Hera and Athena came down to battle for the Greeks; they found
Diomedes on the skirts of the host, cooling the wound Pandarus had
inflicted. Entering his chariot by his side, Athena fired him to meet
Ares and drive him wounded back to Olympus, where he found but little
compassion from Zeus. The two goddesses then left the mortals to fight
it out.

At this moment Helenus, the prophetic brother of Hector, bade him go
to Troy to try to appease the anger of Athena by an offering, in the
hope that Diomedes' progress might be stayed. In his absence Diomedes
met in the battle Glaucus, a Lycian prince.

"Who art thou?" he asked. "I have never seen thee before in battle,
yet now thou hast gone far beyond all others in hardihood, for thou
hast awaited my onset, and they are hapless whose sons meet my
strength. If thou art a god, I will not fight with thee; but if thou
art one of those who eat the fruit of the earth, come near, that
thou mayest the quicker get thee to the gates of death."

In answer, Glaucus said:

"Why askest thou my lineage? As is the life of leaves, so is that of
men. The leaves are scattered some of them to the earth by the wind,
others the wood putteth forth when it is in bloom, and they come on
in the season of spring. Even so of men one generation groweth,
another ceaseth."

He then told how he was a family friend of Diomedes and made with him
a compact that if they met in battle they should avoid each the other;
this they sealed by the exchange of armour, wherein the Greek had the