Authors of Greece | Page 5

by Athena. His great deeds drew
upon him Pandarus and Aeneas, the son of Aphrodite and the future
founder of Rome's greatness. Diomedes quickly slew Pandarus and
when Aeneas bestrode his friend's body, hurled at him a mighty stone
which laid him low. Afraid of her son Aphrodite cast her arms about
him and shrouded him in her robe. Knowing that she was but a weak
goddess Diomedes attacked her, wounding her in the hand. Dropping
her son, she fled to Ares who was watching the battle and besought him
to lend her his chariot, wherein she fled back to Olympus. There her
mother Dione comforted her with the story of the woes which other
gods had suffered from mortals.
"But this man hath been set upon thee by Athena. Foolish one, he
knoweth not in his heart that no man liveth long who fighteth with the

gods; no children lisp 'father' at his knees when he returneth from war
and dread conflict. Therefore, albeit he is so mighty, let him take heed
lest a better than thou meet him, for one day his prudent wife shall wail
in her sleep awaking all her house, bereft of her lord, the best man of
the Achaeans."
But Athena in irony deemed that Aphrodite had been scratched by
some Greek woman whom she caressed to tempt her to forsake her
husband and follow one of the Trojans she loved.
Aeneas when dropped by his mother had been picked up by Apollo;
when Diomedes attacked the god, he was warned that battle with an
immortal was not like man's warfare. Stirred by Apollo, Ares himself
came to the aid of the Trojans, inspiring Sarpedon the Lycian to hearten
his comrades, who were shortly gladdened by the return of Aeneas
whom Apollo had healed. At the sight of Ares and Apollo fighting for
Troy Hera and Athena came down to battle for the Greeks; they found
Diomedes on the skirts of the host, cooling the wound Pandarus had
inflicted. Entering his chariot by his side, Athena fired him to meet
Ares and drive him wounded back to Olympus, where he found but
little compassion from Zeus. The two goddesses then left the mortals to
fight it out.
At this moment Helenus, the prophetic brother of Hector, bade him go
to Troy to try to appease the anger of Athena by an offering, in the
hope that Diomedes' progress might be stayed. In his absence
Diomedes met in the battle Glaucus, a Lycian prince.
"Who art thou?" he asked. "I have never seen thee before in battle, yet
now thou hast gone far beyond all others in hardihood, for thou hast
awaited my onset, and they are hapless whose sons meet my strength. If
thou art a god, I will not fight with thee; but if thou art one of those
who eat the fruit of the earth, come near, that thou mayest the quicker
get thee to the gates of death."
In answer, Glaucus said:
"Why askest thou my lineage? As is the life of leaves, so is that of men.
The leaves are scattered some of them to the earth by the wind, others
the wood putteth forth when it is in bloom, and they come on in the
season of spring. Even so of men one generation groweth, another
ceaseth."
He then told how he was a family friend of Diomedes and made with

him a compact that if they met in battle they should avoid each the
other; this they sealed by the exchange of armour, wherein the Greek
had the better, getting gold weapons for bronze, the worth of a hundred
oxen for the value of nine.
Coming to Troy Hector bade his mother offer Athena the finest robe
she had; yet all in vain, for the goddess rejected it. Passing to the house
of Paris, he found him polishing his armour, Helen at his side. Again
rebuking him, he had from him a promise that he would be ready to
re-enter the fight when Hector had been to his own house to see his
wife Andromache. Hector's heart foreboded that it was the last time he
would speak with her. She had with her their little son Astyanax.
Weeping she besought him to spare himself for her sake.
"For me there will be no other comfort if thou meetest thy doom, but
sorrow. Father and mother have I none, for Achilles hath slain them
and my seven brothers. Hector, thou art my father and my lady mother
and my brother and thou art my wedded husband. Nay, come, pity me
and abide on the wall, lest thou make thy son an orphan and thy wife a
widow."
He answered, his heart heavy with a sense of coming death:
"The day will