Pia fraus

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Pia fraus ( Latin : pious deception ) denotes a deception or concealment of the truth with supposedly good intentions, namely popular deception for religious purposes.

The expression comes from Ovid . In the Metamorphoses he tells of a Cretan who wanted a son at all costs. He announced that if a daughter were born to him, he would kill her. After a girl was actually born, the goddess Isis advised the mother to pass this off for a boy, which was all the easier for her since the father had given the boy the name Iphis, which in antiquity applied to both sexes.

"So the concealment remained obscure through pious deception"
" Inde incepta pia mendacia fraude latebant".

Through this pious deception the life of Iphis was saved, the goddess later transformed her into a man.

A self-deception is sometimes referred to as “pious fraud” .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Art. Pia fraus . In: Pierer's Universal Lexicon of the Present and the Past , 4th edition, Volume 13, Altenburg 1861, p. 114 ( online ).
  2. ^ Ovid : Metamorphoses . Iphis. Quoted from http://www.textlog.de/35360.html