Pheme

**Pheme**, also called **Ossa** or **Fama**, is the Goddess of Gossip and Rumors from Greco-Roman mythology. She is a messenger god directly served under Zeus' command.

## Overview

In Greek mythology, **Pheme**, also known as **Ossa**, was the personification of fame and renown, her favour being notability, her wrath being scandalous rumors. She was a daughter either of Gaia or of Elpis, was described as "she who initiates and furthers communication" and had an altar at Athens.

A tremendous gossip, Pheme was said to have pried into the affairs of mortals and gods, then repeated what she learned, starting off at first with just a dull whisper, but repeating it louder each time, until everyone knew. In art, she was usually depicted with wings and a trumpet.

In Roman mythology, Fama ("rumor") was described as having multiple tongues, eyes, ears and feathers by Virgil and other authors. Virgil wrote that she "had her feet on the ground, and her head in the clouds, making the small seem great and the great seem greater". By Homer, Pheme is called Rumour the goddess or the messenger of Zeus.

In English Renaissance theatre, Rumour was a stock personification, best known from William Shakespeare's *Henry IV, Part 2*.

## Appearance

Pheme is a beautiful woman who looks like a 1950s housewife, with fair skin and bright auburn hair. However, because of the four pairs of eyes running across her face, her large pointed ears, and the pair of golden wings on her back, it is hard to see her as even remotely human-like.

## Personality

Pheme, like many other divine personifications, truly lives and acts based on her domains. She is a known gossiper, knowing every single rumor, scandal, and gossip within the Greco-Roman Pantheon and even ones in other factions and pantheons.

She has a special talent to sniff out news and potential scandals like a bloodhound, with her eyes capable of seeing a thousand things at once while her ears can hear the smallest of noise hundreds of kilometers away. According to Chiron, she is one of the gods that the Olympians "can't live with her, can't live without her".

In ancient times, people had compared her favor being notability and her wrath being scandalous rumors. She has a tendency to spread chaos everywhere she goes with her gossip, which resulted in her pseudo-exile from Mount Olympus as Zeus does not want the gods to be distracted by her rumors that they can't perform their works dutifully.

This doesn't mean he dislikes her, as while he is annoyed by her countless gossips, he recognizes how useful they are and gave her a special duty to tell him all the gossips in the pantheon immediately after she discovered them, which has led to gods such as Athena and Artemis calling her "Zeus' Little Spy".

Despite this, however, when it comes to journalism, she is an extremely fair and diligent worker who strives for nothing but absolute truth and fairness in her reports. Because of this, she can become enraged when someone accuses of unprofessionalism. According to her, while gossiping and rumors *are* her domains, they would *never* be involved in her line of work as long as she has a say about it.

## History

Pheme is a goddess from Greco-Roman mythology who has been worshipped and revered by the people of Greece and Ancient Rome for thousands of years. She is the daughter of Elpis, Goddess of Hope, and is among the numerous offspring of Zeus, who appointed her as his personal messenger.

In Greek mythology, she is mostly known for spreading rumors at the behest of the Twelve Olympians, from the rumors of the Lemnian men's supposed plans to kill their wives at Aphrodite's commands after the Pelasgian women had scorned her rites, to the love affairs between Aeneas and Dido as mentioned in the "Aeneid", to telling Deianira of Heracles' affair with Iole.

## Trivia

* Her name, *Pheme*, derived from ϕάναι "to speak" and can mean "fame", "report", or "rumor".
	+ Her Roman name, *Fama*, is related to the Latin *fari* ("to speak"), and is the etymon of the English "fame".
* She has an altar in Athens.
* In art, she was usually depicted with wings and a trumpet.
* In English Renaissance theatre, she (as Rumour) was a stock personification.
* She is said to live with Credulity, Error, Delight, Whispers, Sedition, and Fears.
* In Greek mythology, she is called the last child of Gaia and is the sister of Enceladus and Coeus.
* The Roman poet Virgil called her "a winged angel of ruin".