he imagery of the Wheel of Fortune has survived into the present thanks to the successful TV game show of the same name. But its origins are found in antiquity. By the late Middle Ages, it was an instantly recognisable image, adorning books, cathedrals and coins across Europe. From its early association with the hazards of kingship, it became a wider metaphor for the trials and tribulations that people of all ranks suffer at the hands of fortune.
Its heady combination of money and chance saw the Wheel of Fortune associated with a wide variety of games and gambling. Inspired by the Roman goddess Fortuna, the allegory of the Wheel was popularised through Boethius' The Consolation of Philosophy, written around 523, in which Philosophy describes Fortune thus:
With domineering hand she moves the turning wheel,
Like currents in a treacherous bay swept to and fro:
Her ruthless will has just deposed once fearful kings
Whilst trustless still, from low she lifts a conquered head.
