03-16-2020, 08:56 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-16-2020, 09:03 PM by Dekalb_Blues.)
![[Image: Fortuna-engraving-Hans-Sebald-Beham-1541.jpg]](https://cdn.britannica.com/s:700x500/26/141126-050-40547278/Fortuna-engraving-Hans-Sebald-Beham-1541.jpg)
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Fortuna-Roman-goddess
https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/post/135...rocircular
"O varium fortune lubricum" -- Anon. 11th?-13th? c.
O variable slippery Fortune!
Your Tribunal gives a dubious judgment,
More than somewhat are they ready for this prize
Who worship your willing gifts
And claim a lofty place on your Wheel;
You put into preposterous doubt, however
The bullshit lifting up the poor,
The orators choosing the ruler.
What is built by Fortune, she levels;
Now he resigns, who previously served;
He who refused, she claims again,
Working to the contrary, giving gifts too fleeting;
Fickle are her many treaties,
The debilitated she makes powerful and noble,
And the noble she weakens under pressure.
How did Darius profit from his reign?
From Pompeii what did Rome gain?
Overcome was each by the sword.
Choose safety in the middle
Rather than seek a higher place on the Wheel,
The farther to fall from its summit:
For graver is a fall from prosperity,
And tougher, to desperation.
Relief from Fortune is fleeting.
Why, though in battle Troy was noble,
Is it now tearfully burnt to ruins?
Who for the blood of Rome lusted,
Who made a memory of the Greeks' eloquence,
Who the glory of Carthage broke?
Slippery Fate, she gives, she takes;
The one whom she cherishes, she shatters.
Nothing is more gratifying than Fortune's favor;
Nothing is sweeter among sweetness than glory,
If it would stay for long.
But it slips, flabby as a vegetable,
And it follows that the fields now in flower
Will be dry, you will see tomorrow.
So it would be improper not to send forth this song:
O variable slippery Fortune!
![[Image: 800px-Nuremberg_chronicles_-_Dance_of_De...IIv%29.jpg]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a7/Nuremberg_chronicles_-_Dance_of_Death_%28CCLXIIIIv%29.jpg/800px-Nuremberg_chronicles_-_Dance_of_Death_%28CCLXIIIIv%29.jpg)
Der Totentanz [The Dance of Death] Woodcut by Michael Wolgemut from Hartmann Schedel's Nuremburg Chronicle [Schedelsche
Weltchronik, or Schedel's World Chronicle] (1493)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danse_Macabre
(First published 1849)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totentanz_(Liszt)
![[Image: 4e4051bf60a0d3c9b14926cd379d5c7f--albert-camus.jpg]](https://i.pinimg.com/236x/4e/40/51/4e4051bf60a0d3c9b14926cd379d5c7f--albert-camus.jpg)
https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2015/jan/05/albert-camus-the-plague-fascist-death-ed-vulliamy
1958:
https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/fever-peggy-lee/
2020:
Fortuna ca. early A.D.:
![[Image: 61756ZHN52L._AC_SL1181_.jpg]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61756ZHN52L._AC_SL1181_.jpg)
Ca. 2020:
![[Image: corona-virus-chan-1080px-4chan-meme-pol-min.jpg]](https://ultramunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/corona-virus-chan-1080px-4chan-meme-pol-min.jpg)
A challenger appears!:
https://ultramunch.com/wp-content/upload...50-min.jpg