Beautiful Bodies, Beautiful Minds: Some Applications of Disability Studies to Homer

ABSTRACT:This paper applies theoretical frameworks from disability studies to the Homeric epics to explore how agency is communicated through the representation of heroic bodies. After exploring the exceptional ugliness of Thersites in respect to the poetics of beauty in the Iliad, I argue that the Odyssey adapts notions of a functional body to privilege mental ability over physical strength. Such an adaptation complements rather than negates Iliadic values. The Odyssey's emphasis on Odysseus' marked and post-heroic body positions experience as a marker of agency re-positions bodily perfection as a symbol of perversity.