Thersites the Malcontent, A discussion

Prudential Public Leadership

“…Gladstone appreciated the deliberative potential evident in Homer's account of public political argument. The great statesman puts it as well as anyone: it is not enough to concede that the story of Thersites "does not prove the Assembly to have been an illusion"; we can go further and claim that it illustrates "that freedom of debate was a thing in principle at least known and familiar" (Gladstone 1858, 126; see also Rankin 1972). …”

Figuras de lo popular: el factor plebeyo y la democracia en la evocación de la política antigua

“…Así habló recriminando a Agamenón, pastor de huestes,/ Tersites. A su lado pronto se planto el divino Ulises/ y, 7 No es todo lo amplia que podría ser la bibliografía sobre esta imagen homérica de lo que podría caracterizarse como "patrón anti-heroico" (Postlethwaite 1988), pero destacamos el registro de esta representación en una serie de estudiosos entre los que destacan: Rankin (1972), Rose (1988), Thalmann (1988), Lowry (1991), Kouklanakis (1999), Stuurman (2004), Marks (2005) y Barker (2009). mirándolo con torva faz, le amonestó con duras palabras:/ ¡Tersites, parlanchín sin juicio!…”

Characterization in Ancient Greek Literature

“…29 Most scholars adhere to the second option, e.g. Ebert 1969;Rankin 1972;Bernsdorff 1992: 38-40;and Scodel 2002: 204-209; the first position is defended by Postlethwaite 1988 (Thersites' speech 'reflects the attitude of the ordinary non-heroic Achaians to the quarrel in condemning Agamemnon's treatment of Achilleus'). Thalmann 1988 argues that there is not one perspective on Thersites fixed in the text; the scene is meant to elicit different responses and hence illustrates 'the indeterminacies of lived experience' (28).…”