In Greek mythology Tyche was the goddess of luck who brought fortune and prosperity to cities. She is often depicted with a miniature walled town perched on her head, which is said to be the first crown. The Tyche of Antioch, a marble sculpture in the Vatican Museums in Rome, is a renowned example.
Coincidentally, both Christie’s and Sotheby’s have exceptional Tyche sculptures in their antiquities auctions on Thursday.
Lot 264 at Christie’s is a Roman 31-inch-tall Tyche, second century A.D., who is missing her head and arms. She is made of porphyry, a stone quarried in Egypt that was particularly prized in Rome during the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian.
She is seated on a rock, her right elbow on her thigh, with a tightly wrapped cape, the folds deeply carved.
Lot 28 at Sotheby’s is a 21-inch-tall bronze Tyche, late Hellenistic or Roman, about first century B.C. to 1st century A.D. She is standing, with a crownlike diadem resting on top of her curly hair.