Editing Thersites (section)

== Mythology ==
In some accounts, Thersites, together with his five brothers including [[Melanippus]], overthrew [[Oeneus]] from the throne of [[Calydon]] and gave the kingdom to Agrius, their father and Oeneus's brother. Later on, they were deposed by [[Diomedes]] who reinstated his grandfather Oeneus as king and slew all of Thersites's brothers.<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], 1.7.10 & 1.8.5-[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+1.8.6&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022:book=0:chapter=0&highlight=Thersites 6]</ref>

[[Homer]] described him in detail in the ''Iliad'', Book II, even though he plays only a minor role in the story. He is said to be bow-legged and lame, to have shoulders that cave inward, and a head which is covered in tufts of hair and comes to a point. This deformity has even given rise to a [[Thersites#Thersites complex|medical eponym]]. Vulgar, obscene, and somewhat dull-witted, Thersites disrupts the rallying of the Greek army:

<blockquote>He got up in the assembly and attacked [[Agamemnon]] in the words of [[Achilles]] [calling him greedy and a coward] ... [[Odysseus]] then stood up, delivered a sharp rebuke to Thersites, which he coupled with a threat to strip him naked, and then beat him on the back and shoulders with Agamemnon's sceptre; Thersites doubled over, a warm tear fell from his eye, and a bloody welt formed on his back; he sat down in fear, and in pain gazed helplessly as he wiped away his tear; but the rest of the assembly was distressed and laughed .... There must be a figuration of wickedness as self-evident as Thersites—the ugliest man who came to Troy—who says what everyone else is thinking.<ref>''The Rhetoric of Morality and Philosophy'' by Seth Benardete, 1991, pp. 100–101.</ref></blockquote>

He is not mentioned elsewhere in the ''Iliad'', but it seems that in the lost ''Aethiopis'' Achilles eventually killed him by punching him very hard "for having torn out the eyes of the Amazon [[Penthesilea]] that the hero had just killed in combat."<ref>''Analyses et réflexions sur Gorgias'' by [[Luc Brisson]], p. 152.</ref>

In his Introduction to ''The Anger of Achilles'', [[Robert Graves]] speculates that Homer might have made Thersites a ridiculous figure as a way of dissociating himself from him, because his remarks seem entirely justified. This was a way of letting these remarks, along with Odysseus' brutal act of suppression, remain in the record.