clvix

Theme for the remainder of the month: Alphabet Soup

fides, fidei

Definition: trust, faith, belief; trustworthiness, loyalty, truth; promise; guarantee

You probably know this word already, but did you know that it shares a nominative form with:

fides, fidis

Definition: lute, lyre, lyric poetry

Sententia: The one time in the Aeneid that "fides" is actually "lyre":

Book 6, line 119-120

si potuit Manes arcessere coniugis Orpheus,

Threicia fretus cithara fidibusque canoris...

If Orpheus was able to fetch the spirits of the spouse, relying on the Thracian lyre and the melodious lutes...

Aeneas is trying to convince the Sibyl to help him into the underworld to find his father, and in this section cites many other famous heroes who have gone and come back alive.

The first form is found in the Aeneid constantly, in every single book. The second is also found in the Aeneid, in a syllabus part of Book 6 (though I must admit I forgot about it). The former is similar to the Latin verb "fido," meaning "to trust," and the noun "foedus," "agreement," and the Greek noun πίστις (pistis), also meaning "faith." The latter is perhaps related to the Greek noun σφίδες (sphides), also meaning "lyre," meaning that perhaps it was borrowed from Greek.