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Diomedes,
son of Tydeus (who was one of the Seven against Thebes) was the youngest
of the major Achaean heroes at Troy, and king of Argos and Tiryns. He took
80 ships. He goes on the rampage in Books 5 and 6 (his aristeia),
giving us a tate of what the sulking Achilles musthave been like. We first
meet him refusing to be drawn into an argument with Agamemnon about his
courage: he soon shows it it battle, taking on even gods in his onrush.
He is also an excellent cousellor and strategist. In Book 6 he meets Glaucus,
the Lycian, and discovers that their grandfathers were xenoi (guest-friends)
- so they exchange armour instead of fighting. (But Diomedes still comes
off best, getting gold for bronze).
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