Statuette of Tyche (after the Tyche of Antioch)
Roman copy after a Greek original; 1st–2nd centuries A.D., after an original of ca. 296–293 B.C.
Bronze; inlaid silver (now missing), 5 7/8 x 3 5/16 x 3 1/16 in. (15 x 8.4 x 7.7 cm)
Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., B.A. 1913, Fund
1986.65.1
This bronze statuette of the Roman period is modeled on one of the most influential statues of antiquity—the Tyche of Antioch by Eutychides, created ca. 300 B.C. Tyche, the personification of Fortune, was held in great esteem in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Cities throughout the Graeco-Roman world attempted to improve their fortunes by celebrating Tyche as a civic deity. Tyche is usually represented in art as a female figure, wearing a mural crown. Sometimes identifying attributes, such as landscape features, were incorporated into a particular city's image of Tyche. Judging by surviving copies, Eutychides' Tyche of Antioch was shown seated on a rock, with a personification of the river Orontes at her feet. It is unclear whether the Yale statuette originally included the figure of Orontes.
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