Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🤝 Duty and loyalty 🗿 A Roman goddess
pietas

pietas

1 9.9
A Roman goddess who shows duty and devotion to family and the gods
  • proper noun
  • Literature
: Pietas
  • Many artists have sought to capture the essence of Pietas in their works, reflecting deep devotion and reverence.
  • Michelangelo's Pietas

Examples

  • Not all Michelangelo scholars have followed Stechow even in his suggestion that the figure of the old man depicts Nicodemus. See, for example, F. Hartt, Michelangelo's Three Pietas, London, 1976, 73.

    Academic text (1993)

  • The Pietas in Roman culture emphasized the importance of honoring one's family and the gods.

  • In the famous sculpture, Michelangelo's Pietas portrays the Virgin Mary holding the dead body of Jesus.

Surface Forms

pietas main

Etymology

Pietas was also used for a Roman goddess who personified 'piety' and 'duty'. She was shown in statues as a caring woman to remind people to respect their family and the gods, which is why the goddess's name carries the same meaning as the virtue.