Aidos

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Aidos was the Greek goddess of shame, modesty, and humility. 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 wealth was more a matter of luck than merit. She was the last goddess to leave the earth after the Golden Age. She was a close companion of the goddess of vengeance Nemesis. 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.

In a famous indictment of deadened aidos, Shakespeare gave us what some consider to be the Modern age's epitaph, penned at its very dawn:

"O shame, where is thy blush?"

-Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 4

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