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.
Sicilus tells Jove to carry out his conflicts with the other gods directly instead of taking out his “spite” on “mortal flies” (or in other words, humans.) Attempting to pull at Jove’s heartstrings, Sicilius notes that he died while Posthumus was still in his mother’s womb, and that he was never even able to see his son’s face. Further, he argues that Jove, who serves as a surrogate father for all orphans, should have been more dutiful and protected him from such injuries. Posthumus’s mother makes a similar appeal, noting piteously that Lucina, the goddess of childbirth, lent her no assistance when she died giving birth to Posthumus. Using highly emotional language, she notes that her crying newborn son was “ripped” out of the body of his dead mother and thrust into a hostile world surrounded by enemies, describing him as “A thing of pity” in order to rouse Jove’s sympathies.
