Diomedes
Diomedes names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Diomedes in Greek mythology
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
in Greek mythology, (1) a king of the Bistones, who fed his horses on human flesh, and used to throw all strangers who entered his territories to those animals to be devoured. He was killed by Hercules, who carried off the horses. (2) One of the heroes at the siege of Troy, the son of Tydeus and Deïpyle, and King of Argos, one of the suitors of Helen. After she was carried off Diomedes engaged in the expedition against Troy, in which his courage and the protection of Pal- DIONÆA las rendered him one of the most distinguished heroes. He wounded Aphrodite and Ares, and thrice assailed Apollo; and by carrying off the horses of Rhesus from the enemies' tents, and aiding Ulysses in the removal of Philoctetes from Lemnos, he fulfilled two of the conditions on which alone Troy could be conquered. Finally he was one of the heroes concealed in the wooden horse by whom the capture of Troy was at length accomplished. Different accounts were given of his after-life. He is often called Diomede. DIOGENES DIONEA (Gr. Diōnē, one of the names of Venus), a genus of plants belonging to the natural order Droseraceæ. It consists of a single species, D. muscipula, commonly called Venus' fly-trap. The lamina is articulated to the pedicle, and consists of two portions united together by a joint along the midrib. On the upper side of each part of the lamina are situated three irritable hairs, which, on being touched, cause the folding of the divisions from below upward, so as to inclose any object. The food thus captured is digested by the action of a fluid resembling gastric juice. Venus' fly-trap is a native of the United States.
Diomedes A son of Tydeus and Deiphyle
1000 Classical Characters (1900)
A son of Tydeus and Deiphyle, was king of Aetolia , and one of the bravest of the Grecian chiefs in the Trojan war. He often engaged Hector and Aeneas , and obtained much military glory.
Diomedes A king of Thrace
1000 Classical Characters (1900)
A king of Thrace, son of Mars and Cyrene, who fed his horses with human flesh. Hercules destroyed Diomedes, and gave him to his own horses to be devoured.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The myths themselves are exactly as Collier's set them out in 1921: Homer's Diomedes still wounds Aphrodite and Ares in Iliad V, still steals the horses of Rhesus, and the Thracian Diomedes is still eaten by his own man-eating mares. What has moved is the frame around the stories. Milman Parry's work in the 1920s and 1930s showed the Iliad to be built from inherited oral formulae, so Diomedes is now read as a traditional figure shaped by generations of singers rather than a remembered war leader; the decipherment of Linear B in 1952 gave us real Mycenaean Greek administrative records, and no Diomedes appears in them. Readers should also note the small conflict on this page: 1000 Classical Characters calls him king of Aetolia, where Homer makes him king of Argos and only his father Tydeus an Aetolian exile.
Written for this edition, 2026.