# Thersites — Troilus and Cressida character guide

> Thersites in Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** rank Thersites, Thersites Agamemnon, Thersites Mars, Thersites Ajax, Enter Thersites

**First appearance:** 0007-act-ii-scene-i

## Snapshot

Deformed, venomous, and gloriously unfireable, Thersites is the Greek camp's licensed fool — the only man who tells the truth because no one can stop him.

## Who they are

Thersites serves 'voluntary' in the Greek camp, which is to say he attaches himself to Ajax and Achilles and abuses them both, cataloguing every commander's stupidity in a running commentary no one can silence. He is beaten, threatened, and dismissed, yet he keeps talking — 'I shall speak as much as thou afterwards' — because his deformity and low status make him useless to punish and impossible to ignore. He matters because he is the play's cynical chorus: when Thersites calls Ajax a 'thing of no bowels' or predicts the whole war is lechery and appetite, the audience has to decide whether the ugliest voice in the camp is also the most honest.

## In the story

### [Scene I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/troilus_and_cressida_se/chapters/act-ii-scene-i)

Rails against Ajax and Achilles, exposing their folly and the Greeks' internal strife.

### [Scene III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/troilus_and_cressida_se/chapters/act-ii-scene-iii)

Soliloquizes about his fury, rails against Ajax and Achilles, and engages in witty banter with Patroclus and Achilles.

### [Scene III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/troilus_and_cressida_se/chapters/act-iii-scene-iii)

Provides a comic and cynical commentary on Ajax's behavior and is sent as Achilles' ambassador.

### [Scene I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/troilus_and_cressida_se/chapters/act-v-scene-i)

Delivers a letter to Achilles and delivers cynical commentary on Diomedes, Menelaus, and others.

### [Scene II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/troilus_and_cressida_se/chapters/act-v-scene-ii)

Provides cynical commentary on the lechery and deceit he observes.

### [Scene IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/troilus_and_cressida_se/chapters/act-v-scene-iv)

Observes the battle, mocks Diomedes and the Greek commanders, and is spared by Hector.

### [Scene VII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/troilus_and_cressida_se/chapters/act-v-scene-vii)

Mocks the fight between Menelaus and Paris, then refuses to fight Margarelon.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/troilus_and_cressida_se/characters/therites
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/troilus_and_cressida_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/troilus_and_cressida_se/characters