A Comparison Of Pietas In Aeneid And Metamorphoses

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

a young man named Aeneas. After having sex with him in a cave, she falsely believed that was their way of being married, which Aeneas did not believe. That was actually one step closer to her committing suicide. Aeneas was then forced to leave Carthage. In The Aeneid, Pietas was used very clearly and was self-explanatory which is actually when Aeneas is forced to leave Carthage and Dido to found Rome. This is an example of Pietas because it is his duty to serve the gods, his family, and his country which is what he was doing. For example, before Pietas, he was a man who helped to build Carthage which was a country that was not his. Unfortunately, the Gods were not pleased with how he would help build another person’s land, but failed to build his own which was Rome. Although he had to leave because of Pietas, the story sadly did not turn out well. Due to the fact that Aeneas was forced to leave because of this belief, it was the final step to Dido’s suicide.
Metamorphoses was a poem written by a Roman poet named Ovid in 8 CE.

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

okay.
There are many similarities between the two poems. They are alike because they both serve an embodiment of Pietas. They both represent this because they both describe how a character is forced or has failed to serve duty to their family, country, and/or the gods. It also shows how they both had to make decisions that were sacrifices for themselves, their lives, and the people around them. I say this because in both stories, there was a bad ending. In the Aeneid, Dido committed suicide after Aeneas was forced to leave and go to Rome to build hos land and in Metamorphoses, Myrrha was turned into a tree. Also while she was the tree, she gave birth to her son who is also her brother. In conclusion, both stories obviously had a hard time with Pietas. They either lost someone or their story ended horribly. Pietas is a concept that has affected the Greeks and others drastically.