In an overview of the literary reception of Thersites, Corinne Jouanno has shown that, in Byzantine times, this notoriously ugly hero was employed as a negative paradigm of verbal inappropriateness, shameless ignorance and moral (as well as aesthetic) ugliness. Amongst the authors quoted by Jouanno, we encounter the Byzantine scholars John Tzetzes and Eustathios of Thessaloniki, who both remark upon Thersites’ proverbial arrogance and verbal intemperance. In this paper I suggest that the analysis of some additional texts by Tzetzes, combined with a closer comparison with Eustathios, might further enrich the picture.
Specifically, in the first section of the paper I demonstrate that Tzetzes and Eustathios took part, from opposite perspectives, in a scholarly debate involving the figure of Thersites. The second part of the paper focuses especially on Tzetzes’ treatment of Thersites. As I argue, Tzetzes’ fluctuating reception of Thersites can be traced to his ambivalent attitude towards Homeric poetry as a whole. In the last section, I suggest that Tzetzes’ fascination with Thersites may also be linked to the hero’s connection with the so-called poetry of blame, a form of literary expression that the polemic Tzetzes was particularly fond of. In this context, I analyze Tzetzes’ reception of the iambic poet Hipponax, another notorious paradigm of ugliness and outspokenness.Il convegno da cui ha tratto origine il presente volume è stato finanziato dal programma di ricerca e innovazione dellíUnione Europea "Horizon 2020" tramite una borsa Marie Skłodowska-Curie (progetto "ASAGIP", Grant Agreement n° 708556)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
