Diomedes and Odysseus agree to fight as a team, I.11.310–319. Diomedes throws a spear at Thumbraios, who is riding on a chariot and who gets knocked to the ground by the piercing wound, I.11.320–321. Then Odysseus symmetrically wounds with his own piercing spear-throw the charioteer of Thumbraios, Molion, who is described here as the therapōn of Thumbraios, I.11.322. Presumably, Molion too has been riding on the same chariot and gets knocked to the ground. Molion is not overtly called the hēni-okhos ‘chariot driver’ of Thumbraios, but the context shows that he is exactly that, the chariot driver. And, although Molion is the therapōn of Thumbraios, Molion does not get to “take the hit” for Thumbraios the chariot fighter, since that fighter is hit even before his driver is hit. So we see here an unexpected variation on the theme of the therapōn as ‘ritual substitute’ as well as ‘attendant’.