Aidos or Aedos (; Greek: , ) was the Greek personification of either shame or modesty. Aidos, as a quality, was that feeling of reverence or shame which restrains men from wrong. It also encompassed the emotion that a rich person might feel in the presence of the impoverished, that their disparity of wealth, whether a matter of luck or merit, was ultimately undeserved. Ancient and Christian humility share common themes: they both reject egotism, self-centeredness, arrogance, and excessive pride; they also recognize human limitations. Aristotle defined it as a middle ground between vanity and cowardice.
Mythology She was the last goddess to leave the earth after the Golden Age. She was a close companion of the goddess of vengeance Nemesis.Hesiod, Works and Days 170 ff. One source calls her daughter of Prometheus.Pindar, Olympian Ode 7.44 ff. Mythologically, she is often considered to be more of a personification than a physical deity.
There are references to her in various early Greek plays, such as Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus, Iphigenia at Aulis by Euripides, and Oedipus Rex by Sophocles.
There were altars to Aidos in AthensPausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 1.17.1. and in Sparta.Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 3.20.10–11. Icarius, a Spartan king, tried to persuade his daughter Penelope to stay in Sparta after her marriage to Odysseus. When Odysseus made Penelope choose between her father and her husband, she modestly covered her face with a veil, signaling her decision to leave with Odysseus. Understanding her choice, Icarius let them go and commemorated the moment by erecting a statue of Aidos at the spot.Pausanias, 3.20.10-11
Some sources mention Aeschyne (Ancient Greek: ) as a personification of shame and reverence.Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes 409 ff.; Aesop, Fables 528
See also
Eleos: Goddess of pity, mercy, clemency, and compassion. Epiphron: God of prudence. Sophrosyne: Goddess of moderation and temperance.
Notes
References Aeschylus, translated in two volumes. 1. Seven Against Thebes by Herbert Weir Smyth, Ph. D. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. 1926. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website. Bell, Robert E., Women of Classical Mythology: A Biographical Dictionary. ABC-Clio. 1991. . Douglas L. Cairns, Aidos: The Psychology and Ethics of Honour and Shame in Ancient Greek Literature, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1992. Hesiod, Works and Days from The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website. Mythology by Edith Hamilton Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. . Online version at the Perseus Digital Library Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library. Pindar, Odes translated by Diane Arnson Svarlien. 1990. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Pindar, The Odes of Pindar including the Principal Fragments with an Introduction and an English Translation by Sir John Sandys, Litt.D., FBA. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1937. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.