The Aristeia of Diomedes

Chapter summary

Athena gives Diomedes strength and boldness so that he stands out among all the Argives and wins noble glory, and she kindles in his helmet and shield an unwearying fire, like that of the autumn star, and sends him where the men crowd most thickly. Among the Trojans is Dares, a wealthy priest of Hephaestus, whose sons Phegeus and Idaeus advance against Diomedes: Phegeus throws and misses, Diomedes kills him, and Idaeus abandons the chariot without daring to protect his brother's body. Hephaestus saves him, wrapped in night, so that the old father would not be wholly distressed. The Trojans are thrown into confusion at seeing one flee and the other dead. Athena then takes Ares by the hand and proposes to let Trojans and Achaeans fight until they see to whom Zeus gives glory, and that the two of them withdraw to avoid the wrath of Zeus; she leads him out of the combat and seats him beside the Scamander. The Danaans drive the Trojans back, and each chief kills a man: Agamemnon, Idomeneus, Menelaus, Meriones, Meges, and Eurypylus. Meriones kills Phereclus, the craftsman who built for Paris the ships that were the beginning of the Trojans' evil, and whom Athena loved, but he did not know the decrees of the gods.

No one could say on whose side Diomedes stands: he runs across the plain like a winter river in flood, sweeping away bridges and fences. Pandarus sees him and wounds him in the right shoulder, piercing the breastplate, and shouts to the Trojans that the best of the Achaeans has been hit and will not hold out much longer. Diomedes withdraws to the horses and asks Sthenelus to pull the arrow out; the blood gushes. He prays to Athena: if she ever stood by him and his father in war, let her love him now, let him kill the man who wounded him, and let that man, who boasts he will not see the light of the sun for long, be proven wrong. Athena eases his limbs and answers that she has put in his breast the fearless strength of his father, Tydeus, and has removed from his eyes the mist that was there, so that he may recognize god and man. If a god comes to test him, he should not fight head-on with the other immortals; but if Aphrodite comes to the war, he may wound her with the sharp bronze. Diomedes returns three times stronger, like a lion that a shepherd wounded as it leapt the fence but did not kill, and that then enters the pens while the sheep crowd together. He kills Astynous and Hypeiron; then Abas and Polyidus, sons of Eurydamas, the old interpreter of dreams; Xanthus and Thoon, sons of Phaenops, an old man who had no other heir and is left with only lament; and two sons of Priam, Echemon and Chromius, on the same chariot, like a lion that breaks the neck of a heifer.

Aeneas sees the slaughter and looks for Pandarus in the fighting: where are the bow, the arrows, the fame? Let him shoot Diomedes, lifting his hands to Zeus, unless it is a god angry with the Trojans because of sacrifices. Pandarus answers that, judging by the shield, the helmet, and the horses, he thinks it is the son of Tydeus, but he does not know whether it is a god. If it is the man, he does not rage without a god, and some immortal, wrapped in cloud, turned the arrow aside. He had already struck him in the shoulder and expected to send him to Hades, but he did not subdue him; some god is angry. He has no horses or chariot, although there are eleven chariots in the house of his father, Lycaon, who ordered him to command the Trojans from a chariot, and whose order he did not obey, sparing the horses so that they would not lack fodder. He came on foot, trusting his bows, which did him no good: he shot at Diomedes and at Atrides, drew blood from both, and only roused them further. He swears to break the bows and cast them into the fire if he returns home. Aeneas tells him not to speak like that and proposes that they face the man together in the chariot, with the Trojan horses, of the lineage that Zeus gave to Tros in exchange for Ganymedes. Pandarus prefers that Aeneas drive and that he himself receive the enemy with his spear.

Sthenelus sees the two of them and warns Diomedes: one is Pandarus, the archer; the other is Aeneas, son of Anchises and Aphrodite. He proposes retreating in the chariot. Diomedes looks at him askance and tells him not to speak of dread: it is not proper for him to fight by dodging, his strength is still firm, and Athena does not let him tremble; their swift horses will not carry both of them back, even if one of them escapes. If Athena grants him the chance to kill both, Sthenelus should hold their horses and take Aeneas's horses to lead them to the Achaeans. Pandarus hurls his spear, which pierces Diomedes's shield, and shouts that he struck him in the flank. Diomedes says he missed, and that they will not stop until one of them falls and sates Ares. He throws, and Athena guides the spear to Pandarus's nose, beside the eye, through the white teeth, cutting his tongue at the root; he falls from the chariot, and the horses shy back.

Aeneas leaps down with shield and spear to defend the body, like a lion. Diomedes picks up a stone that two men of today could not carry and hurls it at Aeneas's hip, crushing the socket of the thigh and breaking both tendons; Aeneas falls to his knees, and night covers his eyes. He would have died there if Aphrodite, his mother, had not seen him: she wraps her son in her white arms and draws a fold of her cloak over him as a shield against the darts. Sthenelus, remembering Diomedes's orders, holds back Aeneas's horses, takes them, and hands them to his companion Deipylus to take to the ships. Diomedes pursues Aphrodite with the merciless bronze, knowing she is a goddess without strength, not one of those who lead in the war of men, like Athena and Enyo. He catches her and wounds her wrist, through the cloak the Graces made; the ichor flows, which the poet explains: the gods do not eat bread or drink wine, and so they have no blood and are called immortal. She cries out and drops her son, and Apollo takes him up in a dark cloud. Diomedes shouts to her to withdraw from the war: is it not enough to deceive weak women? Iris carries the distressed goddess to Ares, who sits to the left of the battle; she asks for his horses, climbs to Olympus, and falls at the knees of her mother, Dione. She tells how Diomedes wounded her for having saved her son, and that already the Danaans are fighting against the immortals too. Dione consoles her: many gods have suffered at the hands of men, Ares was bound by Otus and Ephialtes for thirteen months in a bronze jar, Hera was wounded in the breast by Heracles, and Hades was wounded by the same man at Pylos. Diomedes is foolish, she says, because whoever fights against the immortals does not live long; and let his wife, Aegialeia, not wake the house with laments. Dione wipes away the ichor, and the hand heals. Athena and Hera mock Zeus: Aphrodite, they say, wanted to lead an Achaean woman to follow the Trojans, and scratched her hand on a golden brooch. Zeus smiles and calls Aphrodite to him: war was not given to her, only the works of marriage; the concerns of war will be left to Ares and Athena.

Diomedes still charges at Aeneas, knowing that Apollo shields him with his hands and showing no respect for the great god. Three times he advances, and three times Apollo pushes back his gleaming shield; on the fourth, the god cries out that he should think again and fall back, and not wish to think like the gods, for the race of the immortals is never like that of the men who walk upon the earth. Diomedes draws back a little, avoiding the wrath of Apollo. The god places Aeneas in sacred Pergamus, where Leto and Artemis heal him, and fashions an image identical to him, around which Trojans and Achaeans fight. Apollo asks Ares to remove from the battle this man, who would fight even against Zeus. Ares, in the form of Acamas, leader of the Thracians, rouses the sons of Priam. Sarpedon rebukes Hector: where has the drive you had before gone? You used to say that, without an army and without allies, you would defend the city with your kinsmen by marriage and your brothers, and none of them is to be seen; they cower like dogs around a lion, and it is the allies who fight. Sarpedon himself came from far away, from Lycia, leaving behind his wife, his young son, and many possessions. The words bite Hector's spirit, and he leaps from the chariot in arms, runs through the army, kindles the fight, and turns the Trojans against the Achaeans, who hold their ground. Ares covers the battle with night, helping the Trojans in fulfillment of Apollo's order, since he saw Athena withdrawn. Apollo takes Aeneas out of the sanctuary and gives him strength, and his companions rejoice to see him alive and whole.

The Achaean chiefs rouse their men. Agamemnon asks them to respect one another: more men are saved than die when there is shame, and from those who flee come neither glory nor strength. He kills Deicoon, a companion of Aeneas; Aeneas kills Creton and Orsilochus, sons of Diocles; Menelaus takes pity and advances, and Ares stirs him so that he will be defeated by Aeneas; Antilochus, fearing for the shepherd of men, comes to his side, and Aeneas falls back. Hector advances with Ares and Enyo; Diomedes shudders at the sight of him, like a man who crosses a plain and stops before a river, and he falls back. He tells his men who admire Hector as a spearman that there is always a god with him, now Ares in human form: they should retreat facing the Trojans, without trying to fight by force against the gods. Hector kills Menestheus and Anchialus; Telamonian Ajax kills Amphius.

Tlepolemus, son of Heracles, challenges Sarpedon: he says Sarpedon is a false son of Zeus, far inferior to the sons of Zeus of old, and recalls that his own father took Ilium with six ships because of the horses of Laomedon. Sarpedon answers that Laomedon was foolish and did not return the horses, and he promises death to Tlepolemus. The two throw together: Sarpedon's spear pierces Tlepolemus's neck, and Tlepolemus's spear wounds Sarpedon's thigh, but his father still holds death away from him. His companions carry him off, and the long spear weighs on him and drags, because no one thought to pull it out. Odysseus, seeing this, hesitates between pursuing the son of Zeus and killing more Lycians; it was not for him to kill the son of Zeus, and Athena turns his spirit against the mass of Lycians. Hector, seeing it, advances, and Sarpedon asks him not to let him become prey for the Danaans but to protect him; let life leave him in their city, since he will not return home to gladden his wife and his young son. Hector does not answer and passes on, eager to push the Argives back. The companions place Sarpedon under the oak of Zeus, and Pelagon pulls out the spear; he faints and revives with the breath of Boreas. The Argives fall back on learning that Ares is with the Trojans.

Hera sees the defeat and tells Athena that the promise they made to Menelaus, that he would take Ilium, was in vain if they let Ares run wild. Hera yokes the golden horses, Hebe fits the wheels, and Athena strips off the robe she herself had woven, puts on the tunic of Zeus and his battle gear, and takes up the aegis, surrounded by Terror, Strife, Force, and Pursuit, and bearing the head of the Gorgon. They mount the chariot, and the gates of heaven open of their own accord. They find Zeus seated apart, on the summit of Olympus. Hera asks him whether he is not indignant at the violent deeds of Ares, who has destroyed so many Achaeans without order, while Cypris and Apollo amuse themselves with his madness, and she asks leave to drive him from the battle with painful blows. Zeus answers: let Athena hurl herself at him, for she is the one who most often brings him pain. Hera descends between the Simois and the Scamander, hides the horses in a mist, and the two goddesses go like doves to help the Argives. Hera, in the form of Stentor, of bronze voice, cries out: shame, Argives, fine specimens of men that you are! While Achilles went to war, the Trojans never passed the Dardanian Gates, for fear of his spear; now they fight far from the city, by the ships.

Athena finds Diomedes cooling the shoulder wound, with sweat under the strap of his shield. She touches the yoke of the chariot and says that Tydeus begot a son little like himself: Tydeus was small of body but a fighter; even when she forbade him to fight, on the mission to Thebes, he challenged the young Cadmeans and beat them all with her help. Now she guards him and urges him to fight the Trojans, but weariness or fear seems to have taken hold of him, and then he is not the son of Tydeus. Diomedes answers that he recognizes her and speaks plainly: it is neither fear nor hesitation, but he remembers her orders, not to fight face to face with the other gods and to wound Aphrodite if she came to war. That is why he withdrew and had the Argives gather there, for he recognized Ares in command of the battle. Athena answers that he should fear neither Ares nor any other immortal, such is the help she gives him: he should drive his horses first against Ares and wound him at close range, that furious one, ill-forged, who changes sides, who had promised her and Hera to fight the Trojans and help the Argives, but now walks among the Trojans and has forgotten. She pushes Sthenelus to the ground and mounts the chariot beside Diomedes; the beech axle groans under the weight. She takes the whip and the reins and drives the horses against Ares, who was stripping Periphas, the best of the Aetolians. Athena puts on the helmet of Hades so that Ares cannot see her. Ares leaves the dead man and comes against Diomedes: he thrusts his bronze spear over the yoke and the reins to take his life, but Athena catches it and pushes it out of the chariot. Then Diomedes charges, and Athena guides his spear to the lower belly, where Ares fastened his belt. He wounds him and withdraws the spear, and Ares roars as nine or ten thousand men roar in war; a tremor seizes Achaeans and Trojans alike. Ares rises in a dark cloud to the broad heaven.

On Olympus, he sits beside Zeus, grieving, and shows the immortal blood flowing from the wound. He complains: does Zeus not grow indignant at such violence? The gods always suffer the worst evils from one another when they favor men. All of them fight against Zeus, because he begot a senseless and baneful daughter, bent only on mad deeds. The other gods obey Zeus, but her he does not correct, either by word or by deed, because he himself begot her. It was she who incited the proud son of Tydeus against the immortals: she wounded Cypris at the wrist, then hurled herself against Ares himself like a daimon, and only his swift feet saved him. Zeus glares at him and answers that he should not sit there whining, fickle one. He is the most hateful of the gods of Olympus, for strife, wars, and battles are always dear to him. The fury of his mother, Hera, is unmanageable, and Zeus himself can barely subdue her with words; through her counsel Ares suffers. But Zeus will not bear to see him suffer for long, because he is his son, and if he had been born of some other god so baneful, he would already be below the sons of Uranus. He orders Paeon to heal him, and Paeon cures him quickly, as fig juice curdles milk. Hebe bathes him and dresses him, and he sits beside Zeus, exulting. Hera and Athena return to the house of Zeus, having made Ares stop his slaughter.