Literary notes about Defame (AI summary)
The term "defame" in literature is deployed as a powerful tool to illustrate the deliberate tarnishing of reputations—whether of nations, political figures, or private individuals. Authors use it to depict acts of calumny and slander that not only damage public honor, as seen in discussions of national prestige and political betrayal ([1], [2], [3]), but also to portray personal treachery and the erosion of familial or interpersonal bonds ([4], [5], [6]). In classical texts by Homer and Virgil, for instance, the word carries the weight of epic reproach, underscoring how wrongful accusations can defame the virtuous and besmirch an entire community’s honor ([7], [8]). Its use, spanning from historical narratives to poetic lamentations, reinforces a pervasive concern with integrity and the destructive power of unfounded allegations.
- I never imagined anything so brutal could defame the prestige of a great nation.
— from The Shadow of the Past by F. E. Mills (Florence Ethel Mills) Young - you will incur the character and reproach at the hands of those who wish to defame the city, of having put that wise man, Socrates, to death.
— from Apology, Crito, and Phaedo of Socrates by Plato - It has now been fashionable, for near half a century, to defame and vilify the house of Stuart, and to exalt and magnify the reign of Elizabeth.
— from The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Eleven Volumes, Volume 06 Reviews, Political Tracts, and Lives of Eminent Persons by Samuel Johnson - p. 277 “They would tell us some time, how base a thing it was to defame the house and abuse the bed of a friend.
— from The Visions of Dom Francisco de Quevedo Villegas by Francisco de Quevedo - "Whoever says that I'm mad," is the answer, "lies deliberately wilfully, wickedly, with naked intent to defame and malign."
— from Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 14, July 2, 1870 by Various - How often wilt thou defame my son-in-law's name and call him liar and impostor?
— from The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 10 - Studious thy country's worthies to defame,
— from The Odyssey by Homer - My guilt thy growing virtues did defame;
— from The Aeneid by Virgil
