Inv.-Nr. 203

Statuette einer Tyche

Vatikan, Vatikanische Museen 2672
Römische Kopie vom Beginn des 2. Jh. n. Chr. nach einem Original aus dem frühen 3. Jh. v. Chr.

Tyche is the goddess of luck and good fortune, and was the patron deity of the city of Antiochia in south-eastern modern Turkey. In this statue, she holds a sheaf of wheat in her right hand to represent prosperity. At her feet is a personification of the River Orontes, the river on whose banks the city of Antiochia stood.
Tyche wears a mural crown – a crown designed to look like a city’s fortification wall with towers or turrets.

These crowns represented the safety and security of the city, and in antiquity were often worn by female deities. As well as Tyche, We find mural crowns on representations of the Phrygian mother goddess Kybele, as well as on Ephesian Artemis. During the Roman period, the corona muralis became a military honour that was awarded to the first soldier to successfully scale the walls of an enemy city and raise the standard.

This cast was made of a Roman marble statue, which was itself a copy of a much larger original bronze statue in Antiochia.