Fides (deity)
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Fides (Latin: Fidēs) was the goddess of trust and bona fides (good faith) in Roman paganism.[1][2] She was one of the original virtues to be considered an actual religious "divinity".[3]
Her temple on the Capitol[1] was where the Roman Senate signed and kept state treaties with foreign countries, and where Fides protected them.[citation needed] The temple can be dated to 254 BC.[citation needed] The original was said to have been built by Numa Pompilius, and a later building during the consulship of M. Aemilius Scaurus (115 BC).[2]
She was also worshipped under the name Fides Publica Populi Romani ("Public (or Common) Trust of the Roman People").[4] She is represented as a young woman crowned with an olive or laurel wreath,[2] holding in her hand a turtle-dove,[1] fruits or grain,[2] or a military ensign. She wears a white veil or stola;[1] her priests wore white clothes, showing her connection to the highest gods of Heaven,[citation needed] Jupiter and Dius Fidius.
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Traditionally Rome's second king, Numa Pompilius, was said to have instituted a yearly ceremony devoted to Fides Publica in which the major priests (the three flamines maiores—Dialis, Martialis, and Quirinalis) were to be borne to her temple in a covered arched chariot drawn by two horses on the 1st of October.[1] There they should conduct her services with their heads covered and right hands wrapped up to the fingers to indicate absolute devotion to her and to symbolise trust.[5]
The Greek equivalent of Fides is Pistis.
See also
- Harpocrates, Greek god of silence, secrets and confidentiality.
- Semo Sancus
References
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- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3
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- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- ↑ Livy, Ab urbe condita, 1:21
External links
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