Roman Charity
legendary story about a woman Pero who secretly breastfeeds her father Cimon
Roman Charity (Latin: Caritas Romana; Italian: Carità Romana) or Cimon and Pero is an ancient Greek and Roman exemplary story (exemplum) of filial piety (pietas) in which a woman secretly breastfeeds her father or mother, incarcerated and supposedly sentenced to death by starvation. Once caught, the loving devotion shown so moves the authorities that she is forgiven and the parent is typically freed. The father in the story is often named Cimon (Ancient Greek: Κίμων, Kímōn) and the daughter Pero, although other versions name the father Mycon (Μύκον, Mýkon). First attested in surviving Roman sources, it became a common theme in Early Modern period of Western European art, particularly the Baroque period.
History
The story is recorded in the Factorum ac Dictorum Memorabilium Libri IX ("Nine Books of Memorable Deeds and Sayings") by the ancient Roman historian Valerius Maximus and was presented as a great act of pietas (i.e., filial piety) and Roman honour. Additionally, wall paintings and terracotta statues from the first century excavated in Pompeii suggest that visual representations of Pero and Cimon were common, however it is difficult to say whether these existed in response to Maximus's anecdote or preceded – inspired – his story. Among Romans, the theme had mythological echoes in Juno's breastfeeding of the adult Hercules, an Etruscan myth.
Maximus's anecdote of Pero and Cimon posits the following ekphrastic challenge:
Men's eyes are riveted in amazement when they see the painting of this act and renew the features of the long bygone incident in astonishment at the spectacle now before them, believing that in those silent outlines of limbs they see living and breathing bodies. This must needs happen to the mind also, admonished to remember things long past as though they were recent by painting, which is considerably more effective than literary memorials.
The mid-1st century Natural History of Pliny the Elder includes the story in its section on the greatest examples of human affection known.
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This entry incorporates text from “Roman Charity” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.