Troilus and Cressida

Ajax and Thersites enter the stage, somewhere in the Greek camp. Ajax wants Thersites to find out the details of a recently-issued proclamation (referring to Hector’s challenge), but Thersites refuses to do his bidding. Enraged, Ajax beats up Thersites, calling him a “bitch-wolf’s son” (2.2.34). In turn, Thersites curses Ajax, referring to him as a “mongrel, beef-witted lord” (2.2.34), who is as envious of Achilles’s valor as Cerberus (the three-headed dog who guards the doors to the underworld) is of the beauty of Persephone, wife of Hades. Ajax continues to thrash Thersites. 

Achilles and Patroclus join them, baffled at the commotion. Achilles bids Ajax to calm down and stop hitting Thersites. However, Thersites does not respond well to Achilles’s kindness, insulting him too. When Patroclus bids him to be silent, lest he anger Ajax and Achilles further, Thersites responds that he does not take orders from Achilles’s “brach” (2.2.37) or bitch. Thersites departs in anger, claiming he will never again visit the tents of Ajax and Achilles.

Achilles reveals Hector’s proclamation: Five hours after sunrise the next day, Hector will arrive at a midway point between Troy’s walls and the Greek camps and challenge a warrior to combat.