A Comparison Of Pietas In Aeneid And Metamorphoses

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Pietas is a Roman word for duty to the gods, family, and country. This is a word that can be used and is usually used in old Greek Mythology stories. An example of this would be Virgil’s, The Aeneid, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses. These two stories are two perfect examples of Pietas because throughout the two stories, they define and present the actually meaning of Pietas. The difference between both stories and their similarities will soon be explained throughout this essay.
The Aeneid was a story of a girl named Dido and a man named Aeneas. Dido was a widow who had lost her husband due to her brother’s anger which led to her leaving town fearful of herself being killed next. She then founded a small city named Carthage. She then fell in love with …show more content…

Ovid was one who was exiled for his work. His work was usually based on sex, family, and myths. Ovid struggled with Pietas because he did not serve duty to his family. His family did not approve of him writing in such ways that he did. His beliefs were not something that his family could be proud of which basically means that he was kind of a disgrace to his family. Due to his beliefs, he was exiled by Augustus, the first emperor of Rome. An example of Pietas being used in Metamorphoses is Book X. This is an example of Pietas because Myrrha failed at serving duty to her family, especially her father, and the gods. She did this because she fell in love with her father. At first, she thought she was hit with one of cupid’s arrows, but unfortunately, he did not and she realized that she was actually in live with her family. She obviously felt bad about it but could not help the way she felt about her father. She then sleeps with her father knowing that he is desperate for sex due to the fact that he can not sleep with his wife for a few days. He unknowingly keeps sleeping with her and then decides to find out who he has been sleeping with those past few nights. He turns to find out that it is his daughter and tries to kill her. The situation even worsens when Myrrha finds out she is pregnant with her father’s baby. This is an example of his beliefs also because shows how believed in incest and that it is

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