Talk:Fides (mythology)

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[edit] Comments

[1] ref for earlier anon edit. Alf 18:43, 29 August 2005 (UTC)

Fides is not only a goddess. The goddess represents also a fundamental value for the romans, that of loyalty and trust between two parts. Should work on this later. Domusaurea 19:32, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

Also, Fides is the latin Name for one of the three theological virtues in Christianity, with Spes and Caritas being the other two. But perhaps this should rather go into the entry for theological virtues (which does not state the latin names) --Jbirken 18:53, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

from http://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/fides.html

THE ROMAN CONCEPT OF FIDES

"FIDES" is often (and wrongly) translated 'faith', but it has nothing to do with the word as used by Christians writing in Latin about the Christian virute (St. Paul Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 13). For the Romans, FIDES was an essential element in the character of a man of public affairs, and a necessary constituent element of all social and political transactions (perhaps = 'good faith'). FIDES meant 'reliablilty', a sense of trust between two parties if a relationship between them was to exist. FIDES was always reciprocal and mutual, and implied both privileges and responsibilities on both sides. In both public and private life the violation of FIDES was considered a serious matter, with both legal and religious consequences. FIDES, in fact, was one of the first of the 'virtues' to be considered an actual divinity at Rome. The Romans had a saying, "Punica fides" (the reliability of a Carthaginian) which for them represented the highest degree of treachery: the word of a Carthaginian (like Hannibal) was not to be trusted, nor could a Carthaginian be relied on to maintain his political elationships.

Some relationships governed by fides:

AMICUS 'friend' «——» AMICUS 'friend'

PATER 'father' «——» FAMILIA 'household'

PATER 'father «——» FILIUS 'son'

DOMINUS 'master' «——» SERVUS 'slave'

PATRONUS 'patron' «——» LIBERTUS 'freedman'

PATRONUS 'patron' «——» CLIENS 'client'

RESPUBLICA 'the Roman State' «——» SOCIUS 'an ally of Rome'

by John Paul Adams, CSUN on September 16, 2006