Deacon Harrison Garlick and Adam Minihan are joined by Grayson Quay. Grayson Quay Grayson Quay is a writer and News and Opinion Editor for the Daily Caller. He earned his M.A. from Georgetown University in 2019.Book FiveDiomedes Fights the GodsNow take heart, Diomedes, fight it out with the Trojans!Deep in your chest I’ve put your father’s strength.Athena (5.137)30. What happens in book five of the Iliad? Athena grants Diomedes, an Achaean, power to fight the Trojans (5.01) and convinces Ares, who has sided with the Trojans, to refrain from entering the fray (5.33). Diomedes is “smashing the Trojan lines before him” (5.105) when Pandarus, the Trojan who previously broke the truce by shooting Menelaus, shoots Diomedes (5.107). Diomedes is restored by Athena who tells him not to fight any of immortals save Aphrodite and grants him the ability to see the gods (5.142). Diomedes delivers a brutal death to Pandarus (5.321) and gravely wounds Aeneas (5.340). As she did for Paris, Aphrodite now attempts to whisk Aeneas, her son, away from his immanent death, but Diomedes spears the immortal goddess in the wrist (5.380). Apollo, who has to repel Diomedes several times, is able to rescue Aeneas and places a “phantom” Aeneas on the battlefield (5.517). Apollo convinces Ares to return to the fight on behalf of the Trojans (5.523). Sarpedon, son of Zeus, chides his fellow Trojan, prince Hector, for his lack of courage in the face of the onslaught of Diomedes (5.540), and Aeneas, having been tended to by the gods, returns to the battle (5.592). Hector and Ares push the Trojans forward, and Diomedes—who was given the gift to see the gods by Athena—warns his fellow Achaeans of the war god’s presence (5.694). Hera and Athena return to the field of battle, and Athena assists Diomedes in spearing the god of war (5.989). A wounded Ares returns to Olympus and, after a tirade against Athena to Zeus, is healed and then sits next to Zeus (5.1050). 31. Is Athena or Ares the actual god of war?The more robust presentation of Athena in book five challenges our preliminary understanding of Athena as the goddess of wisdom and Ares as the god of war. Note she arguably outwits Ares by having him refrain from fighting (5.33) while she continues to intervene (5.136). Zeus seemingly defers to both regarding war, as he tells the wounded Aphrodite that “Athena and blazing Ares will deal with all the bloodshed” (5.494). Athena’s role is not reducible to simply influencing warriors, as she has her own war-gear (5.841) and, after seeking Zeus’ blessing, Zeus states, “she’s the one—his match, a marvel at bringing Ares down in pain” (5.880). Athena outwits Ares and helps Diomedes spear him in the bowels (5.989). In contrast, Ares is a “maniac” and without a “sense of justice” (5.874). He is “born for disaster, double-dealing, lying two-faced god” (5.960). He a “butcher” (5.978). He is called the “war-god” (5.960), and his “lust for slaughter never dies” (5.997). In short, Homer presents Ares as a god of slaughter, violence, and chaos, while Athena retains her rationality in war—a goddess of tactics and strategy. One recalls here her affinity for Odysseus, the great tactician of the Achaeans.At the end of book five, Homer gives a comical juxtaposition of Ares and Athena. The war-god is racked with “self-pity” (5.1006) and “whining” to Zeus about Athena (5.1029). In the mouth of Ares, Homer provides one of the earliest accounts...