Diomède (Argos)

Myth

Epigones

Diomède is the son of Tydée, king of Argolide, and Déipyle, girl of the king Adraste. Whereas he is still child, his/her father takes share with the forwarding of the Seven against Thèbes, in which he finds death. Become adult, Diomède joined wire of the other participants to avenge his father: it is the forwarding of the Épigones, literally “the descendants”. Where their fathers failed, they succeed in taking Thèbes. Diomède succèse then in Adraste with the throne of Argos.

The Trojan War

It leaves then with the other Greek chiefs to Troy, taking along with him 24 vessels. It is one of largest Greek warriors the, and also young person. One takes into account sixteen dead his hand in Iliade , which places it in second position behind Achille, which, curiously, it forever of exchange: he never speaks to him neither with the combat nor with the councils, and at the time of the funerary plays in the honor of Patrocle, it is its rider who receives for him his price of the hands of Achilles. Only between all, it is constantly protected from Athéna. Always victorious, it pushes the audacity until attacking the gods: it wounds Arès and Aphrodite, and Apollon, continued, must recall him that the men and the gods are two different races. In the epopee, it is the absolute warrior. In the song V, one compares it, at the time of sound Aristie, with the natural forces:

“It goes, furious, by the plain, similar with the overflowed river, enlarged stormy showers, whose water early made reverse very raised ground. The liftings forming dam do not stop it more than the fences of the flourishing orchards, when it arrives suddenly, at the days when the rain of Zeus falls down heavily on the ground. (...) Ainsi is hustled, under the shock of the son of Tydée, the compact battalions of Troyens, and, for many that they are, in front of him they do not hold. ”

At the time of the funerary plays of Patrocle, it contributes against Ajax large the for the Hoplomachie, and would certainly have gained if Achille had not stopped the combat by fear for Ajax. Diomède receives then a dagger of Thrace and half of the weapons of Sarpédon, killed by Patrocle.

The return

To be avenged for the wound that it inflicted to him, Aphrodite pushes his wife to be to him inaccurate while it fights in front of Troy. Returned at his place, Diomède is attacked by Comets, wire of the Epigone Sthénélos, lover in title of his wife, to which Diomède had entrusted the responsibility to take care on its interests during its absence; the hero must take refuge near a furnace bridge of Héra to save his life. Diomède leaves the Greece then to found Argyrippa in Grande Greece (current Arpi). There, it is killed with hunting by the king Daunos (or one of its sons). Athéna confers immortality then to him and transforms his/her companions into Héron S - Diomède thus gives its name to the species Calonectris diomedea , or ashy Puffin.

In Énéide , Virgile brings back how Énée met Diomède many years after the end of the Trojan War.

Worship

Diomède is the subject of a heroic worship, in particular in the area of the Adriatique. It for example is honoured with Corcyre, Brindisi, with Bénévent or with Arpi. The islands Tremiti, in the Pouilles, were formerly called “islands of Diomède”. Nowadays, there exist islands Diomède in the Bering Strait.

August 1st

Artistic representations

Random links: