Is that an order? Pick my own comrade?
Then how could I pass up royal Odysseus here?
His heart’s so game, his fighting edge so keen,
the best of us all in every combat mission –
Athena loves the man. With him at my side
we’d go through fire and make it back alive –
no one excels the mastermind of battle.
– Homer
The Iliad, Book 10, lines 283-289. This is Achaean warrior Diomedes speaking when Agamemnon asks him to choose his comrade to join the battle with him. He immediately opts for Odysseus. As well as Odysseus being a great fighter, Diomedes knows that goddess Athena loves him and is likely to protect them both.