Which Greek hero wounded the goddess Aphrodite in the Trojan War? Diomedes did. In Homer’s Iliad, Book 5, Athena gives Diomedes extraordinary battle insight and tells him not to attack the gods—except Aphrodite if she enters the fighting.
Diomedes first wounds Aeneas, the Trojan champion and son of Aphrodite. When the goddess comes to rescue Aeneas from the battlefield, Diomedes strikes her hand with his spear. Divine ichor flows, and Aphrodite retreats to Mount Olympus, where her mother Dione comforts her. Diomedes then continues fighting and, with Athena’s help, wounds Ares as well.
A common mix-up is Achilles, the most famous Greek warrior in the Trojan cycle. Achilles does not wound Aphrodite in Homer’s Iliad. Another Diomedes appears in later mythology as a Thracian king whose man-eating mares were captured by Heracles; that figure is distinct from the Argive hero of the Trojan War.