Thersites's Pride In The Iliad By Homer

The passage is from the epic the Iliad by Homer. It describes the scene in which Thersites, an ugly representative of the middle class, questions the entire reason for the Trojan War and admonishes Agamemnon for partaking in such a trivial war. Thersites then gets beaten and humiliated by Odysseus for speaking out of turn and the aristocrats reclaim the stage.

In the era of the Iliad, pride may as well be the currency circulating throughout the region. The main motivator in the Homeric era is the earning and maintaining of one’s pride. This is why Thersites’s outburst is unusual. Not only is Thersites rebuking another man, but the main being criticized is the king. This moment is one of the few in all of Homeric works in which a lower class citizen is criticizing an upper class citizen. Agamemnon and all

of the other aristocrats participating in the war are having their honor and pride questioned, which explains Odysseus’s quick beating down of Thersites. Even when the point being made is a completely valid one, that a war to recover a fickle beautiful girl is ridiculous, if the point is made by someone hideous with disorderly speech the point is ignored and deemed unworthy.
This exemplifies another theme in Homeric literature: beauty on the outside equates beauty on the inside.

Homer even introduces Thersites as a vile and ineloquent speaker instantly leaving a bad impression of the man. Thersites’s speech in the passage is nearly equivalent to a speech made earlier by Achilles accusing Agamemnon of never earning his share of the spoils of war. When Achilles makes this point, however, the masses listen with zeal and all but Agamemnon, who is once again being verbally attacked, allow Achilles to continue with his rant. Thersites barely got a speech in without being brutally beaten and humiliated by Odysseus. The two differences between Thersites and Achilles is appearance and honor. Both if these differences are vital to a man’s worth in the Homeric era though. If one is ugly on the outside, then that man must not be trusted for he is believed to be as foul inside as out. Without honor, there is no reason to attach value to a man’s opinion or to his actions. Honor is how the Greeks entitle one’s self to whatever he pleases, within reason. With more honor comes more spoils and perks. Without honor, a man is useless and has no

value.
Thersites is seen as the recalcitrant soldier with a foul tongue and heart, but this common man is one of the few in Homeric literature to audibly question the actions of an aristocrat and condemn a war. In modern society, Thersites represents every person who has ever questioned authority and been humiliated for doing so. Simply because Thersites lacked beauty and honor, his opinions were tossed aside and he was mocked by his peers. A society in which most opinions are ignored, is a society that will slow social progression.