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(ἀλήθεια/ alḗtheia; Latin veritas). [German version] I. Philosophy It was in a didactic poem by Parmenides (about 500 BC) that alḗtheia was first elevated from an element of colloquial language to a central philosophical term. In that poem, the goddess teaches the poet to distinguish the truth (ἀληθείη/ alētheíē) from the mere illusion of human opinions (δόξαι/ dóxai) (28 B 1 and 8 DK). Only that which is (or 'being') is true, for what is not can be neither thoug…

(The Roman personification of 'hope'). [German version] I. Roman Unlike the Greek Elpis, Spes ('Hope') had a cult and temples. In the 1st Punic War, A. Atilius [I 14] Calatinus dedicated a temple to Spes on the Forum Holitorium in Rome (Cic. Leg. 2,28; Tac. Ann. 2,49). The building burned down on several occasions (Liv. 25,7,6; Cass. Dio 50,10,3); there was a rededication under Germanicus in AD 17; the remains of the t…

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[German version] [1] Breath or spirit (…

[German version] I. Religion F. is the cultically venerated personification of faith and veracity [1]. According to Varro (Ling. 5,74), she had been adopted in Rome from the Sabini; her cult is still in evidence at the end of the 2nd cent. AD (Tert. Apol. 24,5). F. is depicted as a woman, her head adorned with a garland or veil, dressed in a   …

(Πίστις/ Pístis). [German version] A. Religion P. is the personification of the Greek goddess of loyalty and faith. Except for Thgn. 1137 (2nd half of the 6th cent. BC), P. rarely appears as a deity, and only very late. She had a cult of which at least a shrine in Athens can be identified in Diogenianus 2,80. P. was regarded by the Romans as equivalent to Fides . It was not until Christianity that the term pistis came to mean a belief in revealed truth (see section E below). Polleichtner, Wolfgang (Würzburg) [German version] B. Philosophy According to Parmenides, πίστις ἀληθῆς ( pístis alēthês, …