When Menelaus and Paris decided to engage in single combat, the immortal gods were feasting in the halls of Zeus. The young goddess Hebe poured nectar into cups. The gods feasted, looking from high Olympus to Troy. Zeus, mocking Hera, began to say that he would stop the bloody feud between the Trojans and the Greeks, since Menelaus had won. But the goddess Hera asked Zeus to send the warrior Athena to the Trojan army so that she would encourage someone to break this oath. As if against his will, the thunderer Zeus agreed. Quickly, under the guise of a bright star, the goddess Athena rushed from Olympus and fell among the Trojan army. Amazement seized the Trojans; they did not know what this sign meant: would the bloody slaughter begin again, or was it a sign of Zeus that peace should be made? Athena, in the form of Laodocus, the son of Antenor, approached the famous archer Pandarus and convinced him to kill Menelaus with a deadly arrow. Pandarus agreed. He grabbed his bow, took out a sharp arrow, called Apollo for help and shot the arrow. The string of the tight bow rang, the arrow soared, and Menelaus would probably have died, but Athena deflected the arrow, and it struck Menelaus in that part of the body that was protected by double armor. An arrow pierced the armor and pierced the body of Menelaus. The wound was shallow, but blood still poured out profusely. Agamemnon was horrified when he saw that his brother was wounded. But Menelaus calmed him down. Agamemnon ordered to call the doctor, the hero Machaon. Machaon examined the wound and sprinkled it with medicine. While Agamemnon and other heroes were caring for the wounded Menelaus, the Trojans were already advancing on the Greeks. Agamemnon hurried to the troops and began to organize their ranks and inspire the soldiers to fight.
Only the voices of the leaders were heard among the Greek army; the warriors walked silently. The Trojans advanced with loud shouts. The Greek troops were led by Pallas Athena, and the Trojans were led by the stormy god of war Ares. Hand-to-hand combat broke out. The screams of victory and the groans of the dying were mixed.
The Trojans began to retreat under the pressure of the Greeks, and the Greeks attacked them even more harmoniously. Seeing this, the god Apollo, the defender of the Trojans, was inflamed with anger; he exclaimed loudly:
- Boldly forward, Trojans! Do not think that the breasts of the Greeks are made of stone and their bodies are made of iron. Look, today the great Achilles is not fighting among them - he sits angry in his tent.
With this cry, the Arrow God inspired the Trojans. The battle became even bloodier. Many heroes died. Pallas Athena inspired the Greeks. In this battle she gave invincible strength to King Diomedes, son of Tydeus. Soon the Trojans wavered.
Seeing Diomedes, the famous archer Pandarus pulled his bow and shot an arrow at him. An arrow pierced Diomedes' shoulder, and his armor was stained with scarlet blood. Pandarus rejoiced - he thought that he had wounded Diomedes to death. In a loud voice he began to encourage the Trojans, saying that Diomedes was mortally wounded. Diomedes called the hero Sfenel and asked him to remove the arrow from the wound. Sfenel drew him an arrow. In a loud voice, Diomedes prayed to Pallas Athena and asked her to let him defeat the one who wounded him with an arrow. Pallas Athena appeared before Diomedes. She endowed him with great strength and indomitable courage. The goddess commanded Diomedes to boldly rush into battle and not attack only the immortal gods. Only the goddess Aphrodite could he defeat with his spear. Like a wounded lion, in which a slight wound only increased his strength tenfold and further inflamed his rage, Diomedes rushed into battle.
Seeing Diomedes raging in battle, the hero Aeneas quickly went through the ranks of the Trojan warriors to look for Pandarus. Aeneas persuaded Pandarus to attack Diomedes. The courageous Pandarus mounted the chariot of Aeneas, and they rushed together against Diomedes.
Seeing two famous heroes, Aeneas and Pandarus, on a chariot, his friend Sfenel began to advise Diomedes to avoid fighting such heroes. But the mighty hero indignantly rejected this advice. Aeneas's chariot was quickly approaching Diomedes. Pandarus waved his spear and threw it at Diomedes' shield. A spear pierced the shield and hit the armor, but the armor protected Diomedes. And Pandarus was already rejoicing, thinking that he had mortally wounded the son of Tydeus. Diomedes threw his spear. Pandarus fell from his chariot dead. Aeneas quickly jumped to the ground. Covering himself with a shield, with a huge spear in his hands, he prepared to defend the corpse of Pandarus. Diomedes grabbed a huge stone, which two men could not have lifted, and with one hand threw it with terrible force at Aeneas and hit him in the thigh. Aeneas fell to his knees and would probably have died if his mother, the goddess Aphrodite, had not come to his aid. She covered Aeneas with her clothes and wanted to take him away from the battlefield.
Diomedes rushed to the goddess and wounded her with his heavy spear in her tender hand. The goddess screamed loudly and released Aeneas from her embrace. But the god Apollo covered him with a black cloud. Diomedes menacingly shouted to the goddess Aphrodite:
- Hide, daughter of Zeus! Leave the bloody battle! Isn’t it enough for you that you seduce weak women!
The goddess of love left the battlefield, and Diomedes again attacked Aeneas. The son of Tydeus attacked him three times, and Apollo repelled him three times. When Diomedes attacked Aeneas for the fourth time, Apollo menacingly shouted to him:
- Come to your senses, son of Tydeus! Retreat and do not dare to attack the immortals! The gods will never be equal in strength to mortals!
Diomedes was frightened when he heard the voice of the formidable god Apollo, and retreated. Apollo carried Aeneas to his temple in Troy. There the goddess Lethe and Apollo's sister, the goddess Artemis, healed Aeneas; on the battlefield, Apollo created the ghost of Aeneas, and a stubborn battle began around this ghost.
The goddess Aphrodite, wounded by Diomedes, meanwhile rushed away from the battlefield to the place where Ares, the stormy god of war, sat. Groaning loudly in pain, she begged God to give her his chariot; on it she quickly ascended to the bright Olympus. There she fell with tears at the knees of Dione’s mother and complained to her that Diomedes had wounded her. She wiped Dion's wound and healed her hand. Athena and Hera, mocking Aphrodite, said to the great thunderer Zeus:
“Wasn’t it possible that another Achaean woman was persuaded by the goddess Aphrodite to flee with one of her beloved Trojans?” Maybe she scratched her hand until it bled while caressing this Achaean woman?
Zeus smiled, called Aphrodite to him and told her:
- Dear daughter, noisy battles are none of your business. Lead with marriage and love, and leave battles to the stormy god Ares and the warrior Athena.
And on the battlefield the battle was still raging around the ghost of Aeneas, created by Apollo. The god Apollo rushed to Ares and asked him to tame Diomedes. The blood-covered god of battles listened to Apollo. He rushed to arouse the courage of the Trojans, taking on the guise of a hero, the Thracian Acamant. The battle was about to become even fiercer. The healed Aeneas also returned to the battlefield. The Trojans rejoiced when they saw him unharmed. Again the mixed ranks of the Trojans lined up and began to advance on the Greeks. Like thunderclouds covering the mountains, which are not driven away by stormy winds with their gusty breath, the Greeks were waiting for the approaching Trojans. Both heroes of Ajax, Odysseus and Diomedes, excited the Greeks to battle. King Agamemnon also walked around their ranks, sparkling with his armor. The battle began again. One by one the heroes fell, and the darkness of death covered their eyes. Hector fought ahead of the Trojans. He was helped by the god of war Ares himself and the formidable goddess of battle Enyuo. The hero Diomedes, seeing the god Ares, stepped back and exclaimed, turning to the Greeks:
“Friends, we need not be surprised that Hector fights with such courage!” After all, the god of battle Ares himself fights next to him and helps him. Retreat, friends, do not dare to engage in battle with the gods.
The Trojans pressed the Greeks harder and harder. The young son of Hercules, Tlipolemus, fell in battle, struck by the spear of the son of Zeus Sarpedon. But Sarpedon was also wounded in the thigh by Tlipolemus. Sarpedon's friends carried him out of the battle with difficulty, not having time to remove the spears from his wound. Seeing Hector passing, Sarpedon began to beg him to completely defeat the Greeks. Hector rushed into battle again, and he killed many heroes with his spear. The Trojans pushed the Greeks even further.
Seeing this, the goddess Hera called on the goddess Athena and, together with her, quickly began to prepare for battle in order to tame Ares. They harnessed the goddess with the help of Hebe to a wondrous chariot of horses. Athena put on armor, put her heavy helmet on her head, threw the aegis with the head of the gorgon Medusa over her shoulder and mounted the chariot of the goddess Hera, with a spear in her hands, and she quickly drove the horses. When the goddesses rushed from high Olympus, they saw Zeus, who was sitting alone on a high hill; Hera stopped the horses and said to the thunderer Zeus:
“Aren’t you angry, Zeus, at the ferocious Ares because he destroys so many heroes?” I see how Apollo and Aphrodite rejoice at this. Will you really be angry with me if I tame the god Ares?
The aegis-power Zeus answered her:
- Go! Let the warrior goddess, Pallas Athena, speak out against Ares. None of the immortals knows how to plunge Ares into severe sorrow like she does.
The goddess Hera quickly drove the horses further. They came to the confluence of two rivers, Simois and Scamander, the goddesses, got off their chariot, unharnessed their horses and surrounded them with a black cloud. Hera, taking the form of Stentor, a man with a powerful voice, called on the Greeks to courageously fight the Trojans. Pallas Athena approached Diomedes. He was wiping away the wound inflicted on him by Pandarus. Pallas began to reproach him both for avoiding battle and for being afraid to fight the Trojans. His father, the glorious warrior Tydeus, would not have done this. But Diomedes answered the goddess:
- No, bright-eyed daughter of the thunderer Zeus, I am not afraid to engage in battle with the heroes of Troy. I only remember that you ordered me not to engage in battle with the immortal gods.
Athena then said to Diomedes:
“Oh, son of Tydeus, favorite of Athena, now do not be afraid of Ares or any of the other gods.” I myself will be your assistant. Go quickly into battle against Ares. Just recently he promised to help the Greeks, and now, treacherous, he helps the Trojans.
Pallas Athena stood on the chariot of Diomedes instead of Sthenel. The oak axle of the chariot groaned from the weight of the goddess. Athena, invisible to Ares, drove the horses right at him at the moment when he was taking off the armor from the killed hero Periphantes. Ares saw Diomedes standing next to Athena, left the corpse of the hero Periphantes, whom he had killed, from whom he took off his armor, and threw a spear at his son Tydeus. Athena deflected the spear and it flew past. Athena increased Diomedes' strength tenfold, he struck Ares with a spear and tore the spear back from the wound. Ares screamed so terribly, as if ten thousand warriors screamed at once. All the soldiers of the Trojans and Greeks shuddered from the terrible cry. Covered in black clouds, stormy Ares quickly ascended to bright Olympus. There he sat down near Zeus and complained to him about Pallas Athena for helping Diomedes wound him. Zeus looked menacingly at his son. Ares was hated by him for his love of bloody battles; and he told his son that if he had not been his son, he would have long ago cast him into gloomy Tartarus. The stormy Ares stopped his complaints. Zeus called upon the divine physician Paon, who quickly healed Ares' wound. Hebe washed Ares and dressed him in luxurious clothes. The goddesses Hera and Athena returned to bright Olympus. Thus they curbed the battle-insatiable god of war, Ares.
The battle was still raging under the walls of Troy. The Greeks again began to press the Trojans. Many glorious Trojans were thrown into the dust by Ajax, Diomedes, Menelaus, Agamemnon and other heroes and their magnificent armor was stripped from the dead. Seeing that the complete defeat of the Trojans was not far off, the son of Priam, the soothsayer Gelen, began to pray to the helmeted Hector and the son of Aphrodite Aeneas, so that they would encourage the Trojans and hurry to Troy as soon as possible to appease the goddess Athena with rich gifts. Hector listened to his brother. He again inspired the Trojans, and they repelled the onslaught of the Greeks.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru