Detail, sculpture of Pheme/Fama by Robert Henze, Dresden
Pheme (also Phama or Ossa, Roman Fama) is the goddess of rumor, word of mouth, report, gossip, reputation, fame, infamy, and scandal. She is also associated with oracular utterances and divine portents in the Odyssey and Oedipus Rex, as her name can also be translated as “utterance prompted by the gods” according to the LSJ Lexicon. Hesiod describes her as “an evil thing, by nature, she’s a light weight to lift up, oh very easy, but heavy to carry, and hard to put down again.” In Homer she is called Ossa, which also translates as “rumor.”
She has no known father and is described as the daughter of either Gaia or Elpis, daimona of hope (from the myth of Pandora’s Jar). As a daughter of Gaia, she is another addition to the vast family tree of the gods, but as the daughter of Elpis, who has no recovered parentage, her lineage mysteriously ends. Artistic renditions of her are scant, but modern artworks depict her with golden wings, carrying a trumpet and sometimes a laurel wreath.
Pheme acts as a messenger goddess, sometimes described as an envoy of Zeus and other times mentioned to have been cast out of Olympus by Zeus. Similar to treatments of Eris, goddess of strife, Pheme is depicted as having both “constructive” and “destructive” facets. On one hand, she is the source of good reputation and ensures that those reputations are maintained. On the flip side, though, she is the source of all rumors and scandals. News and rumors that spread at seemingly supernatural speeds are attributed to her. Funny how she hasn’t seen a resurgence in recognition in our current social media culture.
Unfortunately, she doesn’t appear very much in myth until Roman times rolled around. In Homer, she’s briefly mentioned working for Zeus as a herald in the Iliad, and in the Odyssey she appears to spread the word of the death of the suitors throughout Ithaca. In Nonnus’s Dionysiaca, she is shown on several occasions flying into cities to announce the arrival of Dionysos and laud his gift of wine. She also informs Autonoe of the brutal death of her son Aktaion.
The Romans, however, had much more to say about her:
Straight away went Fama through the great cities of Libya–Fama, the swiftest traveller of all the ills on earth, thriving on movement, gathering strength as it goes; at the start a small and cowardly thing, it soon puffs itself up, and walking upon the ground, buries its head in the cloud base. The legend is that enraged with the gods, Terra produced this creature her last child, as a sister to Enceladus and Coeus–a swift-footed creature, a winged angel of ruin, a terrible grotesque monster, each feather upon whose body–incredible though it sounds–has a sleepless eye beneath it, and for every eye she has also a tongue, a voice, and a pricked ear. At night she flits midway between earth and sky, through the gloom screeching, and she is perched like a look-out either upon a roof-top or some high turret; so she terrorizes whole cities, loud-speaker of truth, hoarder of mischievous falsehood equally.
One hell of a description, huh? Of course it starts off as a metaphor for rumors themselves, since Pheme is the personification of rumor, but then it goes into all that crazy shit about eyes and mouths and ears. Roman descriptions of her are honestly really illustrative. They also state that she wanders the whole world spreading news of good and evil deeds, likes to switch up lies and truths for kicks, and that she lives in this crazy spot at the center of the world where she can hear everyone’s gossip and whispering. To mortals she first appears scrawny and timid, but she grows stronger as she gains attention. To the gods, she is impatient and delights in troublemaking.
It is also in Roman myth where she is depicted as assisting Aphrodite in punishing the Lemnian women for scorning her rites. In the Argonautica (the one by Valerius Flaccus, not Apollonius Rhodius), Aphrodite charges Pheme with flying down to Lemnos and stirring up rumors about the men cheating on their wives with Thracian women. Pheme goes down and takes on the form of one of the Lemnian women, doing just as she is told. Eventually, this leads to the Lemnian women attacking their husbands.
Pheme was known to receive cult in at least two areas of Ancient Greece: Athens and Rhodes. Pausanias describes an altar to Pheme in the Athenian marketplace, alongside altars for Aidos (shame) and Hormes (effort). It is suggested that her cult likely connected to that of Hermes, the other prolific messenger-god of communication (though let’s not forget Iris either), since many of the daimones were often worshiped alongside more prominent Olympian counterparts. Another altar from the Roman period was found on the acropolis at Kamiros in Rhodes, and an excerpt from the sacrificial calendar of Kamiros designates a sacrifice of a female lamb to her on 10 Thesmophorios (around September/October).
Her name also appeared as an epithet of several other gods. Zeus was worshiped with the surname Phemios and Athene with the surname Phemia at Erythrai, and Hestia was worshiped with the surname Phamia on Kos. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any information on any of these cults, and I wasn’t even aware of their existence until they popped up during my research of Pheme.
As the personification of rumor and reputation, Pheme was viewed as representing the collective opinions of a community on a specific topic. For instance, in a speech against Timarchus, Aeschines cites the “universal pheme of the city” as being in agreement that Timarchus is a prostitute. He claims that citing Pheme as a witness to Timarchus’s deeds is on the same level as calling on a mortal witness to recount what they’ve seen, thus avoiding needing to present any real evidence to back up his claim. Demosthenes, however, argues that Aeschines’s argument is just plain slander, and that pheme is when “the whole city spontaneously, for no reason, says that a thing happened,” and “a rumor of mysterious accuracy.”
Additionally, Pheme was envisioned as the goddess who carries fast-traveling news from place to place. Specifically, on multiple occasions pheme (the concept or the goddess) was recognized as the cause of news of victory in battle traveling supernaturally quickly from place to place. This may have even been how her cult was instated in Athens, when news of Cimon’s victory at the battle of the Eurymedon during the Persian War supposedly reached Athens that same day.
As for epithets, I was thrilled to find that she does indeed have a few!
Διὸς αγγελος (Dios angelos) — messenger of Zeus (Hom. Il. 2.94)
Αγγελος (Angelos) — messenger (Hom. Od. 24.413)
Πολύγλωσσος (Polyglossos) — many-tongued (Dionysus and Lycurgus 34)
Σεμνοδότειρα (Semnodoteira) — giver of gracious/glorious gifts, giver of majesty (Bacchylides Victory Odes 2.1)
Αυτοτέλεστος (Autotelestos) — self-accomplished, spontaneous (Nonn. D. 5.370)
Πολύστομος (Polystonos) — many-mouthed, spoken/uttered by many, many-tongued (Nonn. D. 18.1) [In the Iliad, this is an epithet of Eris, defined as “sorrowful” or “many-sighing” so I find this one interesting]
I was pleasantly surprised to find so much information on Pheme when I expected there to be so little, and it helped me come up with a list of ways to incorporate her into modern worship that I think makes sense for her. UPG ahead, naturally.
As a goddess of communication, Pheme can be prayed to in order to ensure clear communication, improve memory, and aid in public speaking. As goddess of rumor, she can be petitioned to avoid or dispel scandal, rumors, and slander, as well as protection from drama. On the flip side, you can pray to her to help gain proper acknowledgement for your hard work (promotions, awards, or just in general), make a name for yourself, and improve or maintain your reputation.
Offerings to her can include (but certainly aren’t limited to) honey, water, laurel/bay leaves (or crowns or wreaths), newspaper/magazine clippings, trumpets, horns, and other brass instruments (real or miniature), and imagery of wings, birds, eyes, ears, and mouths/tongues. That last bit reminds me of the way that clay votives of body parts were offered to Asklepios, and I think an interesting connection could be made there. These offerings can be placed by a window or on a windowsill, as Pheme’s home is described as having thousands of windows so that she can gaze upon the world (though obviously, wherever works best for you is also perfectly pleasing).
Devotional acts to her can include spreading awareness about important causes, keeping up with the news, speaking honestly, practicing public speaking, observing other people’s mannerisms (go people-watching!), speaking out when you see injustice, keeping in touch with your friends, or practicing an unusual form of divination (look up the oracle of Hermes at Pharai!!). I also encourage you to go out and celebrate all of your achievements, no matter how small, in her name.
Sources & Further Reading
CGRN #112, http://cgrn.ulg.ac.be/file/112/
Greek Lyric, Volume IV: Bacchylides, Corinna, and Others. Edited and translated by Campbell. Loeb Classical Library 461.
Hesiod, Homeric Hymns, Epic Cycle, Homerica. Translated by Evelyn-White, H G. Loeb Classical Library Volume 57.
Homer, Iliad. Translated by Lattimore.
Homer, Odyssey. Translated by Murray.
Kelly, Peter. “Voices within Ovid’s House of ‘Fama.” Mnemosyne, vol. 67, 2014.
Nagy, Gregory. “Se̅̂MA AND NÓḔSIS: SOME ILLUSTRATIONS.” Arethusa, vol. 16, no. ½, 1983.
Ovid, Metamorphoses. Translated by More.
Pausanias, Description of Greece. Translated by Jones.
Parker, Robert. Athenian Religion: A History. Clarendon Press, 1996.
PHEME & OSSA, Theoi Greek Mythology.
Select Papyri, Volume III: Poetry. Translated by Page. Loeb Classical Library 360.
Sophocles, Oedipus the King.
Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica. Translated by Mozley.
Vergil, Aenid. Translated by Day-Lewis.
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