The Story of the Iliad by Alfred John Church

When the armies were come into one place, they dashed together with / buckler and spear: and there was a great crash of shields that met. / Next rose up a great moaning of them that were stricken down, and / shouting of the conquerors; and the ground ran with blood. As when / two torrents, swollen with rains of winter, join their waters in a / hollow ravine at the meeting of the glens, and the shepherds hear the / din far off among the hills, even so, with a mighty noise and great / confusion, did the two armies meet.

Then did the Greeks beat back the men of Troy. And each of the / chiefs slew a foe; but there was none like Diomed, who raged through / the battle so furiously that you could not tell with which host he / was, whether with the Greeks or with the sons of Troy. Then Pandarus / aimed an arrow at him, and smote him in the right shoulder as he was / rushing forward, and cried aloud: "On, great-hearted sons of Troy, / the bravest of the Greeks is wounded! Soon, methinks, will his / strength fail him, unless Apollo has deceived me."

So he spake exulting, but the arrow quelled not Diomed. Only he / leapt down from the chariot, and spake to Sthenelus, his charioteer, / "Come down, and draw this arrow from my shoulder. " Then Sthenelus / drew it, and the blood spurted out from the wound. And Diomed prayed / to Athene: "O Goddess, if ever thou didst love my father, and stand / beside him in the fiery war, be thou a friend to me also; let me come / within a spear's cast of this man who hath wounded me, and who / boasteth himself over me, saying that I shall not long look upon the / shining of the sun."

/ Sthen'-e-lus.

So he prayed, and Athene heard; and she made light his hands and his / feet, and stood beside him, and spake: "Be bold now, O Diomed, and / fight with the men of Troy! I have breathed into thy heart the / spirit that was in thy father, and I have taken away the mist that / was upon thy eyes, that thou mayest know god from man. Fight not / thou with any of the immortals, if a god should come in thy way; only / if Aphrodite comes into the battle, her thou mayest wound."

So spake Athene, and went her way; and Diomed turned back to the / battle, and mingled with the foremost. Eager he had been before to / fight, but now his eagerness was increased threefold. Even as a lion / whom a shepherd wounds a little as he leaps into the fold, but kills / not, and the man escapes into his house, and the sheep flee in their / terror, falling huddled in a heap, even so did Diomed rage among the / men of Troy.

Æneas saw him, and thought how he might stay him in his course. So / he passed through the host till he found Pandarus. "Pandarus," he / said, "where are thy bow and arrows? See how this man deals death / through the ranks. Send a shaft at him, first making thy prayer to / Zeus."

/ Æ-ne'-as.

Then Pandarus answered: "This man, methinks, is Diomed. The shield / and the helmet and the horses are his. And yet I know not whether he / is not a god. Some god, at least, stands by him and guards him. But / now I sent an arrow at him, and smote him on the shoulder, right / through the corselet, and thought that I had slain him; but lo! I / have harmed him not at all. And now I know not what to do, for here / I have no chariot. I came, trusting in my bow, and lo! it has failed / me these two times. Two of the chiefs I have hit, Menelaus and / Diomed, and from each have seen the red blood flow, yet have I not / harmed them. Surely, if ever I return safe to my home, I will break / this useless bow."

"Nay," said Æneas, "talk not thus. Climb into my chariot, and see / what horses we have in Troy. They will carry us safe to the city, / even should Diomed prevail against us. Take thou the rein and the / whip, and I will fight; or, if thou wilt, fight thou, and I will / drive."

"Nay," said Pandarus, "let the horses have the driver whom they know. / It might lose us both, should we turn to flee, and they linger or / start aside, missing their master's voice."

So Pandarus mounted the chariot, and they drove together against / Diomed. And Sthenelus saw them coming, and said to his comrades: "I / see two mighty warriors. It would be well that we should go back to / our chariot."

But Diomed frowned, and said: "Talk not of going back. Thou wilt / talk in vain to me. As for my chariot, I care not for it. As I am / will I go against these men. Both shall not return safe, even if one / should escape. But do thou stay my chariot where it is, tying the / reins to the rail; and if I slay these men, mount the chariot of / Æneas and drive it into the host of the Greeks, There are no horses / under the sun such as these, for they are of the breed which Zeus / himself gave to King Tros."

Meanwhile Pandarus and Æneas were coming near, and Pandarus cast his / spear. Right through the shield of Diomed it passed, and reached the / corselet, and Pandarus cried: --

"Thou art hit in the loin. This, methinks, will lay thee low."

"Nay," said Diomed, "thou hast missed and not hit at all."