Gods Of Luck And Chance

Tykhê, Tyche

Fortune, Chance

• Fortuna, Roman Goddess of Luck, Chance, and Fortune Fortuna is the Roman Goddess of Luck, Fate, and Fortune, as Her name implies. She was a very popular Goddess, and was worshipped under many epithets depending on the type of luck one wished to invoke or the circumstances in play.
• Adrius- God of Luck and Unforeseen FortuneAdrius is the God of Luck and Unforeseen Fortune, and he is also one of four gods throughout the pantheon who were once mortals.As luck would have it, Adrius simply happened upon his ascension. During the war of the gods, one of the gods.
• Bible verses about Good Luck. John 3:1-36 ESV / 8 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful. Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
• Was it a matter of luck? Reading the whole of 2 Chronicles 18, we find that God had His hand in the matter from the beginning. The soldier who shot the arrow was totally unaware of its trajectory, but God in His sovereignty knew all along it would mean the death of wicked King Ahab. A similar 'chance' occurrence takes place in the book of Ruth.

Dear God, I present to you all my worries. You are my God who will remain exalted here on earth and above in heaven. I pray that you will grant me and my family financial freedom. I pray for good fortune so that I can continue to support my family and help others. I thank you for your unconditional love that has sustained us this far.

TYKHE (Tyche) was the goddess of fortune, chance, providence and fate. She was usually honoured in a more favourable light as Eutykhia (Eutychia), goddess of good fortune, luck, success and prosperity.

Tykhe was depicted with a variety of attributes--holding a rudder, she was conceived as the divinity guiding and conducting the affairs of the world, and in this respect she was called one of the Moirai (Moirae, Fates); with a ball she represented the varying unsteadiness of fortune, unsteady and capable of rolling in any direction; with Ploutos (Plutus) or the cornucopia, she was the symbol of the plentiful gifts of fortune.

Nemesis (Fair Distribution) was cautiously regarded as the downside of Tykhe, one who provided a check on extravagant favours conferred by fortune. The pair were often depicted as companions in Greek vase painting. In the vase painting (right) Nemesis (Indignation) with her arm around Tykhe (Fortune) points an accusing fingure at Helene, who Aphrodite has persuaded to elope with Paris.

FAMILY OF TYCHE

PARENTS

[1] OKEANOS & TETHYS(Hesiod Theogony 360; Homeric Hymn 2.420)
[2] ZEUS(Orphic Hymn 72, Pindar Olympian Ode)
[3] PROMETHEUS(Alcman Frag 3)

OFFSPRING

[1] PLOUTOS(Aesop Fables 130, Pausanias 9.16.2)

ENCYCLOPEDIA

TYCHE (Tuchê). 1. The personification of chance or luck, the Fortuna of the Romans, is called by Pindar (Ol. xii. init.) a daughter of Zeus the Liberator. She was represented with different attributes. With a rudder, she was conceived as the divinity guiding and conducting the affairs of the world, and in this respect she is called one of the Moerae (Paus. vii. 26. § 3; Pind. Fragm. 75, ed. Heyne); with a ball she represents the varying unsteadiness of fortune; with Plutos or the horn of Amalthea, she was the symbol of the plentiful gifts of fortune. (Artemid. ii. 37.) Tyche was worshipped at Pharae in Messenia (Paus. iv. 30. § 2); at Smyrna, where her statue, the work of Bupalus, held with one hand a globe on her head, and in the other carried the horn of Amalthea (iv. 30. § 4); in the arx of Sicyon (ii. 7. § 5); at Aegeira in Achaia, where she was represented with the horn of Amalthea and a winged Eros by her side (vii. 26. § 3; comp. Plut. De Fort. Rom. 4; Arnob. adv. Gent. vi. 25); in Elis (Paus. vi. 25. § 4); at Thebes (ix. 16. § 1); at Lebadeia, together with agathos daimôn (ix. 39. § 4); at Olympia (v. 15. § 4), and Athens. (Aelian, V. H. ix. 39; comp. Fortuna.) 2. A nymph, one of the playmates of Persephone. (Hom. Hymn. in Cer. 421.) 3. One of the daughters of Oceanus. (Hes. Theog. 360.)

Source: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

CLASSICAL LITERATURE QUOTES

PARENTAGE OF TYCHE

Hesiod, Theogony 346 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) :
'Tethys bore to Okeanos (Oceanus) the swirling Potamoi (Rivers) . . . She [Tethys] brought forth also a race apart of daughters, who with lord Apollon and the Rivers have the young in their keeping all over the earth, since this right from Zeus is given them. They are Peitho . . . Kalypso (Calypso), Eudora and Tykhe (Tyche) [in a list of names] . . . Now these are the eldest of the daughters who were born to Tethys and Okeanos, but there are many others beside these.'

Pindar, Nemean Ode 12. 1 ff (trans. Conway) (Greek lyric C5th B.C.) :
'Daughter of Zeus Eleutherios (Liberator), Tykhe (Tyche, Fortune) our saviour goddess.'

Alcman, Fragment 64 (trans. Campbell, Vol. Greek Lyric II) (Greek lyric C7th B.C.) :
'Tykhe (Tyche, Fortune) sister of Eunomia (Right Order) and Peitho (Persuasion) daughter of Prometheus.'

Orphic Hymn 72 to Tyche (trans. Taylor) (Greek hymns C3rd B.C. to 2nd A.D.) :
'Queen Tykhe (Tyche) . . . born of Eubouleos (Eubuleus) [Zeus, the Counsellor] famed.'

TYCHE COMPANION OF PERSEPHONE

Homeric Hymn 2 to Demeter 5 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C7th or 6th B.C.) :
'She [Persephone] was playing with the deep-bosomed daughters of Okeanos (Oceanus) and gathering flowers over a soft meadow, roses and crocuses and beautiful violets, irises also and hyacinths and the narcissus.'

Bingo casino games free. Homeric Hymn 2 to Demeter 415 ff :
'[Persephone relates the story of her abduction to her mother Demete r:] All we were playing in a lovely meadow, Leukippe (Leucippe) and Phaino (Phaeno) and Elektra (Electra) and Ianthe, Melita also and Iakhe with Rhodea and Kallirhoe (Callirhoe) and Melobosis and Tykhe (Tyche) and Okyrhoe (Ocyrhoe), fair as a flower, Khryseis (Chryseis), Ianeira, Akaste (Acaste) and Admete and Rhodope and Plouto (Pluto) and charming Kalypso (Calypso); Styx too was there and Ourania (Urania) and lovely Galaxaura with Pallas [Athena] who rouses battles and Artemis delighting in arrows: we were playing and gathering sweet flowers in our hands, soft crocuses mingled with irises and hyacinths, and rose-blooms and lilies, marvellous to see, and the narcissus which the wide earth caused to grow yellow as a crocus.'

Pausanias, Description of Greece 4. 30. 4 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
'Homer is the first whom I know to have mentioned Tykhe (Tyche) in his poems. He did so in the Hymn to Demeter, where he enumerates the daughters of Okeanos (Oceanus), telling how they played with Kore (Core) [Persephone] the daughter of Demeter, and making Tykhe one of them.'

TYCHE AS THE CONSTELLATION VIRGO

The constellation Virgo was usually identified with the goddess Dike (Justice).

Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica 2. 25 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
'Constellation Virgo . . . Others call her Fortuna [Tykhe (Tyche)].'

TYCHE GODDESS OF FORTUNE

Pindar, Olympian Ode 12. 1 ff (trans. Conway) (Greek lyric C5th B.C.) :
'Daughter of Zeus Eleutherios (the Liberator), Tykhe (Tyche, Fortune) our saviour goddess, I pray your guardian care for Himera, and prosper her city's strength. For your hand steers the ships of ocean on their flying course, and rules on land the march of savage wars, and the assemblies of wise counsellors.'

Pindar, Isthmian Ode 4. 48 ff :
'Yet even for those who strive, Tykhe (Tyche, Fortune) maybe conceals her light, ere yet their steps attain the furthest goal; for her gifts render both of good and ill. And often does the craft of lesser souls outstrip and bring to naught the strength of better men.'

Chinese God Of Luck

Simonides, Fragment 8 (trans. Campbell, Vol. Greek Lyric III) (Greek lyric C6 to C5th B.C.) :
'If the greatest part of virtue is to die nobly, then Tykhe (Tyche, Fortune) granted it to us above all others; for we strove to crown Greece with freedom.'

Greek Lyric V Anonymous, Fragment 1019 (from Stobaeus, Anthology) :
'Tykhe (Tyche, Fortune), beginning and end for mankind, you sit in Sophia's (Wisdom's) seat and give honour to mortal deeds; from you comes more good than evil, grace shines about your gold wing, and what the scale of your balance gives is the happiest; you see a way out of the impasse in troubles, and you bring bright light in darkness, you most excellent of gods.'

Aeschylus, Agamemnon 661 ff (trans. Weir Smyth) (Greek tragedy C5th B.C.) :
'[The ships of Agamemnon alone escaped the storms sent to destroy the Greek fleet returning from Troy :] Ourselves, however, and our ship, its hull unshattered, some power, divine not human, preserved by stealth or intercession, laying hand upon its helm; and Savior Fortune (tykhê sotêr) chose to sit aboard our craft so that it should neither take in the swelling surf at anchorage nor drive upon a rock-bound coast.'

Aeschylus, Libation Bearers 55 ff :
'The awe of majesty [of kings] once unconquered, unvanquished, irresistible in war, that penetrated the ears and heart of the people, is now cast off [with death]. But there is still fear. And Eutykhia (Eutychia, Prosperity)--this, among mortals, is a god and more than a god. But the balance of Dike (Justice) keeps watch: swiftly it descends on those in the light; sometimes pain waits for those who linger on the frontier of twilight; and others are claimed by strengthless night.'

Aeschylus, Libation Bearers 963 ff :
'But soon time (khronos) that accomplishes all will pass the portals of our house, and then all pollution will be expelled from the hearth by cleansing rites that drive out calamity. The dice of fortune (tykhai) will turn as they fall and lie with faces all lovely to behold, favorably disposed to whoever stays in our house.'

Aeschylus, Doubtul Fragment 254 (from Stobaeus, Anthology 1. 6. 16) :
'Sovereign of all the gods is Tykhe (Tyche, Fortune), and these other names are given her in vain; for she alone disposeth all things as she wills.'

Aesop, Fables 84 (from Chambry & Avianus, Fabulae 12) (trans. Gibbs) (Greek fable C6th B.C.) :
'A farmer struggling as he plunged his plough-share into the earth saw a treasure-trove leap forth from the furrow. All in a rush, he immediately abandoned the shameful plow, leading his oxen to better seed. Straightaway he obediently built an altar to the Goddess Ge/Tellus (Gaea, Earth), who had gladly bestowed on him the wealth contained within her. The Goddess Tykhe/Fortuna (Tyche, Fortune), feeling slighted that he had not thought her likewise worthy of an offering of incense, admonished the farmer, thinking of the future while he was rejoicing in his new-found affairs : ‘Now you do not offer the gifts that you have found to my shrine, but you prefer to make other gods the sharers of your good fortune. Yet when your gold is stolen and you are stricken with sadness, you will make your complaints to me first of all, weeping over your loss.''
[N.B. There are two extant versions of this fable, one in Greek and the other Latin. In the latter the names Fortuna and Tellus are used in place of Tykhe and Ge.]

Aesop, Fables 261 (from Chambry & Babrius, Fabulae Aesopeae 49) :
'The Traveler and Tykhe (Tyche, Fortune). A Traveler wearied from a long journey lay down, overcome with fatigue, on the very brink of a deep well. Just as he was about to fall into the water, Lady Tykhe (Fortune) it is said, appeared to him and waking him from his slumber thus addressed him : ‘Good Sir, pray wake up: for if you fall into the well, the blame will be thrown on me, and I shall get an ill name among mortals; for I find that men are sure to impute their calamities to me, however much by their own folly they have really brought them on themselves.'
Everyone is more or less master of his own fate.'

Aesop, Fables 535 (from Life of Aesop 94) :
'Zeus once ordered Tykhe (Tyche, Fortune) to show mankind the two ways: one the way of freedom and the other the way of slavery. Prometheus made the way of freedom rough at the beginning, impassable and steep, with no water anywhere to drink, full of brambles, and beset with dangers on all sides at first. Eventually, however, it became a smooth plain, lined with paths and filled with groves of fruit trees and waterways. Thus the distressing experience ended in repose for those who breath the air of freedom. The way of slavery, however, started out as a smooth plain at the beginning, full of flowers, pleasant to look at and quite luxurious, but in the end it became impassable, steep and insurmountable on all sides.'
[N.B. In another extant version of this fable Tykhe is replaced by Prometheus.]

Aesop, Fables 469 (from Avianus 12) :
'A farmer had started turning the earth with his plow when he saw a treasure suddenly spring into view from the depths of the furrow. His spirit soared as he abandoned the lowly plow and drove his oxen off to better pastures. He immediately built an altar to the earth goddess Tellus (Earth) [Gaia], worshipping her for having happily bestowed on him the wealth that had been buried inside her. While the farmer was rejoicing in his new circumstances, the goddess Fortuna (Fortune) [Tyche] was indignant that he had not considered her equally worthy of incense and offerings. She thus appeared to the man and gave him this warning about the future : ‘Instead of making an offering of your new-found wealth in my temple, you are sharing it with all the other gods. Yet when your gold is stolen and you are stricken with grief, then you will turn to me first of all in your despair and deprivation!''

Aesop, Fables 470 (from Babrius 49) :
'A workman had thoughtlessly fallen asleep one night next to a well. While he slept, he seemed to hear the voice of Tykhe (Tyche), the goddess of fortune, as she stood there beside him. ‘Hey you,' the goddess said, ‘you'd better wake up! I am afraid that if you fall into the well, I will be the one that people blame, giving me a bad reputation. In general, people blame me for everything that happens to them, including the unfortunate events and tumbles for which a person really has only himself to blame.''

Plato, Laws 757b (trans. Bury) (Greek philosopher C4th B.C.) :
'[Plato describes a lottery which he proposes be used to select the beauracrats of a State :] In the assignment of honors . . . employ the lot to give even results in the distributions . . . It is the judgment of Zeus [i.e. Zeus the god whose will is reflected in the outcome of the lottery], and men it never assists save in small measure, but in so far as it does assist either States or individuals, it produces all things good; for it dispenses more to the greater and less to the smaller, giving due measure to each according to nature; and with regard to honors also, by granting the greater to those that are greater in goodness, and the less to those of the opposite character in respect of goodness and education, it assigns in proportion what is fitting to each . . . for the same reason it is necessary to make use also of the equality of the lot, on account of the discontent of the masses, and in doing so to pray, calling upon god [Zeus] and Tykhe Agathe (Tyche Agatha, Good Fortune) to guide for them the lot aright towards the highest justice.'

Pausanias, Description of Greece 4. 30. 4 - 6 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
'The people of Pharia [in Messenia] possess also a temple of Tykhe (Tyche) and an ancient image. Homer is the first whom I know to have mentioned Tykhe in his poems. He did so in the Hymn to Demeter, where he enumerates the daughters of Okeanos (Oceanus), telling how they played with Kore (Core) [Persephone] the daughter of Demeter, and making Tykhe one of them. The lines are : ‘We all in a lovely meadow, Leukippe, Phaino, Electre and Ianthe, Melobosis and Tykhe and Okyrhoe with a face like a flower.'
He said nothing further about this goddess being the mightiest of gods in human affairs and displaying greatest strength, as in the Iliad he represented Athena and Enyo as supreme in war, and Artemis feared in childbirth, and Aphrodite heeding the affairs of marriage. But he makes no other mention of Tykhe. Bouplaos (Buplaus) a skilful temple-architect and carver of images, who made the statue of Tykhe at Smyrna, was the first whom we know to have represented her with the heavenly sphere upon her head and carrying in one hand the horn of Amaltheia, as the Greeks call it, representing her functions to this extent. The poems of Pindar later contained references to Tykhe, and it is he who called her Supporter of the City.'

Orphic Hymn 72 to Tyche (trans. Taylor) (Greek hymns C3rd B.C. to 2nd A.D.) :
'To Tykhe (Tyche, Fortune), Fumigation from Frankincense. Approach, queen Tykhe, with propitious mind and rich abundance, to my prayer inclined: placid and gentle, mighty named, imperial Artemis, born of Eubouleos [i.e. Zeus Eubuleus] famed, mankind's unconquered endless praise is thine, sepulchral, widely wandering power divine! In thee our various mortal life is found, and come from thee in copious wealth abound; while others mourn thy hand averse to bless, in all the bitterness of deep distress. Be present, Goddess, to thy votaries kind, and give abundance with benignant mind.'

Aelian, Historical Miscellany 2. 29 (trans. Wilson) (Greek rhetorician C2nd to 3rd A.D.) :
'Pittakos (Pittacus) [ruler of Mytilene ca 600 B.C.] made a ladder for the temples of Mytilene, not to serve any useful purpose but simply as an offering. His intention was to hint that fortune (tykhe) moves up and down, with the lucky as it were climbing up and the unlucky coming down.'

Aelian, Historical Miscellany 3. 23 :
'Alexandros' [Alexander the Great's] achievements were splendid . . . Let most of it be put down to Tykhe (Tyche, Fortune) who favoured Alexandros, if one wishes to be cautious. But Alexandros was great because he was not defeated by Tykhe (Fortune) and did not give up in the face of her persistent attentions to him.'

Aelian, Historical Miscellany 13. 43 :
'Note that the Athenian general Timotheus was reckoned to be fortunate. People said fortune was responsible, and Timotheus had no part in it. They ridiculed him on the stage, and painters portrayed him asleep, with Tykhe (Fortune) hovering above his head and pulling the cities into her net.'

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 16. 220 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :
'And you Tykhe (Tyche, Luck), how many shapes you take, how you make playthings of the children of men! Be gracious, all-subduer!'

FORTUNA ROMAN GODDESS OF FORTUNE

Fortuna was the Roman equivalent of the Greek Tykhe. She also resembles the Greek goddesses of fate Moira and Aisa.

Seneca, Hercules Furens 524 ff (trans. Miller) (Roman tragedy C1st A.D.) :
'O Fortuna (Fortune), jealous of the brave, in allotting thy favours how unjust art thou unto the good!'

Seneca, Medea 159 ff :
'Fortuna (Fortune) fears the brave, the cowardly overwhelms.'

Seneca, Medea 286 ff :
'The estate of thrones, which fickle Fortuna (Fortune) disturbs with changeful lot.' Encrypt zip on mac.

Seneca, Oedipus 6 ff :
'Does any man rejoice in royalty? O deceitful good, how many ills dost hide beneath thy smiling face! As lofty peaks do ever catch the blasts, and as the cliff, which with its jutting rocks cleaves the vast deep, is beaten by the waves of even a quiet sea, so does exalted empire lie exposed to Fortuna (Fortune).'

Seneca, Oedipus 81 ff :
'What boots it, husband, to make woe heavier by lamentation? This very thing, methinks, is regal--to face adversity and, the more dubious thy station and the more the greatness of empire totters to its fall, the more firm to stand, brave with unfaltering foot. ‘Tis not a manly thing to turn the back to Fortuna (Fortune).'

Seneca, Oedipus 786 ff :
'How heartless Fortuna (Fortune) assails me on every hand!'

Seneca, Phaedra 978 ff :
'Fortuna (Fortune) without order rules the affairs of men, scatters her gifts with unseeing hand, fostering the worse; dire lust prevails against pure men, and crime sits regnant in the lofty palace. The rabble rejoice to give government to the vile, paying high honours even where they hate. Warped are the rewards of uprightness sad virtue gains; wretched poverty dogs the pure, and the adulterer, strong in wickedness, reigns supreme.'

Seneca, Phaedra 1141 ff :
'On doubtful wings flies the inconstant hour, nor does swift Fortuna (Fortune) pledge loyalty to any.'

Seneca, Troades 258 ff :
'Ungoverned power no one can long retain; controlled, it lasts; and the higher Fortuna (Fortune) has raised and exalted the might of man, the more does it become him to be modest in prosperity, to tremble at shifting circumstance, and to fear the gods when they are overkind. That greatness can be in a moment overthrown I have learned by conquering. Does Troy make us too arrogant and bold? We Greeks are standing in the place whence she has fallen.'

Seneca, Troades 695 ff :
'Pity a mother, calmly and patiently listen to her pious prayers, and the higher the gods have exalted thee, the more gently bear down upon the fallen. What is given to misery is a gift to Fortuna (Fortune) [i.e. the goddess accepts generosity to the miserable as an offering, which she repays in the hour of need]. So may thy chaste wife's couch see thee again; so may Laertes [your father] prolong his years till he welcome thee home once more; so may thy son succeed thee.'

Seneca, Troades 734 ff :
'As for Troy's throne, let Fortuna (Fortune) bear that whithersoe'er she will.'

Statius, Silvae 3. 3. 85 (trans. Mozley) (Roman poetry C1st A.D.) :
'And now from on high a light illumined his loyal home, and Fortuna (Fortune) towering to her loftiest entered apace.'

Statius, Silvae 5. 1. 137 ff :
'What god joined Fortuna (Fortune) and Invidia (Envy) [Nemesis or Zelos] in truceless kinship? Who bade the cruel goddesses engage in unending war? Will the one set her mark upon no house, but the other must straightway fix it with her grim glance, and with savage hand make havoc of its gladness? Happy and prosperous was this abode, no shock assailed it, no thought of sorrow; what cause was there to have fear of Fortuna, treacherous and fickle though she be, while Caesar was favourable? Yet the jealous Fata (Fate) [Moira] found a way, and barbarous violence entered that blameless home.'

Apuleius, The Golden Ass 4. 31 ff (trans. Walsh) (Roman novel C2nd A.D.) :
'The lowest possible specimen of humanity, one who as the victim of Fortuna (Fortune) has lost status, inheritance and security, a man so disreputable that nowhere in the world can he find an equal in wretchedness.'

Apuleias, The Golden Ass 7. 2 ff :
'Learned men of old had good grounds for envisaging and describing Fortuna (Fortune) as blind and utterly sightless [i.e. like Ploutos (Plutus) the god of wealth]. That goddess, I mused, ever bestows her riches on the wicked and the unworthy, never favouring anyone by discerning choice, but on the contrary preferring to lodge with precisely the people to whom she should have given wide berth, if she had eyes to see. Worst of all, she foists on us reputations at odds with and contrary to the truth, so that the evil man boasts in the glory of being honest, while by contrast he transparently innocent man is afflicted with a damaging reputation.'

Apuleius, The Golden Ass 6. https://walkdownload.mystrikingly.com/blog/hot-slot-game. 19 ff :
'I implore you by your personal Fortuna (Fortune) and your Genios (Genius, Guardian Spirit)to come to the aid of this destitute old man.'

Apuleius, The Golden Ass 9. 1 ff :
'But truly, if Fortuna (Fortune) disapproves, nothing can turn out right for any mortal, and neither wise planning nor shrewd remedies can overtun or reshape the pre-ordained arrangements of divine providence.'

ANCIENT GREEK & ROMAN ART

N16.1 Nemesis & Tyche

Athenian Red Figure Vase Painting C5th B.C.

O5.1 Nemesis & Eutychia

God Of Luck And Fortune

Athenian Red Figure Vase Painting C5th B.C.

SOURCES (ALL TYCHE PAGES)

GREEK

• Hesiod, Theogony- Greek Epic C8th - 7th B.C.
• The Homeric Hymns- Greek Epic C8th - 4th B.C.
• Aesop, Fables - Greek Fables C6th B.C.
• Pindar, Odes - Greek Lyric C5th B.C.
• Greek Lyric III Simonides, Fragments - Greek Lyric C6th - 5th B.C.
• Greek Lyric V Anonymous, Fragments - Greek Lyric B.C.
• Aeschylus, Agamemnon - Greek Tragedy C5th B.C.
• Aeschylus, Libation Bearers - Greek Tragedy C5th B.C.
• Aeschylus, Fragments - Greek Tragedy C5th B.C.
• Plato, Laws - Greek Philosophy C4th B.C.
• Strabo, Geography - Greek Geography C1st B.C. - C1st A.D.
• Pausanias, Description of Greece- Greek Travelogue C2nd A.D.
• The Orphic Hymns- Greek Hymns C3rd B.C. - C2nd A.D.
• Aelian, On Animals - Greek Natural History C2nd - 3rd A.D.
• Aelian, Historical Miscellany - Greek Rhetoric C2nd - 3rd A.D.
• Nonnus, Dionysiaca- Greek Epic C5th A.D.

ROMAN

• Hyginus, Astronomica- Latin Mythography C2nd A.D.
• Seneca, Hercules Furens- Latin Tragedy C1st A.D.
• Seneca, Medea- Latin Tragedy C1st A.D.
• Seneca, Oedipus- Latin Tragedy C1st A.D.
• Seneca, Phaedra- Latin Tragedy C1st A.D.
• Seneca, Troades- Latin Tragedy C1st A.D.
• Statius, Silvae - Latin Poetry C1st A.D.
• Apuleius, The Golden Ass - Latin Novel C2nd A.D.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Lucky.

That is not a word which Christians like very much. Our mothers taught us to resist referring to a certain person as just being 'lucky' in life. Most of us were taught to avoid thinking that once we got out of college, we'd 'try out our luck' at a certain profession. We prefer to call successful people 'blessed.' We prefer not 'to try out our luck' but to 'seek God's providential guidance.' I was even upbraided once for using the word 'unfortunately' in a sermon. We Christians do not believe in 'fortune,' this earnest man informed me. There is nothing either 'fortunate' or 'unfortunate' in life. (Thereafter I began to substitute the word 'unhappily' every time I was tempted to use 'unfortunately' in a sermon!)

Curiously, however, science has been talking about luck, chance, and randomness a lot more in the last seventy-five or so years. Quantum indeterminancy, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, and so-called 'Chaos Theory' have all pointed to a universe which, at least on the physical level, seems to have a certain degree of randomness built into it. Ironically, one of the discoveries that has led to this is something which we Christians would probably applaud: namely, science has discovered that the universe is much more unified and interconnected than was once thought. The physical world looks like a delicately designed web instead of a long string of disconnected particles.

Since we Christians believe that God designed this cosmos, we are not surprised to learn that it has a certain unity to it. But it is that very interconnectedness which has led to 'Chaos Theory.' Basically what this postulate states is that at the quantum level of physics--way down at that very tiny, most fundamental level of particles--everything is so influenced by everything else that there is never any predicting just how events will turn out. The classic example is the 'butterfly effect.' Ever wonder why it can be so hard to predict the weather? https://torrentsafety.mystrikingly.com/blog/totalfinder-1-2-2-ubk-download-free. Science may now have an answer because it turns out that the flap of a butterfly's wing over Calder Plaza today may well influence the whipping up of a thunderstorm over Bangladesh next week! That, by the way, is not some cutesy exaggeration: it looks like the truth!

Einstein is the one who kicked off the chain of discoveries which led to such theories but he didn't like the results one bit. 'God does not play dice with the universe,' he famously said. Reality just cannot be that sensitive and seemingly random. Over the fireplace in the math department at Princeton University is another, somewhat less famous, quote of Einstein: 'Raffiniert is der Herr Gott, aber boshaft ist Er nicht.' 'The Lord God is clever but he's not devious.' God does not play tricks on us, in other words. Life has to make sense on both the subtle and the obvious level. There is a plan, a blueprint, a reliable equation which undergirds all events, things, creatures, and certainly human beings.

I'll leave it for another occasion to ponder whether Christians could accept a universe into which God himself may have programmed a degree of randomness. But for tonight it will be enough to see that, not surprisingly, the Teacher of Ecclesiastes joins contemporary science in casting into doubt just how predictable this life is. You expect that much from Qoheleth! Just one thing is certain, he says: we will all die. Beyond that, however, the Teacher is wide open to a great many seemingly random events of, as he puts it in verse 11, 'time and chance.'

In verse 1 the Teacher even leaves open the question of what God will do with the most holy of people after they die. Even if you lived a good life, the Teacher says, you face this question: After you die, will you encounter love or hate; a divine smile or a terrifying scowl? Like the verse from chapter 3 which questioned whether human souls really do go to God after death, so also this verse may be highly unsettling to us.

But it's not just this one verse. The whole chapter is unsettling (again!). Life looks so random, the Teacher says. Dim-witted folks whose minds resemble 25-watt bulbs are as likely to succeed as bright intellectuals who shine like 300-watt floodlights. Swift runners may well trip and lose a race to slower contenders. A well-trained and highly equipped army may lose the battle to an inferior opponent just because a thunderstorm made their tanks get stuck in the mud. There are lots of wealthy people who never bothered with college even as there are people with two Ph.D's who cannot find work.

In verses 11-12 the Teacher underscores something we all know only too well: life is not fair. We perhaps are no longer as vocal about it as when we were young children out on the playgrounds of life, but even most of us who are now well-seasoned adults have many times when we want to shout out at the top of our lungs that childhood cry, 'But that's not fair!' We worked harder than Harry but guess who got the promotion? We studied longer than Laurie but guess who got the top-notch teaching post? We got better grades than Jeremy but guess who, even before he graduated, had to beat off job offers with a stick whereas all the resumés we sent out seem to have vanished in the mist?

Ours is a backwards, mixed-up world. As Christians, we chalk this up to sin. Life is not the way it's supposed to be. Our neighbor cuts corners on his taxes every year and never hears a peep out of the IRS. We try to be scrupulously honest every year but guess who gets caught on a math error (and then fined for it to boot)? Somewhat devious wheelers and dealers play the stock market in ways which raise all kinds of ethical issues but they make a fortune doing it. A kindly widow in West Michigan makes precisely one big investment in her life in something called IRM, and guess what happens?

When the Teacher notes in verse 11 that 'the race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned,' he is not merely recording what he sees under the sun, he's lamenting it! His only explanation is that 'time and chance happen to them all.' In other words, this is just how things shake out in a world as weirdly broken as this one. Life looks chaotically random. The wrong people as often as not get ahead, get away with it, get the reward.

Although more poignant and curmudgeonly than other parts of the Bible, Ecclesiastes is hardly the only passage that notes these inconsistencies. The entire Book of Job could be seen as a kind of extended argument against reducing life to simple quid quo pro formulations whereby people always get rewarded or punished according to their just deserts. A fair number of the psalms of lament in the Book of Psalms decry how the wicked prosper even while the righteous suffer injustice. And although many of the Old Testament prophets speak words of judgment on those who get away with murder by unfair business practices, the fact of the matter was that those merchants did get away with it.

But if this were all the Bible had to say on the subject--if the Teacher's bitter lament about the blind luck of life were the Scripture's last word--then we would be left with only cynicism and bitterness. If the only sure thing in an unfair world were death--and if our only comfort were the fact that death, as the great leveler and equalizer of all, will at last even out the scales of life--then the Bible would be a grim book after all. But there is most certainly something more in the Bible. We can move beyond only noting and shaking our heads over life's inherent unfairness.

We don't need to be so grim. Why? Because God himself was not content with life's lop-sidedness. Instead God himself got deep inside the unfairness of life and exploded (or imploded) that imbalance from the inside out. God did an end-run on unfairness by letting himself become the victim of it! In a sense, God through Jesus the Son took advantage of and exploited the upside-down, backwards nature of life in a fallen creation.

Because of sin it is true that as often as not the race is not to the swift and the battle is not to the strong. So God the Son didn't even try to compete on those levels--Jesus did not try to be swift or strong. Instead Jesus emptied himself, gave up divine strength. As Paul put it in Philippians 2, Jesus made himself nothing for our sakes. Jesus let himself lose the race and seemingly lose the battle. The cross, Paul said more than once in his New Testament letters, looks like foolishness to the world. As symbols of hope go, the cross is ludicrous! Yet it is the very wisdom of God.

God the Son sunk himself deep down into the unfairness of life by letting himself become the victim of the ultimate unfairness, of the ultimate cosmic example of justice miscarried. But through the unfair thing that happened to Jesus, because of the miscarriage of justice which Pontius Pilate so blithely oversaw, there is hope and salvation for all the rest of us who suffer unfairly and unjustly in this backwards world.

'Meaningless, meaningless, all is meaningless, all is Phhht,' the Teacher of Ecclesiastes says over and over again, numbing his readers with this dismal refrain. As we said in the first sermon in this series, it is utter candor and honesty that leads to that mournfully cynical cry. But precisely because God did not disagree with this fundamental assessment of a world gone bad, precisely because God himself both recognized and despised the way things mostly go in this world, he sent Jesus the Son to meet the 'meaninglessness' of Qoheleth head on. Jesus entered the void, dove into the abyss of this world's unfairness. He died what was by all appearances a meaningless, senseless death.

'What a waste,' passersby to the cross on Skull Hill might have said that dark Friday afternoon. Jesus let himself get 'wasted'-- ever notice that slang term that refers to killing someone in an act of wanton violence? But by being wasted as the victim of an unfair world Jesus somehow saves us from the unfairness of this life. Jesus identified himself with anyone who ever felt that he deserved better than he got. He was strong and yet let himself get shoved around by a group of rowdy Roman soldiers as though he were a fifty-pound weakling. Jesus knows what it's like to be strong but still lose. He was the very wisdom of God incarnate and yet allowed himself to be treated like a fool, dressed up in a moth-eaten purple curtain and paraded through the streets like the village idiot. Jesus knows what it's like to be intelligent but still watch dim-witted people come out on top.

Jesus met the unfairness, the backwardness, the inexplicable randomness of raw meaninglessness head on. But . . . that colossus of unfairness, that juggernaut of injustice that landed him on a cross, somehow turned things around. And one of the principal things affected was death itself. Like many writers in the Old Testament era, the Teacher of Ecclesiastes sees death as a very dark, very uncertain, possibly finally end to anything which makes human life valuable. What happens to us after we die is uncertain, whether God will be friendly or hostile to even the best of people is uncertain, and just generally it looks like the dead--if they have a conscious existence at all in the grave--are in some kind of morbid paralyzed state, unable to do anything, think anything, say anything.

God Of Bad Luck

In a book full of life's meaninglessness, death is the nadir, the very epitome, of all meaninglessness. But in Christ we believe meaninglessness has been met and so even the grave is now redolent of resurrection hope. For now death is still a tragedy, but it is not a final or ultimate tragedy. It is not the end of everything for all those whose spiritual address is 'in Christ.' Yes, death does come to all, it is a common fate. It can even can serve as a reminder that no matter what social, economic, racial, or other stratifications people try to live by on this earth, in the end everybody arrives at the same level playing field of a death they cannot prevent.

But for those in Christ the utter meaninglessness and seeming 'dead end' road of the grave is gone. Jesus entered the rhythms of life's fundamental unfairness to rescue each victim of inequity in a salvation and a love stronger than death.

God Luck And Good Speed

Yet it is grander, more startling than even just that. In one of his lovely sermons about ten years ago Neal Plantinga pondered the story of Cain and Abel. In a way, for our purpose tonight, we can see that story as perhaps the Bible's first example not just of fratricide, not just of envy, but also as the first instance of gross unfairness. Abel was the innocent and good and righteous man. He was the pious one whose offering was more pure, more deserving. Abel's sacrifice was from the firstfruits of his harvest, an offering consistent with the God who deserves a portion not of our leftovers but of our best. Cain, on the other hand, was the slouch, the one who grabbed just any old lamb from his flock, reserving his firstborn and best sheep for himself.

In God's eyes Abel deserved to get ahead, deserved the extra favor from God he got. But that was just from the divine perspective--a viewpoint as often as not hidden from the eyes of the world. From the human side of things Abel was the nice guy who finished last. He was the good son who died too soon, a victim of injustice, just the first example in a long series calamatis, a never-ending string of unjust calamities wherein the more deserving end up on the bottom of the heap while the dim-witted and slovenly like Cain go on to live a long life. As Plantinga said, we look to Jesus for hope where this world's Abels are concerned. We look to Jesus to raise up in the resurrection all the saintly people whose blood cries out from the soil of this unfair world.

But in encountering and ultimately unmaking the meaninglessness and unfairnesses of life, Jesus did more. He raises Cain, too. Jesus went down into that grave which looked so hopeless and bleak to the Teacher and in so doing Jesus took the place of innocent Abel and of every nice, good person who ever finished last. But he took Cain's place, too. 'He who knew no sin was made to be sin for our sakes,' the New Testament tells us. He who was not Cain became Cain for us, and Abel, too. And on Easter morning when the stone was rolled away and Jesus emerged from the grave 'leading captives in his train,' those who stumbled out of the tomb with Jesus, squinting against the bright light of the new dawn's sunlight, were all of this worlds Abels and all its Cains as well.

In his own flesh Jesus took all that is innocent and brought it together with all that is guilty. He took all that is fair in God's desires for this world and brought it into reconciling contact with all that is unfair in a world gone bad. He reconciled them in his own flesh, Paul says, and so won a cosmic victory over death--this is a victory the full effects of which we have only begun to suspect and see.

Male God Of Luck

Time and chance may happen to us all. But thanks be to God that Christ Jesus has 'happened' to us, too. In our time and space, in a world of chaos and luck, randomness and chance, the providence of God won the victory after all. And if you know Christ Jesus and the power of his resurrection life hidden in you, then it really is true what your mother told you: you're not lucky, you are blessed.

Blessed.