On the night the Thracian king Rhesus reached Troy with his snow-white horses, Odysseus and Diomedes crept into the sleeping camp — and the newest ally of Troy never saw the dawn.1
Dolon the spy
Hector sent Dolon by night to spy on the Achaean ships, promising him Achilles' horses. Odysseus and Diomedes caught him on the plain, and before he died he told them where the newcome Thracians lay — outermost of all, their king Rhesus among them with the fairest horses ever seen, whiter than snow.2
Twelve Thracians and a king
Diomedes slew twelve Thracians in their sleep and Rhesus the thirteenth, gasping in an evil dream, while Odysseus loosed the horses and drove them off. Son of the river Strymon and a Muse, Rhesus had come to Troy only that evening.3
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How the centuries saw it
Ulysses and Diomedes in the Tent of Rhesus
Corrado Giaquinto, 1753–1762
Giaquinto's night raid — Odysseus and Diomedes in Rhesus' tent, Iliad X as Baroque theatre.
Diomed and Ulysses Returning with the Spoils of Rhesus
John Flaxman, 1895
Flaxman's outline — the Achaeans returning with Rhesus' spoils and the snow-white horses.
Diomedes Slays Rhesus
Crispijn van de Passe, 1613
Van de Passe's engraving — Diomedes slaying the Thracian king before Troy's walls.
Diomedes and Odysseus Stealing the Horses of Rhesus
Lycurgus Painter, c. 360 BC
Apulian vase — Diomedes and Odysseus stealing Rhesus' horses, the Doloneia in red-figure.