Pietas

"Dutiful conduct." A personification of faithful attachment, love, and veneration among the Romans, where at first she had a small sanctuary, but in 191 BCE a larger one was built.

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The words "piety" and "piousness" are derived from her name.

Iconography

She is seen represented on Roman coins, as a matron throwing incense upon an altar, and her attributes are a stork and children. Pietas was sometimes represented as a female figure offering her breast to an aged parent.1

References

Notes

  1. Valerius Maximus, l.c.; Zumpt, in the Classical Museum. Vol. 3, p. 452.

Sources

  • Livy. The History of Rome xl, 34.
  • Pliny the Elder. Naturalis Historia vii, 36.
  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.
  • Valerius Maximus, v, 4.7.

This article incorporates text from Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) by William Smith, which is in the public domain.