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to manifest and so far from being fabricated is this statement of mine, that you will find that both our city and our forefathers dedicated an altar to Common Report, as one of the greatest gods;The scholiast tells us that this altar was dedicated to commemorate news of a victory of Cimon’ s in Pamphylia, received at Athens the day the battle was fought. Paus. 1.17.1) attests the existence of the altar. and you will find that Homer again and again in the Iliad says, of a thing that has not yet come to pass, Common Report came to the host; and again you will find Euripides declaring that this god is able not only to make known the living, revealing their true characters, but the dead as well, when he says, Common Report shows forth the good man, even though he be in the bowels of the earth;
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and Hesiod expressly represents her as a goddess, speaking in words that are very plain to those who are willing to understand, for he says, But Common Report dies never, the voice that tongues of many men do utter. She also is divine.The quotation from Hesiod is from Hes. WD 763 f.; that from Euripides is not found in any of the extant plays, nor do we find the Homeric phrase in the Iliad. Indeed, the word φήμη does not occur in the Iliad, and it is found only three times in the Odyssey(Hom. Od. 2.35; Hom. Od. 20.100, Hom. Od. 20.105), where it is used of words of ominous meaning. You will find that all men whose lives have been decorous praise these verses of the poets. For all who are ambitious for honor from their fellows believe that it is from good report that fame will come to them. But men whose lives are shameful pay no honor to this god, for they believe that in her they have a deathless accuser.
