Domain: Truth, sincerity, honesty Symbol: A nude young woman; the mirror; the well Greek Equivalent: Aletheia
Overview
Veritas is the Roman goddess and personification of truth. She was reckoned a daughter of Saturn — of Time itself — which gave rise to the proverb Veritas filia temporis, "Truth is the daughter of Time": what is hidden or denied in the present is, sooner or later, brought to light by the slow work of the years. She was also named the mother of Virtue, on the reasoning that no genuine goodness can be built on a lie.
She is most often depicted as a young woman dressed in white, or else entirely nude — the origin of the phrase "the naked truth," truth being that which has nothing to hide and wears no disguise. In her hand she may hold a mirror, which shows things exactly as they are, or the sun, whose light conceals nothing.
The Well of Truth
A persistent tradition holds that Veritas hides at the bottom of a holy well, so difficult is she to reach — a figure the philosopher Democritus first gave voice to when he said that "of truth we know nothing, for truth is in a well." The image casts truth as something that must be sought with effort and descended toward, never lying conveniently on the surface. It is a fitting counterpart to her descent from Saturn: truth is buried by time and must also be recovered by it.
Truth Across the Traditions
Veritas is the Roman face of a truth-goddess who recurs everywhere. Her Greek counterpart is Aletheia, whose very name means "unconcealment." In Egypt the same principle is Ma'at, whose feather weighs the heart of the dead against the truth of a life. In the Tarot the same current runs through Justice — truth weighed on the scales — and through The Star, the nude figure who pours out her waters beneath the open sky, hope and honesty stripped bare.
Related
- Saturn — her father, Time, from whom truth is born
- Justice — truth weighed and spoken
- The Star — the naked figure beneath the open sky
- Ma'at — the Egyptian goddess of truth and cosmic order
- Mythology Hub