Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Diomedes.
The gallery
The Combat of Diomedes
Jacques-Louis David, 1776
A Neoclassical drawing in pen, brush and black ink with white heightening on green-grey paper, executed by the young Jacques-Louis David and now held in the Albertina, Vienna. It seizes the climax of Diomedes' aristeia in Book 5 of the Iliad: emboldened by Athena, the Argive hero rampages across the Trojan plain, the very warrior who alone among mortals dares to wound the gods Aphrodite and Ares. David's swirling, sculptural composition translates Homer's frenzy of battle into the disciplined classical idiom that would define his later career.
Diomedes (Roman copy after Kresilas)
Unknown (Roman copy after a Greek original attributed to Kresilas), 2nd-3rd century CE (after a Greek original of c. 430 BC)
A Roman marble copy, roughly 1.86 m tall, of a celebrated 5th-century BC Greek bronze attributed to Kresilas, today in the Louvre (Ma 890). The athletic nude king of Argos was originally shown in the act of stealing the Palladion, the sacred image of Athena, from Troy — the talisman without which the city could not fall, which Diomedes seized by night with Odysseus. The taut, alert pose and turning glance capture the wary cunning of a warrior carrying off a divine prize, and the type became one of the most copied images of the hero in antiquity.
Diomedes and Glaucus Exchanging Armour
Hasselmann Painter, c. 420 BC
An Attic red-figure pelike of about 420 BC, attributed to the Hasselmann Painter and held in the Museo Regionale Archeologico in Gela, Sicily. It illustrates the famous encounter of Iliad 6: meeting the Lycian captain Glaucus between the battle lines, Diomedes learns that their grandfathers were guest-friends — Oeneus once hosted Bellerophon for twenty days — and the two enemies refuse to fight, clasping hands and trading armour instead, Glaucus famously giving gold for bronze. The vase renders this rare moment of heroic friendship amid the carnage of Troy.
Diomedes and Odysseus Stealing the Horses of Rhesus
Lycurgus Painter, c. 360 BC
An Apulian red-figure situla of about 360 BC by the Lycurgus Painter, in the Naples National Archaeological Museum (inv. 81863) and originally from Ruvo di Puglia. It depicts the night raid of the Doloneia (Iliad 10): Odysseus, in his conical pilos cap, and Diomedes drive off the snow-white horses of the Thracian king Rhesus, whom they have just slain in his sleep along with twelve of his men. The dramatic nocturnal ambush showcases Diomedes as the bold martial partner to Odysseus' cunning.