CHAPTER FOUR TYCHE I FORTUNA Unlike the deities considered previously, the personification Tyche may not have been represented in Archaic times, or, if she was, no evidence exists today concerning her early appearance. Moreover, there is no indi­ cation that later artists working in an archaistic style were aware of Ar­ chaic Tyche figures which could have served as models for imitation. 1 Both known types of archaistic Tyche representations adapt figures from other contexts and transform them into Tyche through the addition of the cornucopia. This recalls neo-Attic practice, and indeed, both types seem to have originated in the eclectically retrospective environment of the se­ cond and first centuries B.C. Since both were common as well in Imperial times, they can properly be considered here as Roman types. I. Hellenistic "Pergamene" Type The existence of a Tyche type which so closely corresponds to East Greek works of the second century B.C. prompts a brief reconsideration of the chronological questions raised concerning the Chian sculptor Boupalos. 2 Pausanias (IV,30,6) informs us that Boupalos' Tyche at Smyrna was the first to be shown with polos and cornucopia, and he would be correct if this statue was created by the Archaic Boupalos. If, however, this was the work of Heidenreich's Hellenistic Boupalos, it could hardly have been the first with cornucopia. Aside from Pausanias' remark, there is little if any evidence for Tyche representations before the fourth century B.C., but for that period there is an abundance of literary evidence,3 and at least one 1 As was the case for Athena at least. 2 See Heidenreich 1935, 691-696. His conclusions were immediately refuted by Rumpf (AA, 1936, 52-64 ), but he did succeed in identifying an eastern Hellenistic strain of archaism. For a more recent discussion: Fullerton 1987, 269. 3 G. Herzog-Hauser, RE 7A 2 (1948) 1643-1689, especially 1678-1682. Pausanias mentions several wooden images (e.g., Tyche Akraia at Sikyon; II, 7 ,5) and he calls some, "apxaiov" (e.g. at Pharai in Messenia; IV, 30,3), but those datable by historical associa­ tion or attribution begin in the fourth century. Praxiteles, for example, made several, in­ cluding one in Athens (Pliny, NH 36,23) and another in Megara (Pausanias 1,43,6). Most famous, of course, were those at Antioch and Alexandria, both early Hellenistic (RE 1684-1686). see also G. Herzog-Hauser, WienerStudien 63 (1948) 156-163. F. Hamdorf, Griechische Kultpersonijicationen der vorhellenistische Zeit (Mainz 1964) 3 7-39, discusses other early Tyche cults, but for these there is only indirect evidence. Several are postulated on the basis of Pausanias' mention of an old statue, but the existence of archaistic statues of Tyche would justify skepticism with regard to this line of reasoning. The existence of an ancient Tyche cult at Syracuse is based on the mention in late sources of a Tychaion in 86 TYCHE / FORTUNA actual example on an Attic votive relief. 4 However, the formal relation­ ship between the Tyche types in question and the dancers from the Perga­ mene palace is very close. If, as has been argued, these dancers are the Charites by a Hellenistic Boupalos, it is very likely that our type does reproduce his Tyche at Smyrna. Pausanias, who may have been aware that there had been a sixth century Boupalos, would then be in error here. 5 The female figures collected here which hold the cornucopia in the left arm (IA1 ,2,4,5) may reasonably be identified as Tyche representations. On the two marble figures (Figs.31-32), a trace of a second attribute, probably a rudder, is preserved at the figures' right side; the rudder as a secondary attribute of Tyche is well-known on Roman coins of Alexan­ dria, 6 and occurs earlier on a fourth century Arkadian decree relief. 7 The terracotta type with cornucopia and child (IA3) (Fig.33) has been identi­ fied as Aphrodite with Eros8 or by analogy with the famous group by Kephisodotos the elder, as Eirene with Ploutos. 9 The cornucopia could, however, suggest a connection with Tyche; Pausanias (II, 16, 2) mentions at least one statue of Tyche with Ploutos at Thebes, and certainly Tyche as bearer of Ploutos is not an obscure concept. On the other hand, depic­ tions on Panathenaic amphorae (of 360/59; archonship ofKallimedes) of a draped female statue holding both cornucopia and child have been inter­ preted as representations of Kephisodotos' Agora group. 10 These attrib- contexts which imply its existence in earlier times. Cicero states that a section of Syracuse was named for Tyche because of the ancient grove of Fortuna there (In Verrem 11,4, 119). Diodorus (II ,68, 1) mentions this same area in connection with events of the early fifth cen­ tury. None of the literary evidence, however, indicates absolutely that Tyche was represented before the fourth century B.C. Tyche may be represented on a late fifth centu­ ry amphoriskos together with Nemesis: Berlin 30036; ARV2 1173, 1; Heimarme Painter; RomMitt 47 (1932) pl. 7 .4. The identification is based on a partially preserved inscription; the figure has no attribute or other identifying characteristics. the first depiction with cor­ nucopia is on the Athens relief discussed below 4 Athens NM 1343; Sussserott 1938, 111, pl.17 ,2 5 Note, however, that Heidenreich would maintain that it was the Hellenistic works of which Pausanias was aware, while Pliny lists the sculptures by the Archaic Boupalos. 6 Catalogue of Greek Coins in the British Museum-Alexandria pl.11. For the rudder as Tyche attribute: RE 1684, 1686; it is here argued that Tyche borrows the rudder from Nemesis with whom she is closely associated. Note the existence of Nemesis figures similar to this type: Fullerton 1987, 269. 7 From Tegea. H. von Gaertringen, AthMitt 36 (1911) 349-360. A group of Roman Tyche-Fortuna statues with rudder and cornucopia reproduces an original which has been placed in the fourth century on the basis of style. See on the Vatican copy: Amelung, Vat­ Kat I 101, no.86. There is another replica in Istanbul, Mendel 1912, 356, no. 1117. 8 Roscher, MythLex I 410. 9 Heidenreich 1935, 696. IO P. Themelis, AAA 2 (1969) 409-416. For a more recent find of the type: Praktika,. 1979, pis. 35-3 7. .