Next Diomed, the great in battle, prayed:⁠— “Daughter invincible of Jove, give ear Also to me. Be with me now, as once Thou didst attend on Tydeus nobly born, My father, when he bore an embassy To Thebé from the Achaians. He beside The Asopus left the Achaians mailed in brass, And bore a friendly message to the sons Of Cadmus, and on his return performed Full many a mighty deed with aid from thee, Great goddess! for thou stoodest by his side. Stand now by me; be thou my shield and guard; And I, in turn, will offer up to thee A yearling heifer, broad between the horns, Which never ploughman yet hath tamed to bear The yoke. Her to thine altar will I bring, With gilded horns, to be a sacrifice.”

So prayed they. Pallas listened to their prayers; And, having supplicated thus the child Of Jove Almighty, the two chiefs went on Like lions through the darkness of the night, Through slaughter, heaps of corses, and black blood.