He had a harder task in getting the mares of the Thracian king, Diomêdes, which were fed on man’s flesh.  He overcame their grooms, and drove the beasts away; but he was overtaken by Diomêdes, and, while fighting with him and his people, put the mares under the charge of a friend; but when the battle was over, and Diomêdes killed, he found that they had eaten up their keeper.  However, when he had fed them on the dead body of their late master, they grew mild and manageable, and he brought them home.