The Magic of the Horse-shoe, with other folk-lore notes

Name: The Magic of the Horse-shoe, with other folk-lore notes
Author: Lawrence, Robert Means

Lawrence, Robert Means

Folklore

The Lamas of Tibet perform each year a peculiar scapegoat rite called the
Chase of the Demon of Ill-luck. One of their number, in fantastic garb
and with grotesquely painted face, sits in the market-place for a week
previously, and on the day of the ceremony this worthy, who is known as
a ghost-king, wanders about shaking a black yak’s tail over the heads of
the people, whereby their ill-luck is in some mystic way transferred to
him.[248]


IV. TEMPLES OF FORTUNE

Temples in honor of the Goddess Tyche were built at Elis, Corinth, and
in other Grecian cities; and in the second century A. D. the eminent
philanthropist, Herodes Atticus, erected for her a temple in Athens, the
ruins of which are believed still to exist.[249]

The western suburb of Syracuse, in Sicily, was called Τύχη, after a
temple of Tyche which adorned it.

Among the Italians the worship of Fortune became so popular that her
temples outnumbered all others. “We have built a thousand temples to
Fortune and not one to Reason,” remarked Fronto, the worthy tutor of
the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Of all these pagan edifices in Rome, but a
single one now remains, the temple of Fortuna Virilis, now the church of
Santa Maria Egiziaca.[250] It is a small Ionic tetrastyle building on the
left bank of the Tiber, a little north of the so-called Temple of the
Sun. But the most famous Italian temple of Fortune was at Preneste, an
ancient Latin town, now called Palestrina. Here oracles were consulted
and fugitives found a place of refuge.

In Great Britain there still exist a number of altars in honor of
Fortune, which date from the Roman occupation. One of these, on the line
of the wall of Antoninus in Scotland, was erected by soldiers of the
second and sixth legions. Another altar, dedicated to the same goddess,
was found at the headquarters of the sixth legion at Eboracum, the modern
city of York, and is still to be seen at the museum there.[251] The
inscription on this altar was copied by the writer during a recent visit
to York, and reads as follows:—

                               DEÆ FORTUNÆ
                                  SOSIA
                                 IUNCINA
                                Q. ANTONI
                                ISAURICI
                                LEG. AUG.


V. LUCK, ANCIENT AND MODERN

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

The Magic of the Horse-shoe, with other folk-lore notesLawrence, Robert Means

History

The Magic of the Horse-shoe, with other folk-lore notes

Lawrence, Robert Means

Folklore

The Lamas of Tibet perform each year a peculiar scapegoat rite called the
Chase of the Demon of Ill-luck. One of their number, in fantastic garb
and with grotesquely painted face, sits in the market-place for a week
previously, and on the day of the ceremony this worthy, who is known as
a ghost-king, wanders about shaking a black yak’s tail over the heads of
the people, whereby their ill-luck is in some mystic way transferred to
him.[248]


IV. TEMPLES OF FORTUNE

Temples in honor of the Goddess Tyche were built at Elis, Corinth, and
in other Grecian cities; and in the second century A. D. the eminent
philanthropist, Herodes Atticus, erected for her a temple in Athens, the
ruins of which are believed still to exist.[249]

The western suburb of Syracuse, in Sicily, was called Τύχη, after a
temple of Tyche which adorned it.

Among the Italians the worship of Fortune became so popular that her
temples outnumbered all others. “We have built a thousand temples to
Fortune and not one to Reason,” remarked Fronto, the worthy tutor of
the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Of all these pagan edifices in Rome, but a
single one now remains, the temple of Fortuna Virilis, now the church of
Santa Maria Egiziaca.[250] It is a small Ionic tetrastyle building on the
left bank of the Tiber, a little north of the so-called Temple of the
Sun. But the most famous Italian temple of Fortune was at Preneste, an
ancient Latin town, now called Palestrina. Here oracles were consulted
and fugitives found a place of refuge.

In Great Britain there still exist a number of altars in honor of
Fortune, which date from the Roman occupation. One of these, on the line
of the wall of Antoninus in Scotland, was erected by soldiers of the
second and sixth legions. Another altar, dedicated to the same goddess,
was found at the headquarters of the sixth legion at Eboracum, the modern
city of York, and is still to be seen at the museum there.[251] The
inscription on this altar was copied by the writer during a recent visit
to York, and reads as follows:—

                               DEÆ FORTUNÆ
                                  SOSIA
                                 IUNCINA
                                Q. ANTONI
                                ISAURICI
                                LEG. AUG.


V. LUCK, ANCIENT AND MODERN

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The Magic of the Horse-shoe, with other folk-lore notes

The Magic of the Horse-shoe, with other folk-lore notes

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