When Diomedes returned to Argos following the end of the Trojan War, he did not receive a hero’s welcome, but discovered that his wife had been unfaithful in his absence and that his claim to the throne was disputed. Some writers suggest that this outcome was caused by the Greek prince Oeax, who believed that his brother Palamedes had been murdered by Diomedes and Odysseus. Accordingly, Oeax told Diomedes’ wife that her husband was returning from Troy with a new lover. This legend may have inspired the medieval story of Troilus and Cressida, later retold by Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1342—1400) in a long poem and by William Shakespeare (1564—1616) in a play. In the former version, Troilus, son of the Trojan king Priam, falls in love with Cressida, only to be heartbroken when the Trojan woman switches her affections to Diomedes. Other Greek sources maintain that Diomedes’ ill-fortune after the war was Aphrodite’s punishment for the injury he had caused her.
All the sources agree that Diomedes left Greece for Italy, but there are several different accounts of what he did there. Some state that he was killed by the king of Apulia; others that he founded several Italian cities, including Brindisi and Arpi. The Greek poet Pindar (c. 522-c. 438 BCE) even suggests that Athena made Diomedes a god.
Andrew Campbell
Bibliography
Bulfinch, Thomas. Myths of Greece and Rome. New York: Penguin, 1998.
Homer, and Robert Fagles, trans. The Iliad. New York: Penguin, 2009.
See also: Achilles; Aeneas; Helen; Heracles; Menelaus; Odysseus; Priam;Troilus.
World History
