Piety
Doing right by the gods — the everyday virtue of honoring the divine correctly, and the question Socrates pressed until no one could define it.
Eusebeia, 'piety,' was the Greek virtue of proper conduct toward the gods — and, by extension, toward parents and the dead: performing the rites, keeping oaths, and showing due reverence. It was largely a matter of right action and ritual correctness rather than inner belief. Plato's Euthyphro (early 4th century BCE) made it philosophically famous by having Socrates ask whether the gods love what is pious because it is pious, or whether it is pious because the gods love it — the 'Euthyphro dilemma' still central to the philosophy of religion. The concept matters as the Greek anchor of religious ethics and as the seed of enduring questions about how morality relates to the divine.
How it traveled
- OdysseyIos · -700explains
- IliadIos · -700explains
- AgamemnonAthens · -458explains
- HistoriesThurii (Magna Graecia) · -425explains
- History of the Peloponnesian WarAthens · -400explains
- MemorabiliaAthens · -354explains
- CyropaediaAthens · -354explains
- AnabasisAthens · -354explains
- HellenicaAthens · -354explains
- LawsAthens · -348explains
- HistoriesMegalopolis · -118explains
- In C. VerremFormiae · -70explains
- Ab urbe conditaPadua · -27explains
- AeneidRome · -19explains
- MetamorphosesTomis (Constanța) · 8explains
- EpistulaeTomis (Constanța) · 17explains
- GeographyAmaseia · 24explains
- Quaestiones RomanaeChaeronea · 120explains
- NumaChaeronea · 120explains
- De Iside et OsirideChaeronea · 120explains
- Description of Greece— · 180explains
- DeipnosophistaeNaucratis · 230explains
- Vitae philosophorum— · 240explains
- Reshit ChokhmahTzfat · 1575
- Historical LibrarySyracuse (Sicily)explains
- Jewish Antiquities—explains
- De Specialibus Legibus (lib. i‑iv)—explains
- Historia RomanaRomeexplains
- De Vita Mosis (Lib. I-II)—explains
- The Jewish War—explains
- In XII Prophetas—explains
- Historia Ecclesiastica—explains
- De abstinentiaRomeexplains
- Legatio Ad Gaium—explains
- De Decalogo—explains
- EpistolaeConstantinople (Istanbul)explains
- De Virtutibus—explains
- Praeparatio Evangelica—explains
- Against Apion—redefines
- Facta et Dicta MemorabiliaRomeexplains
Key passages(20)
So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying in the land of the Sakyans in a stilt longhouse in a mango grove belonging to those Sakyans named Vedhaññā. Now at that time the Jain ascetic of the
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So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery. Then Venerable Ānanda went up to the Buddha, bowed, sat down to one side, and said to him:
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As to piety towards the gods you must know that this is the chief thing, to have right opinions about them, to think that they exist, and that they administer the All well and justly; and you must fix
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Praeparatio Evangelica · Eusebius of Caesarea
Epistolae · Julian, Emperor of Rome
Epistolae · Julian, Emperor of Rome
Hypermnestra to Lynceus HYPERMNESTRA sends to the only survivor of so many brothers: the rest have all perished by the crime of their wives. I am closely confined, and loaded with a weight of chains.
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De Specialibus Legibus (lib. i‑iv) · Philo Judaeus
In the same manner, if any one makes an addition, be it ever so small, or ever so great, to that queen of the virtues, piety, or if he takes anything away from it, he will change and metamorphose its
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Socrates. I think you are correct, Euthyphro; but there is one little point about which I still want information, for I do not yet understand what you mean by attention. I don’t suppose you mean the s
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Clin. Hush! That is quite impossible. Ath. Are not all gods the greatest of all guardians, and over the greatest things? Clin. Yes, by far. Ath. Shall we say that those who watch over the fairest thin
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Ath. For the wicked man is unclean of soul, whereas the good man is clean; and from him that is defiled no good man, nor god, can ever rightly receive gifts. Therefore all the great labor that impious
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Naturalis Historia · Pliny, the Elder
Facta et Dicta Memorabilia · Valerius Maximus
His analysis of Piety — to take that first — was more or less as follows:Tell me, Euthydemus, what sort of thing is Piety, in your opinion?A very excellent thing, to be sure, he replied.Can you say wh
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