P L U T U S
———————"All bountiful, who roams
Earth, and the expanded surface of the sea;
And him that meets him on his way, whose hands
He grasps, him gifts he with abundant gold,
And large felicity."
Hesiod.
Plutus is the god of Riches, and as the minister of the deity of the dead, inhabits the court of Pluto, thereby indicating that the precious metals are in the bowels of the earth. He was brought up by the goddess of peace, and the Greeks spoke of him as a fickle divinity, because represented as blind, he spreads by chance in his rapid course, the gold, silver, and precious stones, which escape from a box he holds in his hands; as lame, because he came slow and gradually; and with wings, to intimate that he flew away with greater velocity than he approached mankind.
Fortuna was the goddess of Fortune, and from her hands were derived riches and poverty, pleasures and misfortunes, blessings and pains.
Governed by Destiny, she guides by Occasion; and before her marches Necessity, the inflexible goddess.