These lines are the same as those found in our texts at Odyssey 3.382–384. In the Odyssey, it is Nestor making the promise of such a sacrifice, again to Athena. Nestor prays to Athena for good kleos for himself, his children, and his wife and promises her in return this same kind of unbroken one-year-old cow with gilded horns. The identical vow in both contexts suggests that an unbroken cow is especially appropriate for Athena, perhaps because of her own virgin status, and, of course, that the sacrifice is made in reciprocity for success. But also suggestive is the vow’s close association in both cases with Athena’s personal involvement with heroes, and specifically her accompaniment of them on a particular mission. Although it is not Telemakhos who makes the vow (the way Diomedes does here), Nestor mentions that she accompanies Telemakhos before he makes the vow in return for his own kleos.