Editing Diomedes (section)

===After the fall of Troy===
During the sacking and looting of the great city, the seeress Cassandra, daughter of Priam and Hecuba, clung to the statue of Athena, but the Lesser Ajax raped her. Odysseus, unsuccessfully, tried to persuade the Achaean leaders to put Ajax to death, by stoning the Locrian leader (to divert the goddess's anger). The other Achaean leaders disagreed because Ajax himself clung to the same statue of Athena in order to save himself. The failure of Achaean leaders to punish Ajax the Lesser for the sacrilege of Athena's altar resulted in earning her wrath.

Athena caused a quarrel between Agamemnon and Menelaus about the voyage from Troy. Agamemnon then stayed on to appease the anger of Athena. Diomedes and Nestor held a discussion about the situation and decided to leave immediately. They took their vast armies and left Troy. They managed to reach home safely but Athena called upon Poseidon to bring a violent storm upon most of the other Achaean ships. Diomedes is one of the few Achaean commanders to return home safely, arriving in Argos only four days after his departure from Troy. Since the other Achaeans suffered during their respective 'nostoi' (Returns) because they committed an atrocity of some kind, Diomedes' safe nostos implies that he had the favour of the gods during his journey.<ref>"Returns" argument 1. Greek Epic Fragments, 155.</ref>

The Palamedes affair haunted several Achaean leaders including Diomedes. Palamedes's brother Oeax went to Argos and reported to Aegialia, falsely or not, that her husband was bringing a woman he preferred to his wife. Others say that Aegialia herself had taken a lover, Cometes (son of Sthenelus), being persuaded to do so by Palamedes's father Nauplius. Still others say that despite Diomedes's noble treatment of her son Aeneas, Aphrodite never managed to forget about the Argive spear that had once pierced her flesh in the fields of Troy. She helped Aegialia to obtain not one, but many lovers. (According to different traditions, Aegialia was living in adultery with Hippolytus, Cometes or Cyllabarus.)<ref>Dictys Cretensis, [https://topostext.org/work/152#6.2 6.2]; Tzetzes ad Lycophron, [https://topostext.org/work/860#610 609]; Servius as ''Aeneid'' 8.9</ref>{{AI-generated source|date=November 2024}}

In any case Aegialia, being helped by the Argives, prevented Diomedes from entering the city. Or else, if he ever entered Argos, he had to take sanctuary at the altar of Hera, and thence flee with his companions by night.<ref>Tzetzes ad Lycophron, [https://topostext.org/work/860#602 602]</ref>{{AI-generated source|date=November 2024}} Cometes was shortly the king of Argos, in Diomedes' absence, but was quickly replaced by the rightful heir, [[Cyanippus]], who was the son of [[Aegialeus (king of Argos)|Aegialeus]].