FORTUNE. By the name of Fortune is understood a blind and unaccountable Deity, who, according to the Heathens, presided over all events, and distributed good and evil, as she was moved by her own humour and caprice. The ancient Greeks were unacquainted with this vain Divinity; we do not find her in their books. The good and evil which befell them, they attributed to the Gods. The Sacred Authors of the Old and New Testament never make use of the word Fortune, in the sense wherein we construe it. The reason of our inserting it in our Dictionary is, because Isaiah1 reproaches the Hebrews with having erected Altars to Fortune, Qui ponitis Fortunæ mensam, & libatis super eam. It is certain, that in Isaiah’s time, Fortune, either name or thing, was not known among the Hebrews; and the import of the original text is, That prepare a table for Gad, and furnish the drink-offering unto Meni. The question is, who these two Deities, Gad and Meni, were.
It is very probable that Gad signifies the Sun, and Meni the Moon; the Sun was the God of good Fortune as well as the Moon: these two great Luminaries were considered as happy Principles, and beneficent Deities, and they who were born under the aspect of either of them, were believed to enjoy constant prosperity. This was the doctrine of the Egyptians and Persians, and probably likewise of the Syrians; for Leah having obliged Jacob to marry Zilpah, and by her means having had a son of him; she said, Happily; or this is fortunate; (the Hebrew, in Gad) and she called her son’s name Gad.2
Vide Grot. in Gen. xxx. 11. D’Herbelot Bibl. Orient. p. 728. Ibid. p. 626.Kimchi and Abrabanel say, that among the Arabians, the Star, or Planet Jupiter, goes by the name of Gad, and that the influences of it upon those who are born under that aspect are happy. M. d’Herbelot tells us; that Jupiter, the most lucky of all the Planets, by our Astronomers termed generally Fortuna major, is called by the Arabians, Sâd, or Saad, in like manner as the Planet Venus is named Sâd-Saghir, Fortuna minor. The same planet Jupiter is called by them Moschteri, but their term for it in Horoscopes is Saad-Alsoud, Fortune of Fortunes.
The Genius which presides upon the first day of the solar year, is by the Persians Id. p. 694.called Ormozd; who is the same that the Greeks called Oromasdes. He was esteemed by the followers of Mahomet, not only as a good Genius; but as the prin cipal Genius of good Fortune; and Zoharah, which is the Planet Venus, as the Planet of lesser Fortune. In opposition to Ormozd, or Oromasdes, the God of good Fortune, they set up Ahermen, or Arimanios, the God of evil Destiny.
To return to Gad and Meni, mentioned by Isaiah, we are of opinion that the Gad of the Syrians was the same as the Sâd of the Arabians, and the Ormozd of the Persians; that he presided over good Fortune, that he signified the Sun, or Planet Jupiter, and that Meni signified the Moon, or Planet Venus, and answered to the Zoharah of the Persians, or Sâd-Saghir of the Arabians.
These Deities were reverenced in Palestine by preparing tables for Gad, and pouring out liquors in honour of Meni. Demosth. contra Midiam, & adversus Macartetum. Strabo, l. 9. p. 352. & l. 12. p. 383.Demosthenes informs us, that among the Greeks they sacrificed for good Fortune, or to obtain some happiness, to Apollo, who presides in the streets; to Latona and Diana. (Apollo, we know, was the Sun, and Diana the Moon.) They erected tables to them in the corners of streets, where there were cross-ways, and offered up cups full of wine to them; they burnt incense there, danced, and wore crowns in honour of them. Strabo speaks of several Temples dedicated to Men, or Menus, to Anaïs, or Diana, or the Moon, which were to be seen in Armenia, where the worship of this Goddess was very common.
Hieron. in Isai. lxv. 11.St. Jerom, writing upon the passage of Isaiah, which we are now examining, says, that it is an ancient custom derived from Paganism, and still subsisting in almost every city, particularly in Egypt and Alexandria, to place tables in the corners of the streets upon the last day of the year, covered with all sorts of good things, and cups full of wine mixed with honey, for a happy presage of the new year. Jeremiah reproaches the Jews with offering cakes and Jerem. vii. 18. and xliv. 17, 18. Antiquité expliquée, t. 1. p. 310, 311.liquors to the Queen of Heaven, that is to say, the Moon. See our Comment on Isaiah lxv. 11. In ancient monuments we often find Fortune represented with the marks of the Sun and Moon, with those of Isis, and accompanied with Hecate, and with two Stars, which may very well be those of Jupiter and Venus, both consecrated to good Fortune.
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