Diomedes. Diomedes or Diomede is a hero in Greek mythology, known for his participation in the Trojan War. He was born to Tydeus and Deipyle and later became King of Argos, succeeding his maternal grandfather, Adrastus. In Homer's Iliad Diomedes is regarded alongside Ajax the Great and Agamemnon after Achilles as one of the best warriors of all the Achaeans in prowess. Later, he founded ten or more Italian cities. After his death, Diomedes was worshipped as a divine being under various names in Italy as well as Greece. Diomedes was, on his father's side, an Aetolian, and on his mother's an Argive. His father, Tydeus, was himself of royal blood, being the only son of Oeneus, the king of Calydon. He had been exiled from his homeland for killing his relatives, either his cousins or his paternal uncles. In any case, Tydeus was exiled, and he found refuge at Argos, where the king, Adrastus, offered him hospitality, even giving him his daughter, Deipyle, to be his wife. The two were happily married and had two children together, a daughter, Comaetho, and a son, Diomedes. Sometime later, Polynices, a banished prince of Thebes, arrived in Argos; he approached Adrastus and pleaded his case to the king, as he requested his aid to restore him to his original homeland. Adrastos promised to do so and set out to gather an expeditionary force with which to march against Thebes. This force was made up of seven individual champions, each assigned to lead an assault on one of the seven gates of the city; Tydeus, Polynices and Adrastus were among them. Together, these champions were known as the Seven Against Thebes. The expedition proved to be a complete disaster, however, as all seven of the Argive champions were killed in the ensuing battle, except for Adrastus, who escaped thanks to his horse Arion, who was the fastest of all of his brethren. Diomedes' father, Tydeus, was among those who had been slain. Tydeus was Athena's favourite warrior at the time, and when he was dying she wanted to offer him a magic elixir that would make him immortal. However, she withdrew the intended privilege in apparent disgust when Tydeus gobbled down the brains of the hated enemy who had wounded him. According to some, Diomedes was four years old when his father was killed. At the funeral of their fathers, the sons of the seven fallen champions met and vowed to vanquish Thebes in order to avenge their fathers. They were called the Epigoni because they were bornafter everything has happened. Ten years later, the Epigoni set out to launch another expedition against Thebes, appointing Alcmaeon as their commander-in-chief. They strengthened their initial forces with contingents from Messenia, Arcadia, Corinth, and Megara. This army, however, was still small compared to that of Thebes. The war of the Epigoni is remembered as the most important expedition in Greek mythology prior to the Trojan War. It was a favorite topic for epics, but, unfortunately, all of these epics are now lost. The main battle took place at Glisas where Prince Aegialeus was slain by King Laodamas, who was in turn killed by Alcmaeon. With their king dead, the Thebans, believing this to be the end for them, sought counsel from the seer Tiresias, who urged them to flee the city. They did so, and, faced with no opposition, the Epigoni entered the city, plundering its treasures and tearing down its great walls. Having achieved their objective, the Epigoni returned home, but not before they installed Thersander, son of the fallen prince Polynices, as the city's new ruler. As Diomedes and the Argive forces travelled home, an elderly King Adrastus died of grief upon learning that his son Aegialeus had perished in the battle; as such, Diomedes was left as the last of Adrastus' male descendants. That being so, upon returning home to Argos, Diomedes ascended to the throne. In order to secure his grasp on the throne, Diomedes married Aegialeus' daughter, Princess Aegialia. According to some, Diomedes ruled Argos for more than five years and brought much wealth and stability to the city during his time. He was a skilled politician and was greatly respected by other rulers. He still kept an eye on Calydonian politics, and when the sons of Agrius put Oeneus in jail and their own father on the throne, Diomedes decided to restore Oeneus to the throne. Diomedes attacked and ceded the kingdom, slaying all the traitors except Thersites, Onchestus and Agrius restoring his grandfather to the throne. Later, Oeneus passed the kingdom to his son-in-law, Andraemon, and headed to Argos to meet Diomedes.