Abundantia
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This article is about the Roman goddess. For the Christian saint, see Saint Abundantia.
Abundantia (ah-boon-DAN-shee-ah) The Roman goddess of good fortune, abundance and prosperity.
Within Roman Mythology, the figure of Abundantia (also known as Annona) was considered to be only a minor deity: the personification of luck, abundance and prosperity, and was also the guardian of the cornucopia - the horn of plenty. It was with this that she distributed food and money. The main version of the origin of the cornucopia is similar in both the Greek and the Roman mythology, in which the king of the gods, having accidentally broken the horn of the mystical goat in play, promised that the horn would never run empty the fruits of her desire. The horn was then later to be passed into the keeping of Abundantia.
While there are few temples or signs of worship for Abudantia to be found within Rome, she has also been described in the past as 'the beautiful maiden of success', and as such is largely featured in art. Often portrayed as holding the cornicopia and sheaves of corn, while allowing the contents to fall to the ground, Abundantia's form has graced Roman coins in ages past.
Abudantia has withstood the tests of time, taking on the form of the French 'Olde Dame Habonde; also known as Domina Abundia, and Notre Dame d'Abondance', a beneficial fairy figure found throughout Teutonic Mythology, and poetry of the Middle Ages. Within texts related to this figure it is said that she would bestow the gift of plenty and of good fortune to those she visits, and in modern society is the patron of gamblers - the revered Lady Fortune.
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