All 8 Uses
pious
in
Dante's Paradise -- translated by Norton
(Edited)
- Often ere now, brother, has it happened that, in order to escape peril, that which it was not meet to do has been done against one's liking; even as Alcmaeon (who thereto entreated by his father, slew his own mother), not to lose piety, pitiless became.
Canto 1-11piety = faithful or moral behavior
- Thus was said to me by one of those pious spirits; and by Beatrice, "Speak, speak securely, and trust even as to gods."
Canto 1-11pious = religious
- Thy voice, then, that ever charms the heavens, with the song of those pious fires which make a cowl for themselves with their six wings,[1] why does it not satisfy my desires?
Canto 1-11
- [5] Not for license to compound for unjust acquisitions by de. voting a part of them to pious uses.
Canto 12-22
- Thus did the pious shade of Anchises advance (if our greatest Muse merits belief), when in Elysium he perceived his son.
Canto 12-22
- Through being just and pious am I here exalted to that glory which lets not itself be conquered by desire;
Canto 12-22 *pious = highly religious and moral
- His eyes and his cheeks were overspread with benignant joy, in pious mien such as befits a tender father.
Canto 23-33pious = religious or faithful
- ...this most just and pious empire.
Canto 23-33pious = highly religious and moral
Definitions:
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(1)
(pious as in: a good, pious woman) religious or highly moral
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(2)
(pious as in: a pious hypocrite) self-righteous (acting as though one is, or believing one is highly moral when it is not true)
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(3)
(pious as in: cling to the pious hope) (describing a hope or wish as) sincere, but highly unlikely
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(4)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) Much more rarely, piety can refer to devotion or faithfulness as Proust used it in the book, Swann's Way:
"...but when, as had befallen me, such an anguish possesses one's soul before Love has yet entered into one's life, then it must drift, awaiting Love's coming, vague and free, without precise attachment, at the disposal of one sentiment to-day, of another to-morrow, of filial piety or affection for a comrade."