Diomedes

But I came swiftly through the wood of Diana with its many sacrifices, making my cheek red with youthful modesty, wishing to behold the defense of the shield and the arm-bearing tents of the Greeks and the crowd of steeds.

But I saw the two Ajaces, companions, the son of Oileus and the son of Telamon, the glory of Salamis, and Protesilaus and Palamedes, whom the daughter of Neptune bore, diverging themselves with the complicated figures of draughts, and Diomed rejoicing in the pleasures of the disk, and by them Meriones, the blossom of Mars, a marvel to mortals, and the son of Laertes from the mountains of the isle, and with them, Nairius, fairest of the Greeks, and Achilles, tempest-like in the course, fleet as the winds, whom Thetis bore and Chiron trained up.

I beheld him on the shore, coursing in arms along the shingles.

And he toiled through a contest of feet, running against a chariot of four steeds for victory.

He told me likewise that Rhesus and Dolon had been slain; how the one was surprised in his sleep, the other betrayed by guile.

You also, my dear husband, alas! too, too forgetful of your family at home, adventured to enter the Thracian camp by stratagem in the night, and assisted by Diomed alone, to kill so great a number of men.

No doubt you were wonderfully cautious, and did not forget your Penelope before the dangerous attempt.

My heart never ceased beating till I heard how you rode victorious through the army of your friends upon Thracian horses.

You had the weakness to bind your rude locks with a mitre a garland of poplar would have better adorned the temples of Hercules.

Nor did you think it a dishonor to confine your waist with the girdle of Omphale after the manner of a wanton maid.

The image of barbarous Diomedes who savagely fed his mares with human flesh was not then surely in your mind.

Had Busiris beheld you in that unmanly attire the conquered would have been ashamed of his conqueror.

End of section 18.

THE WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS A SERIES OF MYTHOLOGICAL FABLES BY FRANCIS BACON Diomed or zeal, explained of the persecution or zeal for religion.

diomed acquired great glory and honor at the trojan war and was highly favored by pallas who encouraged and excited him by no means to spare venus if he should casually meet her in fight he followed the advice with too much eagerness and intrepidity and accordingly wounded that goddess in her hand this presumptuous action remained unpunished for a time and when the war was ended he returned with great glory and renown to his own country where finding himself embroiled with domestic affairs he retired into italy here also at first he was well received and nobly entertained by king daunus who besides other gifts and honors erected statues for him over all his dominions but upon the first calamity that afflicted the people after the stranger's arrival daunus immediately reflected that he entertained a devoted person in his palace an enemy to the gods and one who had sacrilegiously wounded a goddess with his sword whom it was impious but to touch to expiate therefore his country's guilt he without regards to the laws of hospitality which were less regarded by him than the laws of religion directly slew his guest and commanded his statues and all his honors to be razed and abolished nor was it safe for others to commiserate or bewail so cruel a destiny.

But even his companions in arms, whilst they lamented the death of their leader, and filled all places with their complaints, were turned into a kind of swans, which are said, at the approach of their own death, to chant sweet melancholy dirges.

explanation this fable intimates an extraordinary and almost singular thing for no hero besides diomed is recorded to have wounded any of the gods doubtless we have here described the nature and fate of a man who professedly makes any divine worship or sect of religion though in itself vain and light the only scope of his actions and resolves to propagate it by fire and sword for although the bloody dissensions and differences about religion were unknown to the ancients yet so copious and diffusive was their knowledge that what they knew not by experience they comprehended in thought and representation those therefore who endeavour to reform or establish any sect of religion though vain corrupt and infamous which is here denoted under the person of venus not by the force of reason learning sanctity of manners the weight of arguments and examples but would spread or extirpate it by persecution pains penalties tortures fire and sword may perhaps be instigated hereto by pallas that is by a certain rigid prudential consideration and a severity of judgment by the vigor and efficacy whereof they see thoroughly into the fallacies and fictions of the delusions of this kind and through aversion to depravity and a well-meant zeal these men usually for a time acquire great fame and glory and are by the vulgar to whom no moderate measures can be acceptable extolled and almost adored as the only patrons and protectors of truth and religion men of any other disposition seeming in comparison with these to be lukewarm mean-spirited and cowardly This fame and felicity, however, seldom endures to the end, but all violence, unless it escapes the reverses and changes of things by untimely death, is commonly unprosperous in the issue, and if a change of affairs happens, and that sect of religion which was persecuted and oppressed gains strength and rises again, then the zeal and warm endeavors of this sort of men are condemned their very name becomes odious and all their honors terminate in disgrace as to the point that diomedes should be slain by his hospitable entertainer this denotes that religious dissensions may cause treachery bloody animosities and deceit even between the nearest friends that complaining or bewailing should not in so enormous a case be permitted to friends affected by the catastrophe without punishment includes this prudent admonition that almost in all kinds of wickedness and depravity men have still room left for commiseration so that they who hate the crime may yet pity the person and bewail his calamity from a principle of humanity and good nature and to forbid the overflowings and intercourses of pity upon such occasions where the extremest of evils Yet, in the cause of religion and impiety, the very commiserations of men are noted and suspected.

On the other hand, the lamentations and complainings of the followers and attendants of Diomed, that is, of men of the same sect or persuasion, are usually very sweet, agreeable, and moving, like the dying notes of swans or the birds of Diomed.

This also is a noble and remarkable part of the allegory, denoting that the last words of those who suffer for the sake of religion strongly affect and sway men's minds, and leave a lasting impression upon the sense and memory.

XX.

Let each take the price of his own blood, and turn as pale as a man who has trodden upon a snake barefooted, or of one who awaits his turn to orate before the altar at Lugdunum.

Why tell how my heart burns hot with rage when I see the people hustled by a mob of retainers attending on one who has defrauded and debauched his ward? or on another who has been condemned by a futile verdict for what matters infamy if the cash be kept the exiled marius carouses from the eighth hour of the day and revels in the wrath of heaven while you poor province win your cause and weep Must I not deem these things worthy of the Venusian's lamp? Must I not have my fling at them? Should I do better to tell tales about Hercules, or Diomedes, or the bellowing in the labyrinth, or about the flying carpenter and the lad who splashed into the sea? And that in an age when the compliant husband, if his wife may not lawfully inherit, takes money from her paramour, being well trained to keep his eyes upon the ceiling, or to snore with wakeful nose over his cups? An age when one who has squandered his family fortunes upon horse-flesh thinks it right and proper to look for the command of a cohort? See him dashing at breakneck speed, like a very automedon, along the Fleminian way, holding the reins himself, while he shoals himself off to his great coated mistress.

Would you not like to fill up a whole notebook at the street crossings when you see a forger borne along upon the neck of six porters, and exposed to view on this side and on that in his almost naked litter, and reminding you of the lounging machinists, one who by help of a scrap of paper and a moistened seal has converted himself into a fine and wealthy gentleman? Then up comes a lordly dame who, when her husband wants a drink, mixes toad's blood with his old calenion, and improving upon Locusta herself, teaches her artless neighbours to brave the talk of the town and carry forth to burial the blackened

corpses of their husbands.

Let each take the price of his own blood, and turn as pale as a man who has trodden upon a snake barefooted, or of one who awaits his turn to orate before the altar at Lugdunum.

Why tell how my heart burns hot with rage when I see the people hustled by a mob of retainers attending on one who has defrauded and debauched his ward? or on another who has been condemned by a futile verdict for what matters infamy if the cash be kept the exiled marius carouses from the eighth hour of the day and revels in the wrath of heaven while you poor province win your cause and weep Must I not deem these things worthy of the Venusian's lamp? Must I not have my fling at them? Should I do better to tell tales about Hercules, or Diomedes, or the bellowing in the labyrinth, or about the flying carpenter and the lad who splashed into the sea? And that in an age when the compliant husband, if his wife may not lawfully inherit, takes money from her paramour, being well trained to keep his eyes upon the ceilings, or to snore with wakeful nose over his cups? An age when one who has squandered his family fortunes upon horse-flesh thinks it right and proper to look for the command of a cohort? See him dashing at breakneck speed, like a very automedon, along the Fleminian way, holding the reins himself, while he shoals himself off to his great coated mistress.

Would you not like to fill up a whole notebook at the street crossings when you see a forger borne along upon the neck of six porters, and exposed to view on this side and on that in his almost naked litter, and reminding you of the lounging machinists, one who by help of a scrap of paper and a moistened seal has converted himself into a fine and wealthy gentleman? Then up comes a lordly dame who, when her husband wants a drink, mixes toad's blood with his old calenion, and improving upon Locusta herself, teaches her artless neighbours to brave the talk of the town and carry forth to burial the blackened

corpses of their husbands.

Tyndareus was the mortal king of Sparta and earthly father of Helen, the most beautiful woman in the ancient world.

When Helen reached marriageable age, dozens of powerful Greek kings, princes, and heroes, including Menelaus, Agamemnon, Ajax, Diomedes, Patroclus, and Odysseus, converged on Sparta to claim her hand.

These names should all sound very familiar, considering they are all the main characters of the Iliad.

Tyndareus faced a very dangerous political crisis.