Diomed

Also known as: Diomed of the loud war-cry / Diomed son of Tydeus / Diomed the son of Tydeus / son of Tydeus / son of a noble sire · Family: Achaeans · Role: warrior · First appears: BOOK IV

🌐 Also appears in: Greek Mythology — A Family Orrery (as Diomedes) · The Metamorphoses of Ovid (as Diomedes) · Greek Tragedy — The Same Myth, Three Voices (as Diomedes) · The Aeneid (as Diomede)

In Book IV, Tydeus is identified as Diomed’s father. In Book V, Minerva puts valour into Diomed’s heart; he is married to Aegialeia, but Pandarus wounds him with an arrow in the shoulder. Diomed then kills Pandarus with a spear thrust through the face. He crushes Aeneas’s hip, and Venus carries Aeneas from the battlefield; Diomed later wounds Venus in the hand and wounds Mars in the stomach. In Book VI, he kills Axylus and Calesius, then pledges friendship with Glaucus after they recognize their ancestral ties and exchange armor. Nestor praises his counsel in Book IX, where Diomed urges the Achaeans to rest and resume battle at dawn.

In Book VIII, Diomed kills Hector’s charioteer Eniopeus, while Hector challenges him to face him in battle. In Book X, Diomed and Ulysses capture Dolon and learn of the Trojan and Thracian positions; Diomed kills Dolon, then kills Rhesus and twelve Thracian soldiers as Ulysses takes the horses. After returning to the ships, Ulysses says, “If he were to go with me we should pass safely through fire itself, for he is quick to see and understand.” In Book XI, Paris wounds Diomed in the foot, forcing him to leave the battle.

In Book XIV, Diomed advances with the Achaeans after Neptune rallies them to rearm. In Book XXIII, Apollo makes Diomed drop his whip during the chariot race, but Minerva returns it and strengthens his horses, helping him win. His armed combat with Ajax son of Telamon ends without injury, and Diomed receives the sword prize.