Book Five

Now the gods intervene to sway the tide of battle. Athena infuses one particular hero, the Greek captain Diomedes (dy-uh-MEE-deez), with such fighting fury that each Greek champion is inspired to down an adversary. Their success is ensured by the absence of the war god, Ares (AIR-eez), whose potential support of the Trojans is defused when Athena persuades him to leave the battle.

Then Pandarus (PAN-dah-rus), whose arrow had broken the previous truce, seeks further renown by letting fly against the raging Diomedes. The Greek is hit, and when his charioteer pushes the arrow straight through the wound it gushes blood. Diomedes prays to Athena, not for relief from pain, but rather for the chance to revenge himself on Pandarus. Athena clears his vision of the mist that normally keeps men from seeing the gods. He is to refrain from fighting when challenged by a deity, unless it is Aphrodite (a-fro-DY-tee), goddess of love, whom he has permission to stab with his spear.

The archer mounts behind the hero Aeneas (ee-NEE-us) in his chariot and together they bear down on Diomedes, Pandarus seeking to end with his spear what he has begun with his arrow. Diomedes sees them coming and instructs his charioteer to make off with Aeneas' team when the opportunity presents itself. For these horses are descended from the famous stallions of Tros (trohs), compensation to that Trojan king for Zeus's abduction of his son Ganymede (GAN-i-meed), handsomest youth alive, who became cupbearer to the gods.

Pandarus hurls his spear and exults prematurely when its bronze point penetrates his adversary's shield. Diomedes, unhurt, responds with a cast of his own that strikes Pandarus right between the eyes and, driven home by Athena, smashes nose, teeth, and jaw, severing the tongue and exiting beneath the chin. Pandarus tumbles from the chariot, and Aeneas jumps down beside him so that the Greeks won't haul away his corpse and strip his armor for a prize.

Diomedes lifts a stone that no two men could lift today and hurls it at Aeneas, smashing his hip. Aeneas faints from the pain and would have died then and there but for the intervention of his mother, the goddess Aphrodite. Her heavenly robe deflecting spears and arrows, she prepares to carry her son to safety. But Diomedes, remembering the words of Athena, dares to lunge at the goddess with his spear, cutting her wrist and drawing blood — not the blood that flows through mortal veins but godly ichor, for the gods are bloodless, hence immortal, by virtue of consuming neither bread nor wine. Sthenelus (STHEN-uh-lus), the charioteer of Diomedes, makes off with the fabled horses.

With Diomedes' taunts ringing in her ears, Aphrodite staggers off to find her brother Ares, borrows his chariot, and makes for Olympus with the messenger goddess Iris at the reins. There her mother Dione (dy-OH-nee) comforts her and quickly heals her wound. But Hera (HEER-uh) and Athena tease her mercilessly.

Meanwhile Apollo has taken charge of Aeneas' rescue. Diomedes sees the god looming over the fallen Trojan but attacks all the same, such is his lust for the kill and the trophy. Finally Apollo has to warn him off. Spiriting Aeneas off to safety, Apollo alerts Ares to the destruction being wreaked upon the Trojans by the fearsome Diomedes. Ares immediately disguises himself as a prince allied to Troy and shames the Trojans into rallying. Aeneas is magically restored to full health and returned to the battle. He bears down on Menelaus (meh-neh-LAY-us) with such renewed ferocity that Antilochus (an-TIL-uh-kus), son of Nestor, fears for his general's life.

Advancing and standing shoulder to shoulder with Menelaus, he causes Aeneas to back down. And now he and Menelaus take on a Trojan ally and his charioteer. Menelaus downs the one, while Antilochus, having knocked the reins from the other's hand by a well-cast stone, plunges his sword into his temple. The charioteer's own horses run him down as they are driven away as trophies.

But with Ares himself now leading the Trojans, even Diomedes backs off. Hector downs two Greeks, and Ajax retaliates by slaying one of the Trojan allies. Digging his heel into the dead man's side to remove his spear, he goes to strip the armor for a prize. But the Trojans press in to defend the corpse and even towering Ajax has to back off. Tlepolemus (tle-POL-e-mus), a son of Heracles (HER-uh-kleez), taunts Sarpedon (sar-PEE-don) and pays the price. They fling their spears at the same time. Tlepolemus is run through the neck and dies instantly, while Sarpedon takes the spear in his thigh. His men carry him to safety with the spear dragging along behind. To remove it they must push it all the way through the wound, and Sarpedon almost dies from the pain.

Now Hera and Athena become aware of the damage being done by Ares. Mounting their chariot, they storm out through the gates of Olympus. Ascending to the tallest crag of Olympus where Zeus keeps his solitary counsel, they beseech his permission to remove Ares from the fray. This granted, they bound off for earth, their horses covering in a single stride the distance that a lookout sees when scanning the far horizon. The goddesses begin by firing up the Greeks. Hera harrangues them in the voice of Stentor (STEN-tor), known to be as loud as fifty men, while Athena suggests that fear makes Diomedes an unworthy heir of his heroic father.

Diomedes calmly responds that it's not fear but respect for her own order not to fight the gods that holds him back. Well pleased with his spirit, Athena revokes the command. Tossing Sthenelus from the chariot, the goddess takes the reins herself and, the axle groaning under her awesome weight, she steers Diomedes toward the god of war. Ares is just stripping the armor from a corpse when they drive up. Athena has donned the helmet of Death and is invisible even to Ares, who greets Diomedes with a savage cast of his spear. Athena deflects it and puts her weight behind Diomedes' counterthrust, deep into the bowels of Ares. The god screams out with a cry louder than whole battalions, and Greeks and Trojans alike cringe in terror at the sound. Right before the eyes of Diomedes, with the sudden fury of a cyclone, Ares shoots up to Olympus.

Straight to Zeus he goes with his gushing wound and his indignant complaint against Athena. The father of the gods is having none of it. "I hate you most of all," says Zeus. "Lying, two-faced, all you care about is the bloody business of war. If you weren't my own son I'd have thrown you into the pit with the Titans." With some reluctance then, Zeus orders that the wound be tended to. It is quickly healed — after all, an immortal was never meant to die. Oblivious to the indignity, Ares sits down beside Zeus and basks in reflected glory while Hera and Athena congratulate themselves on thwarting his rampage.

Notes:

Aeneas — Of royal Trojan blood, Aeneas will escape the destruction of Troy and lead survivors to Italy, where his descendants will found the city of Rome.

Dione comforts her — Dione explains that Aphrodite is not the only god to suffer the pain and indignity of being wounded by a mortal. Hera had been stabbed by Heracles with a three-pronged shaft. Hades (HAY-deez) himself, Lord of the Dead, had been wounded by that great hero, known to the Romans as Hercules.

Titans — The family of gods who ruled before Zeus and the Olympians, the Titans were overthrown by Zeus and his siblings and cast into Tartarus, the lowest depths of the underworld kingdom of the dead.