Fortune under God. Providing the Wheel with a Christian framework solved part of the problem that the church had with fate, as that idea was pagan (5). This framework was “crucial for the preservation and continuation of the Wheel of Fortune as a motif,” as fortune is seen in literature even now (3). Boethius allowed for the people of the medieval time period to ponder such adaptations and ideas (1).
Works Cited
(1) “Boethius (480-524).” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
https://iep.utm.edu/boethius/#:~:text=Boethius%.
(2) King, Peter. “Boethius: The First of the Scholastics.” Carmina Philosophiae, vol. 16, 2007, pp.
23-50. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44032936.
(3) McGlone, Rachel. “The Wheel of Fortune”: How a Medieval Metaphor is Still Relevant Today.”
Purl and Ponder, 2020.
https://thiscraftyhistorian.wordpress.com/2020/04/22/the-wheel-of-fortune.
(4) Radding, Charles M. “Fortune and her Wheel: The Meaning of a Medieval Symbol.”
Mediaevistik, vol. 5, 1992, pp. 127-37. https://www.jstor.org/stable/42584434?seq=10.
(5) “The Wheel of Fortune.” The History Jar, 2021.
https://thehistoryjar.com/2021/02/16/the-wheel-of-fortune/.
I have prior knowledge of the Wheel of Fortune, but everything about Boethius was new to me. I find it interesting how he adapted it and was able to make this part of the medieval period.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting topic and I think it is cool that there is an entire gameshow based on a medieval source.
ReplyDeletethis was very interesting to read, I was unfamiliar with the whole thing of the wheel of fortune (other than the gameshow, of course), so it was neat to learn from this.
ReplyDelete