Abstract

In the fourth century A.D., the cult of the capricious goddess Tyche was alive and kicking among pagans, while it was vehemently criticized by Christian thinkers. Themistius, however, the most influential pagan philosopher at the Christian court of Constantinople, took up a middle position between pagans and Christians. In his paraphrases of Aristotle, he interpreted chance and luck as accidental causes which presuppose the finality of the cosmos and of the human mind. His teleology implied that тύχη is not a divine power but rather a coincidence of purposeful activities. In his speeches, he argued that luck and fate play a subordinate role in the realization of the happy life. Although Themistius worshipped the Greek pantheon, his Peripatetic view on chance and luck isincompatible with the post-modern idolization of Tyche