Veritas

Veritas was the Roman goddess of truth. She made people tell the truth so they would kill themselves or each other, inadvertently giving themselves up to her as tributes that she could feed on to maintain her power.

Season 6
Veritas was summoned by a young woman named Corey using a cat's skull, grains of paradise seed, and Devil's Shoestring. As a result of her summoning, anyone in Calumet City, Illinois who asked aloud for the truth invoked her curse. Dean Winchester inadvertently invoked the curse himself and was suddenly bombarded by truths from everyone he encountered, including through phone calls.

Sam and Dean learned that Veritas was posing as Ashley Frank, an investigative journalist. She drove what appeared to be a Jaguar E-Type or XK-E, a British automobile manufactured by Jaguar between 1961 and 1975, which was appropriate given her character's connection with cats. They go to her home to kill her, but she captured them and, before eating them, decided to play "Truth or Truth." She forced Dean to admit that he wanted to kill Sam in his sleep because he thought he was a monster; however, when she questioned Sam, she becomes agitated because she could tell that Sam was lying to her. She asked Sam what he was, as she knew that he couldn't be human if he was able to lie to her. Sam and Dean used this distraction to free themselves and killed her with a knife dipped in dog's blood.

Physical Appearance
Veritas appeared to be a young woman who worked as an investigative reporter, calling herself Ashley Frank. She was identified as a goddess due to the white retinal flash in her eyes. When threatened, her features morph into feline-like eyes and teeth.

Powers and Abilities

 * Truth Compulsion - As the goddess of truth, her signature ability is to force humans to speak the truth. Whatever town she is in, if someone asks aloud for the truth, they will invoke her curse. Nobody can be lied to when under her curse. Soulless people are unaffected by this and can even lie to her as they seem to have a special resistance against the curse.
 * SPN_1001.jpgLie Detection - As the goddess of truth, she can also tell whether or not her victims are telling the truth.


 * Telekinesis - She can control and move objects with her mind.
 * Immortality - As a pagan deity, she has immortality and near invulnerability. However, she can be killed if the appropriate elements are used.
 * Super Agility/Speed - She has cat-like speed and agility.
 * Super Strength - She has enhanced strength and she can knock down her enemies with one strike.

Vulnerabilities

 * Dogs - Veritas has some vulnerabilities connected to dogs. Their blood is fatal to her. As evidenced by a recording Sam and Dean watched, a dog behind a fence while she was shooting a piece wouldn't stop barking. Her eyes changed color, either in annoyance or in simple reaction to the dog itself. It's that retinal reaction that reveals her identity. Sam called dogs her Achilles' Heel. This is perhaps a reference to the belief that dogs were symbols or even harbingers of fidelity.
 * A Knife Dipped in Dog's Blood - Veritas can be killed if stabbed by a knife dipped in dog's blood.

Victims
Whenever she was called upon, she would curse the people who asked for the truth aloud. They ultimately die as if they were sacrifices, and when that happened she feasted on their bodies, as some other pagan deities do.


 * Corey - She summoned Veritas to the town so she could find out if her boyfriend was cheating on her. She ultimately died in a car accident.
 * Jane Peterson - A waitress at Biggerson's Restaurant who shot herself after being bombarded by harsh truths, the worst of which was from her sister, Olivia.
 * Dr. Paul Connelly - A dentist who killed Kenny by driving his drill into Kenny's mouth. He later committed suicide in prison, and his body was seen later being eaten by Veritas.
 * Kenny - A friend of Dr. Connelly who admitted to the dentist, as he was preparing for dental surgery, that he had grown weary of his own wife and that he had sexual relations with Dr. Connelly's daughter, Melissa. He was killed and then eaten by Veritas, who accepted his body as a tribute to her.
 * Dean Winchester - Dean accidentally invoked Veritas' curse when he replied to a waitress "I just want the freaking truth."
 * Bobby Singer - He was affected by the curse while he was speaking with Dean on the cell phone.

Appearances

 * Season 6
 * You Can't Handle The Truth

Lore
In Roman mythology, Veritas, meaning truth, was the goddess of truth, a daughter of Saturn and the mother of Virtue. It was believed that she hid in the bottom of a holy well because she was so elusive. Her image is shown as a young virgin dressed in white. Veritas is also the name given to the Roman virtue of truthfulness, which was considered one of the main virtues any good Roman should possess. In Greek mythology, Veritas was known as Aletheia.

Trivia

 * In television series Smallville, Veritas happens to be the name of the group of people that welcome the traveler AKA Superman or fellow Kryptonians. Veritas was run by the Teagues, Queens, Luthors, and the Swanns. Like above it's ironic that how the Swanns were part of Veritas and the actress of character Veritas happens to have the last name Swan. Another surname wordplay is of Veritas's alias Ashley Frank, of which "frank" is an adjective to mean "honest" or "blunt" and "Ashley" sounds very similar to the word "actually."
 * When Sam is searching for Veritas on the web, a picture of Theodora (empress of the Byzantine Empire and the wife of Emperor Justinian I) shows up, as to be a Verita.
 * Veritas was played by Serinda Swan, who also played a hospital receptionist in Season 1's Salvation.