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Tyche

Tyche

The Greek goddess of chance and fortune, symbol of the unpredictability and capriciousness of external events.

Tyche embodies, in ancient psychology, the experience of being at the mercy of uncontrollable external forces. She is depicted as blind or standing on a rolling sphere to convey her inherent instability. The Stoics embraced this psychological reality, but transformed her from a goddess to be appeased through sacrifice into a principle over which one gains mastery — by confining her power strictly to the external sphere.