Aeneas was the Trojan hero whom his mother Aphrodite saved when Diomedes attacked him. Their confrontation occurs in Book 5 of Homer’s Iliad, during Diomedes’ greatest day of battlefield success.
Aeneas fights alongside Pandarus, who is killed by Diomedes. Diomedes then strikes Aeneas in the hip with a huge stone, leaving him incapacitated. Aphrodite tries to shield her son with her garment, but Diomedes wounds her and drives her from the battlefield. Apollo finally rescues Aeneas, surrounding him with a cloud and carrying him to safety in Troy.
A common mix-up is to remember only Aphrodite’s intervention and overlook Apollo’s role in completing the rescue. Aeneas is Aphrodite’s son by the mortal Anchises, and his divine ancestry becomes important in later Roman tradition, where Virgil presents him as the ancestor of the Romans. Diomedes does not kill him; he takes Aeneas’ famous horses instead.