THE SCENE: It’s hard to get more hardcore than hunting down and wounding a god in the middle of a pitched battle, and then taunting them as they run away.
THE TEXT: He with his ruthless bronze was hunting Aphrodite – Diomedes, knowing her for the coward goddess she is, none of the mighty gods who marshal men to battle, neither Athena nor Enyo raider of cities, not at all. But once he caught her, stalking her through the onslaught, gallant Tydeus’ offspring rushed her, lunging out, thrusting his sharp spear at her soft, limp wrist and the brazen point went slashing through her flesh, tearing straight through the fresh immortal robes the Graces themselves had made her with their labor. He gouged her just where the wristbone joins the palm, and immortal blood came flowing quickly from the goddess, the ichor that courses through their veins, the blessed gods – they eat no bread, they drink no shining wine, and so the gods are bloodless, so we call them deathless. A piercing shriek – she reeled. But Diomedes shouted after her, shattering war cries: “Daughter of Zeus, give up the ear, your lust for carnage! So it’s not enough that you lure defenseless women to their ruin? Haunting fighting, are you? Now I think you’ll cringe at the hint of war if you get wind of battle far away.” So he mocked and the goddess fled the front, beside herself with pain.
– The Iliad, Homer, 8th Century BC
