This is why the scout law admonishes us to pick our friends very carefully and to give loyalty to whom loyalty is due. Investing loyalty into friendship means re-balancing our other commitments and making time to demonstrate that we really care about our friends. Dionysius listened to Pythias as he described how he swam to shore and made his way back to Syracuse as quickly as possible, arriving just in time to save his friend.ĭionysius was so pleased and astonished with their friendship that he pardoned them both.ĭo we regularly encounter that kind or depth of loyalty in our friendships? Or are we more likely to encounter people who cancel a coffee break in order to buy lottery tickets when the odds are a couple million to one that they’d win? But just as the executioner was about to kill Damon, Pythias returned.Īpologizing to his friend for his delay, Pythias told of how pirates had captured his ship on the passage back to Syracuse and thrown him overboard. Damon agreed, and Pythias was released.ĭionysius was convinced that Pythias would never return, and as the day Pythias promised to return came and went, Dionysius prepared to execute Damon. ![]() The king agreed, on the condition that, should Pythias not return when promised, Damon would be put to death in his place. ![]() Not wanting to be taken for a fool, the king refused, believing that once released, Pythias would flee and never return.ĭamon asked the king to take his spot while he went. As punishment for this crime, Pythias was sentenced to death.Īccepting his sentence, Pythias asked to be allowed to return home one last time, to settle his affairs and bid his family farewell. Pythias was accused of plotting against the tyrant of Syracuse, Dionysius I. Pythias and his friend Damon, both followers of the philosopher Pythagoras, traveled to Syracuse. Here is a short synopsis of the story from Wikipedia: Loyalty, at bottom, means self-sacrifice, the kind of self-sacrifice that gives solid meaning to relationships.” Ī parable called “Damon and Pythias” from the fourth century BC illustrates how true friendship goes beyond platitudes and digs into practical loyalty and trust. In an age when people are told to “do what feels good” and “do your own thing,” the idea of loyalty reminds us that often we should be ready to look past our own needs and put someone or something else first. Loyalty to family, to country, to community, to one’s company-we should not regard these as quaint, outmoded notions. “One of the most important things we give in any friendship is our loyalty, a trait that sometimes seems as though it needs to be placed on an endangered virtues list. Bennett makes several well-reasoned points worth sharing: This text is a compilation of parables, folk tales and fables that highlight the virtues of friendship and loyalty. While searching, I found a book titled “Virtues of Friendship and Loyalty” authored by William Bennett. Wouldn’t we all love to have relationships as richly blessed with true loyalty? It’s also not a studious, rehearsed platitude - Merry speaks from his heart with passion. ![]() Look at the first quote from “The Fellowship of the Ring” - you can see the seriousness of the pledge and that it’s not made lightly. It’s a measure of quality and a test of strength in relationship. Loyalty is first and foremost about relationship. ![]() However, by coupling it with friendship we can see it more clearly. I think my struggle came from trying to look at it in a vacuum - by itself it can be somewhat difficult to describe in great detail, or with a deep sense of purpose. I’ve long struggled to find a great way to describe loyalty – what it is, how it is expressed, and why it is so important. But you cannot trust us to let you face trouble alone, and go off without a word. And you can trust us to keep any secret of yours–closer than you keep it yourself. ‘You can trust us to stick with you through thick and thin–to the bitter end. ‘It all depends on what you want,’ put in Merry. “But it does not seem that I can trust anyone,’ said Frodo.
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