Pindar, Pythian 8.74-77
“If someone stumbles into good fortune without hard work,
Then many think he is a wise man among fools,
And that he has outfitted his life with well-planned schemes.
But these things aren’t up to men: god controls them.
Sometimes he raises one person up and then brings another down.”
εἰ γάρ τις ἐσλὰ πέπαται μὴ σὺν μακρῷ πόνῳ,
πολλοῖς σοφὸς δοκεῖ πεδ᾿ ἀφρόνων
βίον κορυσσέμεν ὀρθοβούλοισι μαχαναῖς·
τὰ δ᾿ οὐκ ἐπ᾿ ἀνδράσι κεῖται· δαίμων δὲ παρίσχει,
ἄλλοτ᾿ ἄλλον ὕπερθε βάλλων, ἄλλον δ᾿ ὑπὸ χειρῶν
Not god. Capitalism.
a force perhaps even less rational and fair than an olympian deity