Pandarus breaks his oath. Battle.
When Menelaus with Paris decided to engage in single combat, the immortal gods feasted in the halls of Zeus. Young goddess Hebe was pouring nectar into cups. The gods were feasting, looking down from the high Olympus at Troy. Zeus mocking The hero began to say that he would stop the bloody feud between the Trojans and the Greeks, since Menelaus had won after all. But the goddess Hera asked Zeus to send a warrior to the Trojan army Athena, 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 concluded? Athena in the image of Laodoc, son of Antenora, approached the famous archer Pandaru and convinced him to kill Menelaus with a deadly arrow. Pandarus agreed. He grabbed his bow, took out a sharp arrow, called for help Apollo and fired an arrow. The string of a tight bow rang, an arrow shot up, and probably Menelaus would have died, but Athena rejected the arrow, and it struck Menelaus in the part of his body that was protected by double armor. An arrow pierced through the armor and pierced Menelaus' body. The wound was not deep, but still blood flowed profusely from it. Agamemnon was horrified when he saw that his brother was wounded. But Menelaus calmed him down. Ordered to summon a doctor, a hero Swallowtail, Agamemnon. Swallowtail examined the wound and sprinkled it with medicines. While Agamemnon and the other heroes were taking care of the wounded Menelaus, the Trojans were already advancing on the Greeks. Agamemnon hurried to the troops and began to arrange their ranks and inspire the soldiers to battle.
Only the voices of the leaders were heard among the Greek troops, the soldiers walked in silence. 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 cries of victory and the groans of the dying mingled.
The Trojans began to retreat under the onslaught of the Greeks, the Greeks attacked them even more amicably. Seeing this, the god Apollo, the defender of the Trojans, was inflamed with anger; he exclaimed loudly:
(Statue of IV century BC)
- Boldly forward, Trojans! Do not think that the Greeks' breasts are made of stone and their bodies are made of iron. Look, today the great Achilles is not fighting among them either - he sits angry in his tent.
This cry inspired the god-strelover of the Trojans. The battle has become even bloodier. Many heroes died. Pallas Athena inspired the Greeks. In this battle, she gave invincible strength to the king Diomed, the son of Tidea. Soon the Trojans faltered.
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 wounded to death. Diomedes called the hero Sphenel and asked him to remove an arrow from the wound. Sphenel extracted an arrow for him. Diomedes pleaded with Pallas Athena in a loud voice and asked her to let him slay 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 he could have killed with his spear. Like a wounded lion, in which a slight wound only increased his strength tenfold and inflamed his rage even more, Diomedes rushed into battle.
Having seen how Diomedes rages 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 on a chariot, Aeneas and Pandarus, his friend Sphenelus began to advise Diomedes to avoid fighting with such heroes. But the mighty hero rejected this advice with indignation. Aeneas' chariot was rapidly approaching Diomedes. Pandarus waved his spear and threw it at Diomedes' shield. The spear pierced the shield and hit the armor, but the armor protected Diomedes. And Pandarus was already rejoicing, thinking that he had wounded Tydeus' son to death. Diomed threw his spear. Pandarus fell from the 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 that would not have been lifted by two people, and with one hand threw it with terrible force at Aeneas and popped him in the thigh. Aeneas fell to his knees and probably would have died if his mother, the goddess Aphrodite, had not been in time to help him. She covered Aeneas with her clothes and wanted to carry 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 shouted threateningly 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 attacked Aeneas again. The son of Tydeus attacked him three times, and Apollo repelled him three times. When Diomedes attacked Aeneas for the fourth time, Apollo shouted threateningly to him:
- Come to your senses, son of Tydeus! Retreat and don't dare to attack the immortals! The gods will never be equal to mortals!
Diomedes was terrified when he heard the voice of the terrible god Apollo, and retreated. Apollo transferred Aeneas to his temple in Troy. Aenea the goddess was healed there Leta and sister of Alollon, goddess Artemis, on the battlefield Apollo created the ghost of Aeneas, and a stubborn battle began to boil around this ghost. Meanwhile, the goddess Aphrodite, wounded by Diomedes, rushed away from the battlefield to the place where Ares, the stormy god of war, was sitting. 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 to the knees of her mother Diona and complained to her that Diomed had wounded her. She wiped Dion's wound and healed her hand. Athena and Hera, mocking Aphrodite, said to the great thunderer Zeus:- Was it not another Achaean woman who was persuaded by the goddess Aphrodite to run away with one of her favorite Trojans? Maybe she scratched her hand until it bled, caressing this Achaean?
Zeus smiled, called Aphrodite to him and told her:
- Dear daughter, it's none of your business noisy battles. You are in charge of marriage and love, and leave the 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 obeyed Apollo. He rushed to excite the courage of the Trojans, assuming the form of a hero, a Thracian Akamant. The battle should have been even fiercer. Aeneas also returned to the battlefield healed. The Trojans were delighted to see him unharmed. The mixed ranks of the Trojans were lined up again and began to advance on the Greeks. Like thunderclouds covering the mountains, which are not driven by stormy winds with their gusty breath, the Greeks were waiting for the approaching Trojans. Both the heroes of Ajax, Odysseus and Diomedes, excited the Greeks to battle. King Agamemnon also walked around their ranks, flashing his armor. The battle raged again. One by one the heroes fell, and the darkness of death covered their eyes. Ahead of the Trojans was Hector. 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, addressing the Greeks:- Friends, we should not be surprised that Hector is fighting with such courage! After all, the god of battle Ares himself fights with him and helps him. Retreat, friends, do not dare to engage in battle with the gods.
The Trojans pressed the Greeks harder and harder. A young son fell in battle Hercules, Tlipolem, struck down by the spear of the son of Zeus Sarpedon. But Sarpedon was also wounded by Tlipolem in the thigh. With difficulty, Sarpedon's friends carried him out of the battle, not having time to extract spears from his wound. When he saw Hector passing by, Sarpedon begged him to completely defeat the Greeks. Hector rushed into battle again, he killed many heroes with his spear. The Trojans pushed the Greeks even harder.
Seeing this, the goddess Hera summoned the goddess Athena and together with her began to quickly equip herself for battle in order to tame Ares. The goddesses harnessed horses to the wonderful chariot with the help of Hebe. Athena dressed in armor, put her heavy helmet on her head, threw an 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 were rushing from the high Olympus, they saw Zeus, who was sitting alone on a high hill; Hera detained the horses and said to the thunderer Zeus:- Aren't you angry, Zeus, at the ferocious Ares for ruining so many heroes? I can see how happy Apollo and Aphrodite are about this. Will you be angry with me if I tame the god Ares? The aegis-bearing Zeus answered her:
- Go! Let the warrior goddess, Pallas Athena, come out against Ares. None of the immortals knows how to plunge Ares into heavy grief like she does. The goddess Hera quickly drove the horses on. They were brought to the confluence of two rivers, Simois and Scamander, the goddesses, got off the chariot, unharnessed the horses and surrounded them with a black cloud. Hera, assuming the image of Stentor, a husband with a mighty voice, called on the Greeks to bravely fight the Trojans. Pallas Athena approached Diomedes. He was wiping the wound that Pandarus had inflicted on him. Pallas began to reproach him both for the fact that he had avoided the battle, and for the fact that he was afraid to fight the Trojans. His father, the glorious warrior Tydeus, would not have done so. But Diomedes answered the goddess:
- No, the light-eyed daughter of the thunderer Zeus, I am not afraid to engage in battle with the heroes of Troy. I only remember that you commanded me not to engage in battle with the immortal gods.
Athena then said to Diomedes:
- 0, son of Tydeus, beloved of Athena, now do not be afraid of Ares or any of the other gods. I'll be your assistant myself. Go quickly into battle against Ares. Not long ago he promised to help the Greeks, and now, treacherous, he is helping the Trojans.
Pallas Athena took the chariot of Diomedes instead of Sphenelus. The oak axle of the chariot groaned from the weight of the goddess. Athena, invisible to Ares, drove the horses straight at him at the moment when he was removing the armor from the slain hero of the Periphant. Ares saw Diomedes standing next to Athena, left the corpse of the hero Periphanthus, whom he had slain, from whom he was taking off his armor, and threw a spear at the son of 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 terribly, as if ten thousand warriors screamed at once. All the warriors of the Trojans and Greeks shuddered from the terrible cry. Covered with black clouds, stormy Ares quickly ascended to the bright Olympus. There he sat down next to Zeus and complained to him about Pallas Athena for helping Diomedes to injure him. Zeus looked at his son menacingly. He hated Ares 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 the gloomy Tartarus. Stormy Ares stopped his complaints. Zeus called the divine doctor Paon, and he quickly healed Ares' wound. Hebe washed Ares and clothed him in luxurious clothes, and the goddesses Hera and Athena returned to the bright Olympus. So they curbed the insatiable battles of the god of war Ares.The battle was still raging under the walls of Troy. The Greeks began to crowd the Trojans again. Many glorious Trojans were thrown to the dust by Ajax, Diomedes, Menelaus, Agamemnon and other heroes and their magnificent armor was removed from the slain. Seeing that the complete defeat of the Trojans is not far away, the son Priam, the soothsayer Gelen, began to pray to the helmet-flashing Hector and Aphrodite's son Aeneas to encourage the Trojans and hurry to Troy to propitiate the goddess Athena with rich gifts. Hector obeyed his brother. He inspired the Trojans again, and they repelled the onslaught of the Greeks.