Tyche (pronounced Tee-hee in Greek, with a guttural h), means “luck” and Tyche is the ancient Greek goddess of good luck and good fortune. She eventually morphed into one of the few ancient deities who represented a concept: luck, or chance. The goddess was often represented in ancient art and was frequently featured with a gold crown resembling the turrets of an ancient city wall, a cornucopia, or a ship’s rudder (guiding the affairs of the world.)

Clearly an important goddess, many cities chose Tyche as the patroness of their well-being and prosperity. Together with her sister Eudora, (“Bounty”), worship of the pair was considered essential to both personal and national success. Like most ancient goddesses, however, Tyche was capricious, and as with the goddesses of Bounty and Fate (Moira), her blessings could easily be taken from a city that suddenly found itself losing a war or suffering from the plague. Interestingly, Tyche was often called Tyche Automatia, meaning that she acted of her own, according to her own whims, regardless of who or what deserved her attention.

Tyche was considered by many to be a daughter of Zeus and thought by others to be the off-spring of Oceanus.