Editing Thersites (section)

==In later literature==
Thersites is also mentioned in [[Plato]]'s ''[[Gorgias (dialogue)|Gorgias]]'' (525e) as an example of a soul that can be cured in the after-life because of his lack of might;<ref name="gorgias-sokrates">Plato, ''Gorgias'', 525e.</ref> and in ''[[The Republic (Plato)|The Republic]]'' he chooses to be reborn as a nonhuman ape. According to E. R. Dodds, "There he is not so much the typical petty criminal as the typical buffoon; and so [[Lucian]] describes him."<ref>''Gorgias'', ed. by E. R. Dodds, 1959, p. 382.</ref>

The ''[[Alexander Romance]]'' refers to Thersites when [[Alexander the Great]] is claimed to have said that it would be a greater honor to be immortalized in the poetry of [[Homer]], even if only as a minor and detestable character like Thersites, than by the poets of his own day: "I would sooner be a Thersites in Homer than an Agamemnon in your writing".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1055263506|title=Collected ancient Greek novels|date=2019|others=Bryan P. Reardon|isbn=978-0-520-30559-5|edition=[Third edition]|location=Oakland, California|pages=799|oclc=1055263506}}</ref> Other recensions replace Agamemnon with Achilles in the comparison.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Alexander Romance ("Pseudo-Callisthenes") Book 1, Chapters 42–47|url=http://www.attalus.org/translate/alexander1e.html}}</ref>

''A New Interlude Called Thersites'', an anonymous play from 1537 sometimes attributed to [[Nicholas Udall]], is based on a Latin dialogue by [[Jean Tixier de Ravisi]], a professor of rhetoric at the [[College of Navarre]] and rector of the [[University of Paris]] from 1520–1524, written under the [[pen name]] "J. Ravisius Textor." It is described by [[Karl J. Holzknecht]] as "the earliest example of the braggart soldier (''[[miles gloriosus]]'') on the English stage." While derived from plays of [[Plautus]], elements such as combat with a snail ("an old medieval joke, usually at the expense of the [[Lombards]]") and an episode in which [[Telemachus]] comes to the title character's mother to be cured of worms, are wholly original to this version.<ref>Karl J. Holzknecht. ''Outlines of Tudor and Stuart Plays 1497-1642: 82 Act-by-Act Synopses Plus Dramatis Personae, Sources, Critical Comments''. New York: [[Barnes & Noble]], 1947, 13. (He spells Tixier and "Textier.")</ref>  

Along with many of the major figures of the Trojan War, Thersites was a character in [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Troilus and Cressida]]'' (1602) in which he is described as "a deformed and scurrilous Grecian" and portrayed as a comic servant, in the tradition of the [[Shakespearean fool]], but unusually given to abusive remarks to all he encounters. He begins as [[Ajax the Great|Ajax]]'s slave, telling Ajax, "I would thou didst itch from head to foot and I had the scratching of thee; I would make thee the loathsomest scab in Greece." Thersites soon leaves Ajax and puts himself into the service of Achilles (portrayed by Shakespeare as a kind of bohemian figure), who appreciates his bitter, caustic humor. Shakespeare mentions Thersites again in his later play ''[[Cymbeline]]'', when [[Guiderius]] says, "Thersites' body is as good as Ajax' / When neither are alive."

[[Laurence Sterne]] writes of Thersites in the last volume of his ''[[The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman|Tristram Shandy]]'', chapter 14, declaring him to be the exemplar of abusive satire, as black as the ink it is written with.

In [[Faust, Part Two|Part Two]] of [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]]'s ''[[Goethe's Faust|Faust]]'' (1832), Act One, during the Masquerade, Thersites appears briefly and criticizes the goings-on. He says, "When some lofty thing is done / I gird at once my harness on. / Up with what's low, what's high eschew, / Call crooked straight, and straight askew".<ref>Trans. Wayne, Philip, copyright 1959 (Penguin Books).</ref> The Herald, who acts as Master of Revels or Lord of Misrule, strikes Thersites with his mace, at which point he metamorphoses into an egg, from which a bat and an adder are hatched.