Plutus is the god of Riches, and as the minister of the deity of the dead,
inhabits the court of Pluto, thereby indicating that the precious metals
are in the bowels of the earth. He was brought up by the goddess of peace,
and the Greeks spoke of him as a fickle divinity, because represented as
blind, he spreads by chance in his rapid course, the gold, silver, and
precious stones, which escape from a box he holds in his hands; as lame,
because he came slow and gradually; and with wings, to intimate that he
flew away with greater velocity than he approached mankind.
Fortuna was the goddess of Fortune, and from her hands were derived riches
and poverty, pleasures and misfortunes, blessings and pains.
Governed by Destiny, she guides by Occasion; and before her marches
Necessity, the inflexible goddess. {165}
In Boeotia she had a statue, represented as holding Plutus in her arms, to
intimate that fortune is the source whence wealth and honours flow. She is
blind-folded, and her hand rests on a wheel, to intimate her inconstancy.
[Illustration]
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