Pietas

Pietas, as a virtue of the emperor Antoninus Pius, represented by a woman offering a sacrifice on the reverse of this sestertius
Flavia Maximiana Theodora on the obverse, on the reverse Pietas holding infant to her breast.

Pietas (Classical Latin: [ˈpiɛtaːs]), translated variously as "duty", "religiosity"[1] or "religious behavior",[2] "loyalty",[3] "devotion", or "filial piety" (English "piety" derives from the Latin), was one of the chief virtues among the ancient Romans. It was the distinguishing virtue of the founding hero Aeneas, who is often given the adjectival epithet pius ("religious") throughout Virgil's epic Aeneid. The sacred nature of pietas was embodied by the divine personification Pietas, a goddess often pictured on Roman coins. The Greek equivalent is eusebeia (εὐσέβεια).[4]: 864–865 

Cicero defined pietas as the virtue "which admonishes us to do our duty to our country or our parents or other blood relations."[5] The man who possessed pietas "performed all his duties towards the deity and his fellow human beings fully and in every respect," as the 19th-century classical scholar Georg Wissowa described it.[6] Cicero suggests people should have awareness of their own honor and must always attempt to raise the honor of others with dignified praise. Furthermore, praise, admiration, and honored actions must be beyond all one's own desires, and actions and words must be chosen with respect to friends, colleagues, family, or blood relations. Cicero describes youth in the pursuit of honour: “How they yearn for praise! What labours will they not undertake to stand fast among their peers! How will they remember those who have shown them kindness and how eager to repay it!”[citation needed]

The first recorded use of pietas in English occurs in Anselm Bayly's The Alliance of Music, Poetry, and Oratory, published in 1789.[7][verification needed]

  1. ^ Williams, Jonathan (2007). "Religion and Roman Coins". In Rüpke, Jörg (ed.). A Companion to Roman Religion. Blackwell. p. 156. doi:10.1002/9780470690970.ch11. ISBN 9781405129435.
  2. ^ Belayche, Nicole (2007). "Religious Actors in Daily Life: Practices and Related Beliefs". In Rüpke, Jörg (ed.). A Companion to Roman Religion. Blackwell. p. 279. doi:10.1002/9780470690970.ch20. ISBN 9781405129435.
  3. ^ Bernstein, Frank (2007). "Complex Rituals: Games and Processions in Republican Rome". In Rüpke, Jörg (ed.). A Companion to Roman Religion. Blackwell. p. 227. doi:10.1002/9780470690970.ch16. ISBN 9781405129435.
  4. ^ Fears, J. Rufus (1982). "The Cult of Virtues and Roman Imperial Ideology". In Temporini, Hildegard; Haase, Wolfgang (eds.). Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt: Geschichte und Kultur Roms im Spiegel der neueren Forschung. Vol. II. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 9783110095197.
  5. ^ Cicero. De inventione. 2.22.66. pietatem, quae erga patriam aut parentes aut alios sanguine coniunctos officium conservare moneat as quoted by Wagenvoort, Hendrik (1980). Pietas: Selected Studies in Roman Religion. Studies in Greek and Roman Religion. Vol. 1. Brill. p. 7. ISBN 9004061959.
  6. ^ Wissowa, Georg. Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie. Vol. supplemental. As quoted by Wagenvoort, Hendrik (1980). Pietas: Selected Studies in Roman Religion. Studies in Greek and Roman Religion. Vol. 1. Brill. p. 7. ISBN 9004061959.
  7. ^ "pietas". Oxford English Dictionary Online.