Diomedes (Troilus and Cressida)

Play

Troilus and Cressida

Summary

The Greek warrior appointed to escort Cressida from Troy to the Greek camp, who then appears to win her affection in the notorious tent scene. Where Troilus is all idealistic devotion, Diomedes is a blunt pragmatist — he even says of Helen that "she's bitter to her country" — and his apparent conquest of Cressida is played out before Troilus's hidden gaze, making the scene one of Shakespeare's most agonizing theatrical conceits.

Notable Quotations

"She's bitter to her country: hear me, Paris: / For every false drop in her bawdy veins / A Grecian's life hath sunk." *(IV.i)*

Cross-references

• Troilus and Cressida — the play
• Tragedies
• character_cressida — whom he escorts to Greece and appears to woo
• character_troilus — whose anguished witnessing of the tent scene defines the play's climax