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quick to mark, and thrown her two white arms about the body of her
dear son. She protected him by covering him with a fold of her own
fair garment, lest some Danaan should drive a spear into his breast
and kill him.
Thus, then, did she bear her dear son out of the fight. But the son
of Capaneus was not unmindful of the orders that Diomed had given
him. He made his own horses fast, away from the hurly-­‐burly, by binding
the reins to the rim of the chariot. Then he sprang upon Aeneas's
horses and drove them from the Trojan to the Achaean ranks. When he
had so done he gave them over to his chosen comrade Deipylus, whom
he valued above all others as the one who was most like-­‐minded with
himself, to take them on to the ships. He then remounted his own chariot,
seized the reins, and drove with all speed in search of the son of
Tydeus.
Now the son of Tydeus was in pursuit of the Cyprian goddess, spear
in hand, for he knew her to be feeble and not one of those goddesses
that can lord it among men in battle like Minerva or Enyo the waster
of cities, and when at last after a long chase he caught her up, he
flew at her and thrust his spear into the flesh of her delicate hand.
The point tore through the ambrosial robe which the Graces had woven
for her, and pierced the skin between her wrist and the palm of her
hand, so that the immortal blood, or ichor, that flows in the veins
of the blessed gods, came pouring from the wound; for the gods do
not eat bread nor drink wine, hence they have no blood such as ours,
and are immortal. Venus screamed aloud, and let her son fall, but
Phoebus Apollo caught him in his arms, and hid him in a cloud of darkness,