TYCHE THE PROTECTRESS by Sydney Greaves

TYCHE THE PROTECTRESS

by Sydney Greaves

Although she survives as only a rather beaten fragment, the beautiful marble head of Tyche of Antioch (49.73) still has a great deal to say to us.  She has been dated to the 1st-4th century AD, and so is most likely a Roman copy.  The original Greek statue may have dated from the 4th century BC, as Tyche’s calm, placid features have been compared with the works of great Late Classical sculptor Praxiteles, creator of the famous Apollo Belvedere in Rome.

The copying of Greek works by Ancient Rome warrants a brief mention here.  Many (but not all!) of the most famous sculptures of ancient Greece are known to us today only through Roman copies, often identified by descriptions left by ancient writers.  The Romans had a great admiration for all things Greek.  Augustus bragged that he had found Rome a city of brick and left her a city of marble, like Athens.  Rome stripped Athens and the other great city-states of Greece of their marble statuary and brought them back to an admiring Roman citizenry.  If Romans could not have authentic Greek statuary, they paid artisans to copy known works.  In fact, our modern notion of the pure white marble statuary of Ancient Greece comes actually from the Romans, who preferred their marble au natural, as opposed to the Greek penchant for painting statues in vibrant, sometimes shocking color.  Much Greek statuary was actually bronze, which the Romans translated into marble, with sometimes awkward additions of struts and other structures to support the significant weight of marble.

Tyche (TIE-kee) in Greek translates to fortune, destiny, or chance, different from our idea of fate, perceived as outcome that is already determined and unable to be changed by us.  The Greek idea is  akin to luck, good or bad, but hopefully good; hence the sculpted “lady luck” that we see here. The ancient Greeks personified Tyche as a minor goddess, certainly not one of the Olympian Twelve.* She is described by Pausanias, writing in the 2nd century AD, as revered particularly in Smyrna as early as the mid-6th century BC.

Her attributes at this time included the polos hat (a cylindrical grain measuring cup) and a cornucopia, or horn of Amalthia, proving her associations with plentiful food and bountiful harvests.  Most often she appeared on coins minted by individual cities, simultaneously acting as a demonstration of that city’s prosperity and a “good luck charm” to assure that same prosperity. By the 4th century BC, Tyche’s attributes expanded to include a sheaf of grain (prosperity), a palm frond (victory), a ship’s rudder (control of destiny), and an orb or wheel (instability or unpredictability), and the mural crown (city walls) as seen on our fragment.

Tyche’s importance increased during the Hellenistic period, the period to which this statue fragment dates, when she  became  revered  as a  special  patron  of  cities. This   is significant because of the Greeks’ active colonization at this time  in  new  areas  of the known world, opened  up  by  the conquests of Alexander the Great. Alexander, recognizing the importance of holding this empire together, founded numerous cities (often called Alexandria), populating them with Greek soldier/citizens and their Greek cultural practices.  This served to unify the empire through hellenization; hence, the Hellenistic Period. Like the cities of mainland Greece, these new cities desired the protection and common religious focus of a patron god or goddess (like Athena in Athens or Zeus in Olympia).  Tyche came to fill that role for these colonies, and indeed came to act as a personification not only of good fortune and destiny, but also of the city itself.

Perhaps the most famous of all the images of Tyche is that created for the city of Antioch, a Greek city founded in modern Syria around 300 BC by Seleukos, a Syrian contemporary of Alexander the Great.  Seleukos rose through the ranks under Alexander’s father, Philip of Macedon, and then under Alexander himself, who appointed him governor of Babylon.  Following Alexander’s death, Seleukos expanded his influence, founded his own cities, and commissioned the “well known” Eutychides of Sicyon (a pupil of Lyssipos, a renowned sculptor of the second half of the 4th century BC) to sculpt a statue of Tyche to stand in the city of Antioch as patron goddess.  This famous image came to set the standard for city patron goddess statues: mural crown, sheaf of wheat, seated on the mountain (Mount Silpion, above Antioch) with the river (Orontes) at her feet.  The over-life-size bronze statue sat in majesty under a four-pillared canopy at the city center, with a large altar for sacrifices.  This famous statue, now lost, has been described by numerous writers, and copied by artists in smaller scale.  The most well known image of Tyche of Antioch, now in the Vatican, is identified as a small (3 feet high) marble Roman copy of the original.

Although a minor goddess, Tyche’s rise in prominence signaled many of the world changes brought about by the influence of the Olympian gods in the face of increased power and significance of the individual, the chaos of warfare, sudden reversals of fortune, and the multicultural aspect of cities and colonies. All these gave Tyche, in her role as the spirit of the city, a new life and significance.  This idea is most perfectly expressed in modern times by our own Statue of Liberty: a symbol recognized all over the world for freedom and justice, and personifying the good fortune and patriotic spirit of the citizens of the United States.

*The major gods that resided on Mt. Olympus: Zeus, Hera, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, Ares, Hades, Poseidon, Hephaestus, Hermes, and Dionysus.

Source; Ferguson, John, Religions of Roman Empire; Gardner, P., New Chapters in Greek Art.