The agent of change in human affairs. The term refers to the goddess Fortune, traditionally represented with a wheel in her hand, which symbolizes inconstancy. The ancient Chinese and Babylonians referred to fortune’s ever-turning wheel, and Chaucer used it (The Knight’s Tale), “Thus can fortune hir wheel govern and gye, and out of joye bringe men to sorwe.” A popular American television quiz show of the 1980s and 1990s bore the name Wheel of Fortune.