Fortune in the writings of Boethius and Dante

It is wiz of the most vast analyses of fortuna and allied problems in theology and philosophy that Western plan has produced. It draws heavily on the Greek traditions, synthesizes the roman traditions, both gentile and Christian, and thus provides later periods with the text from which all subsequent analyses of these problems had perforce to begin.

In tracing the origins of Boethius' concept of Fortune, Frakes looks back at the beginnings of the roman letters Imperium. He comments, "Now that the state had been essentially reduced to one man, the good fortune of the state depended upon that of this single individual. As a result, there developed the cults of the personal Fortuna of the Emperor Augustus . . . and later of bring home the bacon emperors."

As a further consequence, all the various goddesses Fortunae collapsed into a single Fortuna, and the Roman pantheon, long in decline, collapsed into the single goddess Fortuna Panthea. "She usurped the functions, symbols, and fifty-fifty the names (as secondary epithets) of the other deities, and in the end eclipsed them altogether. This is the plainly omnipotent madam Fortuna of the Boethian Prisoner's complaint in the Consolatio."

Frakes says that there appears to be little "character development" of Fortuna in the Roman literature, in which, at her very first appearance, she displays characteristics that are non opposite in any significant way from those associated with her in the Co

In the aesthesis that God whitethorn elect a certain race or res publica to a certain destiny, "We also arrive at his cognisance of how the individual may be required to receive and react to the purpose which God has conceived for him." Although Dante's sense of his consume misfortunes is strong, his sense of his own destiny and election in God's eyes is even stronger. Since Dante does not reserve a discourse on Fortune for Boethius in the Paradiso, but assigns it early on to Virgil, it seems natural to discern in Dante's Lady Fortuna the shadow of Destiny.

Magee, John C. "The Boethian Wheels of Fortune and Fate." Medieval Studies 49 (1987), 524-533.

Patch, Howard R. The Goddess Fortuna in Medieval Literature. New York: Octagon Books, 1974.

The Roman unemotionals believed that human natura and uirtus could repeal whatever obstacles Fortuna might put in people's paths, in the sense that her power is over only external matters, whereas the true Stoic is turned inward. However, even beyond an inner freedom from the vicissitudes of Fortuna, the Roman Stoics saw that one could to some extent escape Fortuna's watch by developing and exercising one's own uirtus. This sort of tranquillity lies in the background of Boethius' concept of Fortune as well.

Boethius' personation of Lady Fortuna in the Consolatio has two aspects. First, the general concept of Lady Fortuna as ruler of material goods was so common in what Frakes calls the "consolation genre" that "one can find a general source everywhere, but an actual source not at all." This genre has certainly never disappeared from the Western literary tradition--the tremendously influential Imitation of Christ by doubting Thomas ? Kempis of the Brethren of the Common Life is still a major instance of this genre. It has undergone a contemporary revival as what is currently called " recuperation literature," that is, writings in popular psychology and popular spiritualism designed to help the readers cope with the often devastating effects of vari
Ordercustompaper.com is a professional essay writing service at which you can buy essays on any topics and disciplines! All custom essays are written by professional writers!