Fides (deity)
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Fides (Template:Langx) was the goddess of trust, faithfulness, and good faith (bona fides) in ancient Roman religion.<ref name="peck"/><ref name="smith">Template:DGRBM</ref> Fides was one of the original virtues to be cultivated as a divinity with ceremonies and temples.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Fides embodies everything that is required for "honour and credibility, from fidelity in marriage, to contractual arrangements, and the obligation soldiers owed to Rome."<ref name=Perley>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Dead link</ref> Fides also means reliability, "reliability between two parties, which is always reciprocal." and "bedrock of relations between people and their communities",<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and then it was turned into a Roman deity and from which we gain the English word, 'fidelity'.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Under the name Fides Publica Populi Romani ("Public Trust of the Roman People"),<ref name="Samuel">Template:Cite book</ref> she may be exemplified in Marcus Atilius Regulus, "who refuses to save himself at the expense of the Republic. Regulus defied his own best interests for those of his country. In this act alone, he acted with fides."<ref name=Perley />
IconographyEdit
Fides is represented as a young woman crowned with an olive or laurel wreath,<ref name="smith"/> holding in her hand a turtle-dove,<ref name="peck"/> fruits or grain,<ref name="smith"/> or a military ensign. She wears a white veil.<ref name="peck"/>
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Temple and ceremoniesEdit
The Temple of Fides on the Capitoline Hill<ref name="peck"/> was associated with the Fides Publica or Fides Publica Populi Romani.<ref name="Richardson">L. Richardson, Jr., A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992).</ref> Dedicated by Aulus Atilius Calatinus,Template:When and restored by Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, the structure was surrounded by a display of bronze tables of laws and treaties, and was occasionally used for Senate meetings.<ref name="Richardson"/>
According to tradition, Rome's second king, Numa Pompilius, instituted a yearly ceremony on 1 October devoted to Fides Publica, in which the three flamines maiores (major priests)—the Dialis, Martialis, and Quirinalis—were to be borne to her temple in a covered arched chariot drawn by two horses.<ref name="peck">Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref>Livy, Ab urbe condita, 1:21</ref>
See alsoEdit
- Harpocrates – Greek god of silence, secrets and confidentiality.
- Piety ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}), Hope ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}), and Luck ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) – also embodied as goddesses by the Romans
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ReferencesEdit
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