Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art: The Dinner Party: Heritage Floor: Fortuna

An oracular goddess venerated throughout the Roman world, Fortuna was responsible for both good luck and bad. Her attributes—the cornucopia, rudder, ball, and blindfold—express different aspects of her powers. As a goddess of bounty and fruitfulness, her principal devotees were mothers. As a controller of fate, her shrines usually focused on a particular aspect of life in which devotees sought good fortune. Her oldest sanctuary, the Temple of Fortuna Primigenia in Praeneste, crowned a series of magnificent terraces linked by grand staircases, an imposing edifice visible from Rome as well as the sea.