uersutus

The adjective uersūtus is attested from the earliest phase of Latin literature, appearing already in the opening line of Livius Andronicus’ translation of the Odyssey (Virum mihi, Camena, insece uersutum), where it renders Homer’s πολύτροπος of Odysseus. From this initial context the term acquires a characteristic semantic ambivalence, denoting at once intellectual resourcefulness and morally suspect cunning. In the course of late antiquity, however, the negative valence becomes increasingly dominant. Christian writers in particular appropriate uersūtus as a quasi-technical designation for insidious deceit and moral perversity, most prominently in reference to Satan.