Thersites: The Play's Foulest Voice and Its Truest
First appears: Act 2, Scene 1
Thersites is the play's running commentary: a deformed Greek who attaches himself to Achilles and Patroclus and spends the play abusing everyone with magnificent energy. His assessments are crude, crude, and consistently accurate.
He sees the whole enterprise of the Trojan War as a war fought for a cuckold (Menelaus, whose wife ran off) and a whore (Helen, who ran off with her). His summary ('wars and lechery; nothing else holds fashion') is the play's thesis in six words.
He does not fight. He is cowardly, dishonest, and vicious. He is also the sharpest observer in the play.
Key Scenes
Famous Quotes
“Lechery, lechery; still, wars and lechery; nothing else holds fashion:”
Thersites — Act 5, Scene 2
Themes
Other Characters in Troilus and Cressida
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