WineIncenseThe settlement of a quarrelA shared mealOlive oil
Invocation Approach
Tone
Measured warm
Address
ConcordiaConcordConcordia Augusta
Relationship
The agreement that has to be kept to hold
Warning
She is the settlement and not the suppression of the grievance
Resonance
Households and bodies in dispute and those making peace
Symbols
The clasped handsThe cornucopiaThe olive branchThe caduceus
Mythology Summary
Concordia is the Roman personification of agreement, in the household and in the state, and her temple in the Forum was vowed by Camillus in 367 BCE at the reconciliation of the patrician and plebeian orders (Livy 6.42). It was rebuilt by Lucius Opimius in 121 BCE after the killing of Gaius Gracchus, and Tiberius dedicated the temple of Concordia Augusta in 10 CE (Cassius Dio 56.25). She is associated from early on with Pax and with the Greek Homonoia, and her iconography is the clasped right hands, the cornucopia and the olive branch.
Modern Practice
Concordia is invoked when a quarrel has to be settled rather than won: in a household, a partnership, a committee. Her practice is the actual settlement - the terms agreed, the grievance heard, the meal shared afterwards - because concord that suppresses the grievance is the thing that fails first.