Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/87

 ODYSSEUS AND THEKSITES. 71 studded sceptre, imprinting its painful mark in a bloody weal across his back. Thersites, terrified and subdued, sits down weeping ; while the surrounding crowd deride him, and express the warmest approbation of Odysseus for having thus by force put the re viler to silence. 1 Both Odysseus and Nestor then address the agora, sympathiz- ing with Agamemnon for the shame which the retreat of the Greeks is about to inflict upon him, and urging emphatically upon every one present the obligation of persevering until the siege shall be successfully consummated. Neither of them ani- madverts at all upon Agamemnon, either for his conduct towards Achilles, or for his childish freak of trying the temper of the army. 2 There cannot be a clearer indication than this description so graphic in the original poem of the true character of the Homeric agora. The multitude who compose it are listening and acquiescent, not often hesitating, and never refractory 3 to the chief. The fate which awaits a presumptuous critic, even where his virulent reproaches are substantially well-founded, is plainly set forth in the treatment of Thersites ; while the unpopularity of such a character is attested even more by the excessive pains which Homer takes to heap upon him repulsive personal defor- mities, than by the chastisement of Odysseus ; he is lame, bald, crook-backed, of misshapen head, and squinting vision. But we cease to wonder at the submissive character of the agora, when we read the proceedings of Odysseus towards the people themselves ; his fine words and flattery addressed to the chiefs, and his contemptuous reproof and manual violence towards the common men, at a moment when both were doing exactly the. 1 Iliad, ii. 213-277. Agamemnon, touch in any way upon this anomalous point, though, in tho circumstances under which his speech is made, it would seem to be of all others the most natural, and the sharpest thrust against the commander- in-chief. A6cu <5e XPV& Ka < irofei Kuaij rude A6j (T, tyov #e/lot>rof ttA/la rot) /loyov Ilpoo6oi>c, egoi/i 1 uv Sijftov cvficvearcpov.
 * Iliad, ii. 284-340. Nor docs Thersites, in his criminatory speech against
 * Sec this illustrated in the language of Theseus, Eurip. Supplic 3 19- -352.