Definition of Pathos
As Posthumus sleeps in his prison cell after being rounded up with the other Roman soldiers at the conclusion of the battle, the ghosts of his deceased family members implore Jupiter, the primary god of the classical pantheon, to take pity on him. His father Sicilius and his unnamed mother both employ pathos in their appeals to Jove:
SICILIUS
No more, thou Thunder-master, show
Thy spite on mortal flies.
With Mars fall out, with Juno chide,
That thy adulteries
Rates and revenges.
Hath my poor boy done aught but well,
Whose face I never saw?
I died whilst in the womb he stayed,
Attending nature’s law;
Whose father then—as men report
Thou orphans’ father art—
Thou shouldst have been, and shielded him
From this earth-vexing smart.MOTHER
Lucina lent not me her aid,
But took me in my throes,
That from me was Posthumus ripped,
Came crying ’mongst his foes,
A thing of pity.