piety

Obedience to the gods, father, and imperial mission, treated by Virgil as the central force that makes the world right.

Roman obedience to fathers, history, tradition, and later divine prophecy.

In Jiang's Roman contrast, piety means loyalty to the traditions of Rome, not obedience to one's father.

Roman individual virtue: loyalty to Roman traditions and extending them through conquest.

Jiang defines Virgil as the anti-Homer because Homer makes love the path to purpose and God, while Virgil makes piety, obedience, and imperial mission the organizing principle of the universe.

The Aeneid's piety teaches that if one obeys the gods' plan, the world will be made right through the founding of Rome.

Jiang says Aeneas's conflict is not whether to leave Dido, but how to escape without facing her anger, which makes him inhuman rather than tragically loving.

For Aeneas, Jiang says the pledge of love is merely a word; the real obligation is his oath and loyalty to the gods.

Jiang says the Aeneid's final killing is the poem's epiphany: Aeneas no longer needs the gods to correct him because he has internalized piety.

Fully pious Aeneas must abandon pity, emotions, and his own soul in order to serve the gods.

Roman piety is obedience to fathers, history, and tradition; in Jiang's contrast, Roman greatness comes through conservatism and war rather than Greek openness and curiosity.

Aeneas' first priority during the sack of Troy is to save his king, which Jiang presents as Roman piety and hierarchy rather than Greek personal fulfillment.