Diomedes (Aristeia)
conceptThe extended battle sequence in Iliad Books 5-6 where Diomedes wounds both Aphrodite and Ares, the only mortal to injure two Olympians.
The Myth
He stabbed the goddess of love in the hand and then drove a spear into the god of war's stomach — all in the same afternoon. Athena granted Diomedes the ability to see gods on the battlefield and the courage to fight them. He wounded Aphrodite in the wrist when she tried to rescue her son Aeneas — ichor, not blood, flowed. Aphrodite fled to Olympus weeping. Then Diomedes faced Ares himself, and with Athena guiding his spear, drove it into the war god's belly. Ares screamed with the voice of ten thousand men and fled to Zeus. No other mortal in the Iliad fights gods directly. Achilles is stronger, but Diomedes's aristeia is the Iliad's most theologically audacious passage.
Symbols
Fun Fact
Diomedes is the only mortal in the Iliad who physically wounds two Olympian gods and survives.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth:
Explore Further
Diomedes
heroDiomedes was the only mortal in the Iliad to wound two Olympian gods in a single day.
Achilles
heroThe greatest warrior in the Greek army at Troy, nearly invulnerable thanks to being dipped in the...
Aeneas
heroAeneas was a Trojan prince, son of Aphrodite, who survived Troy's fall and became the ancestor of...
Aphrodite
godGoddess of love and beauty, born from the sea foam. Aphrodite's power to inspire desire was so...
Ares
godGod of the brutal, savage side of war. Unlike Athena's strategic warfare, Ares represented the raw...
Athena
godGoddess of wisdom and strategic warfare, born fully armored from the head of Zeus. Patron deity of...
Athena Promachos
godAn epithet of Athena meaning "the Champion" or "who fights in front," represented by a colossal...
Aristeia
conceptAn aristeia was a warrior's supreme moment of battlefield excellence — the extended passage in...
Aristeia of Diomedes
conceptThe battle sequence in Iliad Book 5 where Diomedes, empowered by Athena, wounds both Aphrodite and...
Catalogue of Ships
conceptThe extensive listing of Greek contingents and their leaders in Book 2 of the Iliad, naming 29...
Epigoni
conceptThe sons of the Seven against Thebes who returned a generation later and successfully sacked the...
Nostos
conceptNostos was the perilous return home after war — the concept from which "nostalgia" derives.