Diomed acquired great glory and honor at the Trojan war, and was highly
favored by Pallas, who encouraged and excited him by no means to spare
Venus, if he should casually meet her in fight. He followed the advice
with too much eagerness and intrepidity, and accordingly wounded that
goddess in her hand. This presumptuous action remained unpunished
for a time, and when the war was ended he returned with great glory
and renown to his own country, where, finding himself embroiled with
domestic affairs, he retired into Italy. Here also at first he was
well received and nobly entertained by King Daunus, who, besides other
gifts and honors, erected statues for him over all his dominions.
But upon the first calamity that afflicted the people after the
stranger’s arrival, Daunus immediately reflected that he entertained
a devoted person in his palace, an enemy to the gods, and one who had
sacrilegiously wounded a goddess with his sword, whom it was impious
but to touch. To expiate, therefore, his country’s guilt, he, without
regard to the laws of hospitality, which were less regarded by him
than the laws of religion, directly slew his guest, and commanded his
statues and all his honors to be razed and abolished. Nor was it safe
for others to commiserate or bewail so cruel a destiny; but even his
companions in arms, whilst they lamented the death of their leader,
and filled all places with their complaints, were turned into a kind
of swans, which are said, at the approach of their own death, to chant
sweet melancholy dirges.
EXPLANATION.—This fable intimates an extraordinary and almost singular
thing, for no hero besides Diomed is recorded to have wounded any of
the gods. Doubtless we have here described the nature and fate of a man
who professedly makes any divine worship or sect of religion, though,
in itself vain and light, the only scope of his actions, and resolves
to propagate it by fire and sword. For although the bloody dissensions
and differences about religion were unknown to the ancients, yet so
copious and diffusive was their knowledge, that what they knew not by
experience they comprehended in thought and representation. Those,
therefore, who endeavor to reform or establish any sect of religion,
though vain, corrupt, and infamous (which is here denoted under the
person of Venus), not by the force of reason, learning, sanctity of
manners, the weight of arguments, and examples, but would spread or
extirpate it by persecution, pains, penalties, tortures, fire, and
sword, may, perhaps, be instigated hereto by Pallas, that is, by a
certain rigid, prudential consideration, and a severity of judgment,
by the vigor and efficacy whereof they see thoroughly into the
fallacies and fictions of the delusions of this kind; and through
aversion to depravity and a well-meant zeal, these men usually for
a time acquire great fame and glory, and are by the vulgar, to whom
no moderate measures can be acceptable, extolled and almost adored,
as the only patrons and protectors of truth and religion, men of any
other disposition seeming, in comparison with these, to be lukewarm,
mean-spirited, and cowardly. This fame and felicity, however, seldom
endures to the end; but all violence, unless it escapes the reverses
and changes of things by untimely death, is commonly unprosperous
in the issue; and if a change of affairs happens, and that sect
of religion which was persecuted and oppressed gains strength and
rises again, then the zeal and warm endeavors of this sort of men
are condemned, their very name becomes odious, and all their honors
terminate in disgrace.
As to the point that Diomed should be slain by his hospitable
entertainer, this denotes that religious dissensions may cause
treachery, bloody animosities, and deceit, even between the nearest
friends.
That complaining or bewailing should not, in so enormous a case, be
permitted to friends affected by the catastrophe without punishment,
includes this prudent admonition, that almost in all kinds of
wickedness and depravity men have still room left for commiseration,
so that they who hate the crime may yet pity the person and bewail his
calamity, from a principle of humanity and good-nature; and to forbid
the overflowings and intercourses of pity upon such occasions were
the extremest of evils; yet in the cause of religion and impiety the
very commiserations of men are noted and suspected. On the other hand,
the lamentations and complainings of the followers and attendants of
Diomed, that is, of men of the same sect or persuasion, are usually
very sweet, agreeable, and moving, like the dying notes of swans, or
the birds of Diomed. This also is a noble and remarkable part of the
allegory, denoting that the last words of those who suffer for the sake
of religion strongly affect and sway men’s minds, and leave a lasting
impression upon the sense and memory.