A deformed, scurrilous officer in the Greek army which went to
the siege of Troy. He was always railing at the chiefs, and one day
Achilles felled him to the earth with his first and killed him. (Homer: Iliad.)
He squinted, halted, gibbous was behind,
And pinched before, and on his tapering head
Grew patches only of the flimsiest down.
... Him Greece had sent to Troy,
The miscreant, who shamed his country most.
More on Thersites from Infoplease:
See a map of "" in the Visual Thesaurus
