Diomedes, that expert of the war-cry, answered him thus:
“Yes, sir, you have indeed spoken truly, but this dread burden sets upon my heart and spirit, that one day, Hector will say when he is boasting among the Trojans, ‘The son of Tydeus, in his fear of me, retreated to his ships!’ Thus will he boast; and on that day, I hope the earth will swallow me in her dusty jaws.”
Nestor, the Gerenian horseman answered him thus:
“What a thing to say, thou burning-hearted son of Tydeus. If Hector should call you a knave or a coward, neither Trojan nor Dardanian will believe him, nor especially the wives of the great-spirited Trojan soldiers, since you have cast their once-stout husbands into the dirt.”
Τὸν δ’ ἠμείβετ’ ἔπειτα βοὴν ἀγαθὸς Διομήδης·
ναὶ δὴ ταῦτά γε πάντα γέρον κατὰ μοῖραν ἔειπες·
ἀλλὰ τόδ’ αἰνὸν ἄχος κραδίην καὶ θυμὸν ἱκάνει·
῞Εκτωρ γάρ ποτε φήσει ἐνὶ Τρώεσσ’ ἀγορεύων·
Τυδεΐδης ὑπ’ ἐμεῖο φοβεύμενος ἵκετο νῆας.
ὥς ποτ’ ἀπειλήσει· τότε μοι χάνοι εὐρεῖα χθών.
Τὸν δ’ ἠμείβετ’ ἔπειτα Γερήνιος ἱππότα Νέστωρ·
ὤ μοι Τυδέος υἱὲ δαΐφρονος, οἷον ἔειπες.
εἴ περ γάρ σ’ ῞Εκτωρ γε κακὸν καὶ ἀνάλκιδα φήσει,
ἀλλ’ οὐ πείσονται Τρῶες καὶ Δαρδανίωνες
καὶ Τρώων ἄλοχοι μεγαθύμων ἀσπιστάων,
τάων ἐν κονίῃσι βάλες θαλεροὺς παρακοίτας.
Diomedes is just so damn sensitive. He’s the best. Team Diomedes.
Are you doing the seven-day Iliad thing?
I wish! I already messed up by reading the first four books, then not reading any for several days; I just took it back up, but I know that I will get de-railed again!
It seems that a Homeric hero’s greatness is correlated in some direct way with how sensitive he is. Achilles weeps on the beach, Diomedes worries about being the butt of a joke, and Ajax even killed himself because of a perceived injury to his honor!
I agree, though: everyone else (that means you, Achilles!) can just get out of the way, because Diomedes is clearly the original badass action hero. He was also quite the shrewd businessman!