Throughout human history, the wheel has symbolized the vital cycles of the cosmos and nature. It has had a constant and meaningful presence. The idea of a continuous return, of cyclical time that regenerates all things, seems rooted in beliefs about a metaphysical order from the earliest times. One may think, for example, of the ancient solar symbols such as the swastika, the spiral, or the Camunian rose. After all, stars disappear from the sky and reappear, the seasons succeed one another year after year, darkness gives way to the light of dawn each morning, and beginning and end coincide. Time was thus perceived as the infinite rotation of the celestial bodies and through predetermined phases of becoming: birth, growth, decline, and death.
Likewise, the ancients believed that the cyclical motions of the cosmos, defined by Aristotle as “movement in a circle”1, were the cause of all events and, consequently, of human affairs. This led to the concept of fortune, a volatile and unintelligible principle governing the world. It was the unpredictable nature of existence to which everyone is subject. This “wheel of fortune” became a central motif in the Middle Ages, incorporating representations and meanings derived from Christian theology.
The medieval symbolism of the wheel of fortune
The symbolic expression of the Wheel of Fortune is the subject of Saint Severinus Boethius’ philosophical writings. Boethius (480-524) made a decisive contribution to the definition of the concept of fortune in Christian terms. In his treatise De consolatione philosophiae, he wrote: “Fate is that ordering which is a part of all changeable things, and by means of which Providence binds all things together in their own order”2. For Boethius, chance did not exist in the modern sense of probabilistic or stochastic processes. It is only apparent, since its causes are unknown. The mutability of existence is rather the expression of God’s will. God leaves the world at the mercy of fortune so that the vanity of all things may be revealed. Human beings are therefore called to detach themselves from earthly goods and glory. They were instead called to strive for the eternity of heaven.
“Are you trying to stay the force of her turning wheel? Ah! dull-witted mortal, if Fortune begin to stay still, she is no longer Fortune”.
Severinus Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, Book II.
The iconography of the wheel of fortune
The medieval iconography of the wheel of fortune is a precise representation of this theological vision. A spoked wheel contains several figures: one man clings to it as he rises toward the summit, where the figure of a king is usually placed; another is shown falling downward.
There is a clear allusion to the concept of time. It marks both the movement of the stars and the cycles of human life. The wheel indicates the cardinal moments that correspond to the phases of becoming: birth–spring–dawn, maturity–summer–noon, old age–autumn–sunset, death–winter–midnight. In a similarly evocative way, it is also a representation of fortune. Human destiny changes unexpectedly: good turns into evil and vice versa, without regard for anyone. This law spares not even the realms of the powerful. Even that king, proudly seated on the wheel’s throne, will eventually have to surrender earthly things in due time.
Inscriptions in different verbal tenses often accompanied the moments of fortune: regnabo, regno, regnavi, sum sine regno3, emphasizing the transience of earthly glory. The symbolism of the number twelve or eight, the wheel’s spokes, expresses the idea that the totality of things and of human beings is subject to becoming.
Samuele Corrente Naso
