Ares

Ares (Template:IPAc-en; Template:Langx, Árēs {{#invoke:IPA|main}}) is the Greek god of war and courage. He is one of the Twelve Olympians, and the son of Zeus and Hera. The Greeks were ambivalent towards him. He embodies the physical valor necessary for success in war but can also personify sheer brutality and bloodlust, in contrast to his sister Athena, whose martial functions include military strategy and generalship. An association with Ares endows places, objects, and other deities with a savage, dangerous, or militarized quality.

Although Ares' name shows his origins as Mycenaean, his reputation for savagery was thought by some to reflect his likely origins as a Thracian deity. Some cities in Greece and several in Asia Minor held annual festivals to bind and detain him as their protector. In parts of Asia Minor, he was an oracular deity. Still further away from Greece, the Scythians were said to ritually kill one in a hundred prisoners of war as an offering to their equivalent of Ares. The later belief that ancient Spartans had offered human sacrifice to Ares may owe more to mythical prehistory, misunderstandings, and reputation than to reality.

Although there are many literary allusions to Ares' love affairs and children, he has a limited role in Greek mythology. When he does appear, he is often humiliated. In the Trojan War, Aphrodite, protector of Troy, persuades Ares to take the Trojans' side. The Trojans lose, while Ares' sister Athena helps the Greeks to victory. Most famously, when the craftsman-god Hephaestus discovers his wife Aphrodite is having an affair with Ares, he traps the lovers in a net and exposes them to the ridicule of the other gods.

Ares' nearest counterpart in Roman religion is Mars, who was given a more important and dignified place in ancient Roman religion as ancestral protector of the Roman people and state. During the Hellenization of Latin literature, the myths of Ares were reinterpreted by Roman writers under the name of Mars, and in later Western art and literature, the mythology of the two figures became virtually indistinguishable.

Names

The etymology of the name Ares is traditionally connected with the Greek word {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (arē), the Ionic form of the Doric {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (ara), "bane, ruin, curse, imprecation".<ref>ἀρή, Georg Autenrieth, A Homeric Dictionary. Template:LSJ.</ref> Walter Burkert notes that "Ares is apparently an ancient abstract noun meaning throng of battle, war."<ref name="Burkert, p. 169">Burkert, p. 169.</ref> R. S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin of the name.<ref>R. S. P. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009, pp. 129–130.</ref> The earliest attested form of the name is the Mycenaean Greek {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, a-re, written in the Linear B syllabic script.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The adjectival epithet, Areios ("warlike") was frequently appended to the names of other gods when they took on a warrior aspect or became involved in warfare: Zeus Areios, Athena Areia, even Aphrodite Areia ("Aphrodite within Ares" or "feminine Ares"), who was warlike, fully armoured and armed, partnered with Athena in Sparta, and represented at Kythira's temple to Aphrodite Urania.<ref>Budin, Stephanie L. (2010). "Aphrodite Enoplion", In Smith, Amy C.; Pickup, Sadie (eds.). Brill's Companion to Aphrodite. Brill's Companions in Classical Studies. Boston, MA: Brill Publishers. pp. 79–116. Template:ISBN.</ref> In the Iliad, the word ares is used as a common noun synonymous with "battle".<ref name="Burkert, p. 169"/>

In the Classical period, Ares is given the epithet Enyalios, which seems to appear on the Mycenaean KN V 52 tablet as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, e-nu-wa-ri-jo.<ref>Template:Cite book At Google Books.</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Enyalios was sometimes identified with Ares and sometimes differentiated from him as another war god with separate cult, even in the same town; Burkert describes them as "doubles almost".<ref name="OCD-Ares" /><ref>Burkert, p. 44</ref>

Epithets

<ref> Nilsson Vol I, p. 517-519</ref>

• aatos or atos polemoio, insatiate at war.<ref> Liddel Scott</ref>
• alloprosallos,leaning first to one side, then to the other.
• andreifontēs, man slaying.
• apotimos,dishonoured by Sophocles.
• brotoloigos, plague of man.
• enyalios , warlike,<ref> Liddel Scott</ref>
• Thēritas,at Sparta. Laconic form of Thersites,audacious .<ref>Liddel Scott</ref>
• mainomenos,malignant.
• miaifonos, blood stained
• tykton kakon, complete evil.<ref>Liddell Scott</ref>

Cult

File:Ares Argentina Montemartini.jpg

Ares, 2nd–3rd century AD, after a Greek bronze original by Alkamenes dated 420 BC,Template:Citation needed, excavated in 1925 in Rome's Largo di Torre Argentina

In mainland Greece and the Peloponnese, only a few places are known to have had a formal temple and cult of Ares.<ref name="Burkert, p. 170">Burkert, p. 170.</ref>Template:Refn Pausanias (2nd century AD) notes an altar to Ares at Olympia,<ref>Pausanias, 5.15.6.</ref> and the moving of a Temple of Ares to the Athenian agora during the reign of Augustus, essentially rededicating it (2 AD) as a Roman temple to the Augustan Mars Ultor.<ref name="Burkert, p. 170"/> The Areopagus ("mount of Ares"), a natural rock outcrop in Athens, some distance from the Acropolis, was supposedly where Ares was tried and acquitted by the gods for his revenge-killing of Poseidon's son, Halirrhothius, who had raped Ares' daughter Alcippe. Its name was used for the court that met there, mostly to investigate and try potential cases of treason.<ref>Berens, E.M.: Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome, page 113. Project Gutenberg, 2007.</ref>

Numismatist M. Jessop Price states that Ares "typified the traditional Spartan character", but had no important cult in Sparta;<ref>Cf. Pausanias, 3.19.7.</ref> and he never occurs on Spartan coins.<ref>Price, M. Jessop. "Greek Imperial Coins: Some Recent Acquisitions by the British Museum." The Numismatic Chronicle, vol. 11, 1971, p. 131. Template:JSTOR. Accessed 4 Aug. 2021.</ref> Pausanias gives two examples of his cult, both of them conjointly with or "within" a warlike Aphrodite, on the Spartan acropolis.<ref>Budin, 2010. "Aphrodite Enoplion", pp. 86-116.</ref> Gonzalez observes, in his 2005 survey of Ares' cults in Asia Minor, that cults to Ares on the Greek mainland may have been more common than some sources assert.<ref>Gonzales, Matthew, "The Oracle and Cult of Ares in Asia Minor", Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies, 45, 2005, p. 282; "...Ares was not so neglected by the cities of mainland Greece as many would have us believe"</ref> Wars between Greek states were endemic; war and warriors provided Ares's tribute, and fed his insatiable appetite for battle.<ref>Millington, Alexander T., War and the Warrior: Functions of Ares in Literature and Cult, University College, London, 2013, pp. 41-44, 230 ff [1]</ref>

Ares' attributes are instruments of war: a helmet, shield, and sword or spear.<ref name=":2" /> Libanius "makes the apple sacred to Ares", but "offers no further comment", nor connections to any aetiological myth. Apples are one of Aphrodites' sacred or symbolic fruits. Littlewood follows Artemidorus claim that to dream of sour apples presages conflict, and lists Ares alongside Eris and the mythological "Apples of Discord".<ref>Libanius, Progymnasmata, Model Exercises in Greek Prose Composition and Rhetoric, Translated and with an Introduction and Notes by Craig A. Gibson, 2008, [2] p. 263, particularly note 270: and Littlewood, A. R. "The Symbolism of the Apple in Greek and Roman Literature." Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 72 (1968): pp. 161-162. https://doi.org/10.2307/311078.</ref>

Chained statues

Gods were immortal but could be bound and restrained, both in mythic narrative and in cult practice. There was an archaic Spartan statue of Ares in chains in the temple of Enyalios (sometimes regarded as the son of Ares, sometimes as Ares himself), which Pausanias claimed meant that the spirit of war and victory was to be kept in the city.Template:Refn The Spartans are known to have ritually bound the images of other deities, including Aphrodite and Artemis (cf Ares and Aphrodite bound by Hephaestus), and in other places there were chained statues of Artemis and Dionysos.<ref>Gonzales, 2005, p. 282</ref><ref>Burkert, p. 92.</ref>

Statues of Ares in chains are described in the instructions given by an oracle of the late Hellenistic era to various cities of Pamphylia (in Anatolia) including Syedra, Lycia and Cilicia, places almost perpetually under threat from pirates. Each was told to set up a statue of "bloody, man-slaying Ares" and provide it with an annual festival in which it was ritually bound with iron fetters ("by Dike and Hermes") as if a supplicant for justice, put on trial and offered sacrifice. The oracle promises that "thus will he become a peaceful deity for you, once he has driven the enemy horde far from your country, and he will give rise to prosperity much prayed for". This Ares karpodotes ("giver of Fruits") is well attested in Lycia and Pisidia.<ref>Gonzalez, 2005, p. 282</ref>

Sacrifices

File:Parthenon frieze east IV fragment.JPG

Ares (right) with Demeter, Dionysus and Hermes on the frieze of the Parthenon, ca. 447–433 BC, British Museum.

Like most Greek deities, Ares was given animal sacrifice; in Sparta, after battle, he was given an ox for a victory by stratagem, or a rooster for victory through onslaught.<ref>Hughes, Dennis D., Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece, Routledge, 1991, Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003, p. 128, Template:ISBN</ref>Template:Refn The usual recipient of sacrifice before battle was Athena. Reports of historic human sacrifice to Ares in an obscure rite known as the Hekatomphonia represent a very long-standing error, repeated through several centuries and well into the modern era.Template:Refn The hekatomphonia was an animal sacrifice to Zeus; it could be offered by any warrior who had personally slain one hundred of the enemy.Template:Refn<ref>Hughes, "Human Sacrifice", 1991, pp.119-122 & notes 145, 146 for a clear account of the error, and how and why it might have been perpetuated</ref><ref>Faraone, Christopher A. "Binding and Burying the Forces of Evil: The Defensive Use of 'Voodoo Dolls' in Ancient Greece." Classical Antiquity, vol. 10, no. 2, 1991, pp. 165–220. Template:JSTOR. Accessed 18 Aug. 2021</ref> Pausanias reports that in Sparta, each company of youths sacrificed a puppy to Enyalios before engaging in a hand-to-hand "fight without rules" at the Phoebaeum.Template:Refn<ref>Graf, F. "Women, War, and Warlike Divinities." Zeitschrift Für Papyrologie Und Epigraphik, vol. 55, 1984, p. 252. Template:JSTOR. Accessed 13 Aug. 2021.</ref> The chthonic night-time sacrifice of a dog to Enyalios became assimilated to the cult of Ares.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Porphyry claims, without detail, that Apollodorus of Athens (circa second century BC) says the Spartans made human sacrifices to Ares, but this may be a reference to mythic pre-history.<ref>Hughes, Dennis D., Human Sacrifice in Ancient Greece, Routledge, 1991, Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003, p. 128, Template:ISBN. Hughes is citing Apollodorus of Athens, Die Fragmente der griechischen Historike, 244 F 125. English translation of Porphyry is in Template:Cite book</ref>

Thrace and Scythia

A Thracian god identified by Herodotus (Template:Circa – Template:Circa) as Ares, through interpretatio Graeca, was one of three otherwise unnamed deities that Thracian commoners were said to worship. Herodotus recognises and names the other two as "Dionysus" and "Artemis", and claims that the Thracian aristocracy exclusively worshiped "Hermes".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Oppermann, Manfred, Dimittrova, Nora M., religion, Thracian, "Oxford Classical Dictionary, https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.5553 ..."Ares suggests the existence of a war-god, Dionysus probably stood for a deity of orgiastic character linked with fertility and vegetation, while Artemis was an embodiment of the major female deity, frequently interpreted as the Great Goddess"...</ref> In Herodotus' Histories, the Scythians worship an indigenous form of Greek Ares, who is otherwise unnamed, but ranked beneath Tabiti (whom Herodotus claims as a form of Hestia), Api and Papaios in Scythia's divine hierarchy. His cult object was an iron sword. The "Scythian Ares" was offered blood-sacrifices (or ritual killings) of cattle, horses and "one in every hundred human war-captives", whose blood was used to douse the sword. Statues, and complex platform-altars made of heaped brushwood were devoted to him. This sword-cult, or one very similar, is said to have persisted among the Alans.<ref>Sulimirski, T. (1985). "The Scyths" in: Fisher, W. B. (Ed.) The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 2: The Median and Achaemenian Periods. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Template:ISBN. pp. 158–159. Sulimirski is citing Herodotus, Book IV, 71-73, for the account of sacrifice to Ares.</ref> Some have posited that the "Sword of Mars" in later European history alludes to the Huns having adopted Ares.<ref>Geary, Patrick J. (1994). "Chapter 3. Germanic Tradition and Royal Ideology in the Ninth Century: The Visio Karoli Magni". Living with the Dead in the Middle Ages. Cornell University Press. p. 63. Template:ISBN.</ref>

Asia Minor

In some parts of Asia Minor, Ares was a prominent oracular deity, something not found in any Hellennic cult to Ares or Roman cult to Mars. Ares was linked in some regions or polities with a local god or cultic hero, and recognised as a higher, more prestigious deity than in mainland Greece. His cults in southern Asia Minor are attested from the 5th century BC and well into the later Roman Imperial era, at 29 different sites, and on over 70 local coin issues.<ref>Gonzales, 2005, pp.263, 271, 280-283.</ref> He is sometimes represented on coinage of the region by the "Helmet of Ares" or carrying a spear and a shield, or as a fully armed warrior, sometimes accompanied by a female deity. In what is now western Turkey, the Hellenistic city of Metropolis built a monumental temple to Ares as the city's protector, not before the 3rd century BC. It is now lost, but the names of some of its priests and priestesses survive, along with the temple's likely depictions on coins of the province.<ref>Millington, A.T. (2013) "Iyarri at the Interface: The Origins of Ares" in A. Mouton, I. Rutherford, & I. Yakubovich (eds.) Luwian Identities: Culture, Language and Religion Between Anatolia and the Aegean (Leiden) pp.555-557</ref>

Crete

A sanctuary of Aphrodite was established at Sta Lenika, on Crete, between the cities of Lato and Olus, possibly during the Geometric period. It was rebuilt in the late 2nd century BC as a double-sanctuary to Ares and Aphrodite.<ref>Martha W. Baldwin Bowsky. "Portrait of a Polis: Lato Pros Kamara (Crete) in the Late Second Century B. C." Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, vol. 58, no. 3, The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1989, pp. 331–47, https://doi.org/10.2307/148222</ref> Inscriptions record disputes over the ownership of the sanctuary. The names of Ares and Aphrodite appear as witness to sworn oaths, and there is a Victory thanks-offering to Aphrodite, whom Millington believes had capacity as a "warrior-protector acting in the realm of Ares". There were cultic links between the Sta Lenika sanctuary, Knossos and other Cretan states, and perhaps with Argos on the mainland.<ref>This refers to a double-temple to Aphrodite and Ares reported by Pausanias. Its cult practises are unknown. See Fusco, U. (2017). The Sanctuary of Aphrodite and Ares (Paus. 2.25.1) in the Periurban Area of Argos and Temples with a Double Cella in Greece. Tekmeria, 13, 97-124. doi:https://doi.org/10.12681/tekmeria.1073.</ref> While the Greek literary and artistic record from both the Archaic and Classical eras connects Ares and Aphrodite as complementary companions and ideal though adulterous lovers, their cult pairing and Aphrodite as warrior-protector is localised to Crete.<ref name="Millington, Alexander T. 2013, pp.555-557">Millington, Alexander T., "Iyarri at the Interface: The Origins of Ares" in A. Mouton, I. Rutherford, & I. Yakubovich (eds.) Luwian Identities: Culture, Language and Religion Between Anatolia and the Aegean (Leiden) 2013, pp.555-557</ref><ref name="discovery.ucl.ac.uk">Millington, Alexander T., War and the Warrior: Functions of Ares in Literature and Cult, University College, London, 2013, pp. 101-105 [3]</ref>

Aksum

In Africa, Maḥrem, the principal god of the kings of Aksum prior to the 4th century AD, was invoked as Ares in Greek inscriptions. The anonymous king who commissioned the Monumentum Adulitanum in the late 2nd or early 3rd century refers to "my greatest god, Ares, who also begat me, through whom I brought under my sway [various peoples]". The monumental throne celebrating the king's conquests was itself dedicated to Ares.<ref>Glen Bowersock, The Throne of Adulis: Red Sea Wars on the Eve of Islam (Oxford University Press, 2013), pp. 45, 47–48.</ref> In the early 4th century, the last pagan king of Aksum, Ezana, referred to "the one who brought me forth, the invincible Ares".<ref>Bowersock, Throne of Adulis, p. 69.</ref>

Characterisation

File:Ares Borghese2.gif

The Ares Borghese

Ares was one of the Twelve Olympians in the archaic tradition represented by the Iliad and Odyssey. In Greek literature, Ares often represents the physical or violent and untamed aspect of war and is the personification of sheer brutality and bloodlust ("overwhelming, insatiable in battle, destructive, and man-slaughtering", as Burkert puts it), in contrast to his sister, the armored Athena, whose functions as a goddess of intelligence include military strategy and generalship.<ref>Walter Burkert, Greek Religion (Blackwell, 1985, 2004 reprint, originally published 1977 in German), pp. 141; William Hansen, Classical Mythology: A Guide to the Mythical World of the Greeks and Romans (Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 113.</ref> An association with Ares endows places and objects with a savage, dangerous, or militarized quality;<ref>Hansen, Classical Mythology, pp. 114–115.</ref> but when Ares does appear in myths, he typically faces humiliation.<ref name="Hansen, pp. 113">Hansen, Classical Mythology, pp. 113–114.</ref>

In the Iliad, Zeus expresses a recurring Greek revulsion toward the god when Ares returns wounded and complaining from the battlefield at Troy: Template:Poem quote

This ambivalence is expressed also in the Greeks' association of Ares with the Thracians, whom they regarded as a barbarous and warlike people.<ref>Iliad 13.301; Ovid, Ars Amatoria, II.10.</ref> Thrace was considered to be Ares's birthplace and his refuge after the affair with Aphrodite was exposed to the general mockery of the other gods.Template:Refn

A late-6th-century BC funerary inscription from Attica emphasizes the consequences of coming under Ares's sway:Template:Poem quote

Mythology

File:Ares Ludovisi Altemps Inv8602 n2.jpg

The Ludovisi Ares, Roman version of a Greek original c. 320 BC, with 17th-century restorations by Bernini

Birth

He is one of the Twelve Olympians, and the son of Zeus and Hera.<ref>Hesiod, Theogony 921 (Loeb Classical Library numbering); Iliad, 5.890–896. By contrast, Ares's Roman counterpart Mars was born from Juno alone, according to Ovid (Fasti 5.229–260).</ref>

Argonautica

In the Argonautica, the Golden Fleece hangs in a grove sacred to Ares, until its theft by Jason. The Birds of Ares (Ornithes Areioi) drop feather darts in defense of the Amazons' shrine to Ares, as father of their queen, on a coastal island in the Black Sea.<ref>Argonautica (ii.382ff and 1031ff; Hyginus, Fabulae 30.</ref>

Founding of Thebes

Ares plays a central role in the founding myth of Thebes, as the progenitor of the water-dragon slain by Cadmus. The dragon's teeth were sown into the ground as if a crop and sprang up as the fully armored autochthonic Spartoi. Cadmus placed himself in the god's service for eight years to atone for killing the dragon.<ref name=":2">Roman, L., & Roman, M. (2010). Template:Google books</ref> To further propitiate Ares, Cadmus married Harmonia, a daughter of Ares's union with Aphrodite. In this way, Cadmus harmonized all strife and founded the city of Thebes.<ref name="Burkert, p. 169"/> In reality, Thebes came to dominate Boeotia's great and fertile plain, which in both history and myth was a battleground for competing polities.<ref>Marchand, Fabienne, and Beck, Hans,The Dancing Floor of Ares: Local Conflict and Regional Violence in Central Greece, Ancient History Bulletin, Supplemental Volume 1 (2020) {{#if:0835-3638|Template:Catalog lookup link{{#if:Template:Trim|{{#ifeq:Template:Yesno-no|yes|Template:Main other|{{#invoke:check isxn|check_issn|Template:Trim|error=Template:Error-smallTemplate:Main other}}}}{{#if:Template:Trim|{{#ifeq:Template:Yesno-no|yes|Template:Main other|{{#invoke:check isxn|check_issn|Template:Trim|error=Template:Error-smallTemplate:Main other}}}}{{#if:Template:Trim|{{#ifeq:Template:Yesno-no|yes|Template:Main other|{{#invoke:check isxn|check_issn|Template:Trim|error=Template:Error-smallTemplate:Main other}}}}{{#if:Template:Trim|{{#ifeq:Template:Yesno-no|yes|Template:Main other|{{#invoke:check isxn|check_issn|Template:Trim|error=Template:Error-smallTemplate:Main other}}}}{{#if:Template:Trim|{{#ifeq:Template:Yesno-no|yes|Template:Main other|{{#invoke:check isxn|check_issn|Template:Trim|error=Template:Error-smallTemplate:Main other}}}}{{#if:Template:Trim|{{#ifeq:Template:Yesno-no|yes|Template:Main other|{{#invoke:check isxn|check_issn|Template:Trim|error=Template:Error-smallTemplate:Main other}}}}{{#if:Template:Trim|{{#ifeq:Template:Yesno-no|yes|Template:Main other|{{#invoke:check isxn|check_issn|Template:Trim|error=Template:Error-smallTemplate:Main other}}}}{{#if:Template:Trim|{{#ifeq:Template:Yesno-no|yes|Template:Main other|{{#invoke:check isxn|check_issn|Template:Trim|error=Template:Error-smallTemplate:Main other}}}}{{#if:Template:Trim|{{#ifeq:Template:Yesno-no|yes|Template:Main other|{{#invoke:check isxn|check_issn|Template:Trim|error=Template:Error-smallTemplate:Main other}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}|Template:Error-small}}</ref> According to Plutarch, the plain was anciently described as "The dancing-floor of Ares".<ref>Plutarch, Marcellus, 21.2</ref>

Aphrodite

In Homer's Odyssey, in the tale sung by the bard in the hall of Alcinous,<ref>Odyssey 8.300</ref> the Sun-god Helios once spied Ares and Aphrodite having sex secretly in the hall of Hephaestus, her husband.<ref>In the Iliad, the wife of Hephaestus is Charis, "Grace," as noted by Burkert, p. 168.</ref> Helios reported the incident to Hephaestus. Contriving to catch the illicit couple in the act, Hephaestus fashioned a finely-knitted and nearly invisible net with which to snare them. At the appropriate time, this net was sprung, and trapped Ares and Aphrodite locked in very private embrace.Template:Refn

But Hephaestus was not satisfied with his revenge, so he invited the Olympian gods and goddesses to view the unfortunate pair. For the sake of modesty, the goddesses demurred, but the male gods went to witness the sight. Some commented on the beauty of Aphrodite, others remarked that they would eagerly trade places with Ares, but all who were present mocked the two. Once the couple was released, the embarrassed Ares returned to his homeland, Thrace, and Aphrodite went to Paphos.Template:Refn<ref name="Hansen, pp. 113"/>

In a much later interpolated detail, Ares put the young soldier Alectryon, who was Ares companion in drinking and even love-making, by his door to warn them of Helios's arrival as Helios would tell Hephaestus of Aphrodite's infidelity if the two were discovered, but Alectryon fell asleep on guard duty.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Helios discovered the two and alerted Hephaestus. The furious Ares turned the sleepy Alectryon into a rooster which now always announces the arrival of the sun in the morning, as a way of apologizing to Ares.<ref>Lucian, Gallus 3, see also scholiast on Aristophanes, Birds 835; Eustathius, Ad Odysseam 1.300; Ausonius, 26.2.27; Libanius, Progymnasmata 2.26.</ref>

The Chorus of Aeschylus' Suppliants (written 463 BC) refers to Ares as Aphrodite's "mortal-destroying bedfellow". In the Illiad, Ares helps the Trojans because of his affection for their divine protector, Aphrodite; she thus redirects his innate destructive savagery to her own purposes.<ref name="Millington, Alexander T. 2013, pp.555-557"/><ref name="discovery.ucl.ac.uk"/>

Giants

In one archaic myth, related only in the Iliad by the goddess Dione to her daughter Aphrodite, two chthonic giants, the Aloadae, named Otus and Ephialtes, bound Ares in chains and imprisoned him in a bronze urn, where he remained for thirteen months, a lunar year. "And that would have been the end of Ares and his appetite for war, if the beautiful Eriboea, the young giants' stepmother, had not told Hermes what they had done," she related.<ref>Iliad 5.385–391.</ref> In this, [Burkert] suspects "a festival of licence which is unleashed in the thirteenth month".<ref name = "rjblqd">Burkert, p. 169</ref><ref>Faraone, "Binding and Burying", 1991, pp. 166–220</ref> Ares was held screaming and howling in the urn until Hermes rescued him, and Artemis tricked the Aloadae into slaying each other.

In Nonnus's Dionysiaca, in the war between Cronus and Zeus, Ares killed an unnamed giant son of Echidna who was allied with Cronus, and described as spitting "horrible poison" and having "snaky" feet.<ref>Nonnus, Dionysiaca 18.274–288 (II pp. 82, 83).</ref>

In some versions of the Gigantomachy, Ares was the god who killed the giant Mimas.<ref>Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 3.1225–7 (pp. 276–277); Claudian, Gigantomachia 85–91 (pp. 286–287).</ref>

In the 2nd century AD Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis, when the monstrous Typhon attacked Olympus the gods transformed into animals and fled to Egypt; Ares changed into a fish, the Lepidotus (sacred to the Egyptian war-god Anhur). Liberalis's koine Greek text is a "completely inartistic" epitome of Nicander's now lost Heteroeumena (2nd century BC).<ref>Myers, Sarah, University of Michigan, reviewing Celoria's translation in Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 1994 (on-line text).</ref><ref>Francis Celoria points out that in Ovid's Metamorphoses, Venus [Aphrodite's Roman equivalent], hides herself as a fish. See Celoria, Francis, Antoninus Liberalis, The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis, A Translation with a Commentary, 1992, pp. 87, 186, eBook Published 24 October 2018, London, Routledge, [4] DOI https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315812755</ref>

Iliad

In Homer's Iliad, Ares has no fixed allegiance. He promises Athena and Hera that he will fight for the Achaeans but Aphrodite persuades him to side with the Trojans. During the war, Diomedes fights Hector and sees Ares fighting on the Trojans' side. Diomedes calls for his soldiers to withdraw.<ref>Iliad 5.830–834, 5.590–605, 21.410–414.</ref> Zeus grants Athena permission to drive Ares from the battlefield. Encouraged by Hera and Athena, Diomedes thrusts with his spear at Ares. Athena drives the spear home, and all sides tremble at Ares's cries. Ares flees to Mount Olympus, forcing the Trojans to fall back.<ref>Iliad 5.711–769, 5.780–834, 5.855–864.</ref> Ares overhears that his son Ascalaphus has been killed and wants to change sides again, rejoining the Achaeans for vengeance, disregarding Zeus's order that no Olympian should join the battle. Athena stops him. Later, when Zeus allows the gods to fight in the war again, Ares attacks Athena to avenge his previous injury. Athena overpowers him by striking him with a boulder.<ref>Iliad 15.110–128, 20.20–29, 21.391–408.</ref>

Attendants

Deimos ("Terror" or "Dread") and Phobos ("Fear") are Ares' companions in war,<ref>Iliad 4.436f, and 13.299f Hesiod's Shield of Heracles 191, 460; Quintus Smyrnaeus, 10.51, etc.</ref> and according to Hesiod, are also his children by Aphrodite.<ref>Hesiod, Theogony 934f.</ref> Eris, the goddess of discord, or Enyo, the goddess of war, bloodshed, and violence, was considered the sister and companion of the violent Ares.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In at least one tradition, Enyalius, rather than another name for Ares, was his son by Enyo.<ref>Eustathius on Homer, 944</ref>

Ares may also be accompanied by Kydoimos, the daemon of the din of battle; the Makhai ("Battles"); the "Hysminai" ("Acts of manslaughter"); Polemos, a minor spirit of war, or only an epithet of Ares, since it has no specific dominion; and Polemos's daughter, Alala, the goddess or personification of the Greek war-cry, whose name Ares uses as his own war-cry. Ares's sister Hebe ("Youth") also draws baths for him.

According to Pausanias, local inhabitants of Therapne, Sparta, recognized Thero, "feral, savage", as a nurse of Ares.<ref>Pausanias, 3.19.7–8.</ref>

Offspring and affairs

File:Areopagus from the Acropolis.jpg

The Areopagus as viewed from the Acropolis.

Though Ares plays a relatively limited role in Greek mythology as represented in literary narratives, his numerous love affairs and abundant offspring are often alluded to.<ref>Hansen, Classical Mythology, pp. 113–114; Burkert, p. 169.</ref> The union of Ares and Aphrodite created the gods Eros, Anteros, Phobos, Deimos, and Harmonia. Other versions include Alcippe as one of their daughters.

Ares had a romantic liaison with Eos, the goddess of the dawn. Aphrodite discovered them, and in anger she cursed Eos with insatiable lust for men.<ref>Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1.4.4</ref>

Cycnus (Κύκνος) of Macedonia was a mortal son of Ares who tried to build a temple to his father with the skulls and bones of guests and travellers. Heracles fought him and, in one account, killed him. In another account, Ares fought his son's killer but Zeus parted the combatants with a thunderbolt.<ref>Apollodorus, 2.5.11, 2.7.7.</ref>

By a woman named Teirene he had a daughter named Thrassa, who in turn had a daughter named Polyphonte. Polyphonte was cursed by Aphrodite to love and mate with a bear, producing two sons, Agrius and Oreius, who were hubristic toward the gods and had a habit of eating their guests. Zeus sent Hermes to punish them, and he chose to chop off their hands and feet. Since Polyphonte was descended from him, Ares stopped Hermes, and the two brothers came into an agreement to turn Polyphonte's family into birds instead. Oreius became an eagle owl, Agrius a vulture, and Polyphonte a strix, possibly a small owl, certainly a portent of war; Polyphonte's servant prayed not to become a bird of evil omen and Ares and Hermes fulfilled her wish by choosing the woodpecker for her, a good omen for hunters.<ref name=":anl21">Antoninus Liberalis, 21.</ref><ref>Liberalis credits the Greek writer Boios' Ornithogonia (now lost) as his source; Template:Cite journal</ref>

List of offspring and their mothers

Template:More citations needed section Template:Primary sources section Sometimes poets and dramatists recounted ancient traditions, which varied, and sometimes they invented new details; later scholiasts might draw on either or simply guess.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Thus while Phobos and Deimos were regularly described as offspring of Ares, others listed here such as Meleager, Sinope and Solymus were sometimes said to be children of Ares and sometimes given other fathers.

The following is a list of Ares' offspring, by various mothers. Beside each offspring, the earliest source to record the parentage is given, along with the century to which the source dates.

Offspring	Mother	Source	Date
Phobos	Aphrodite	Hes. Theog.	8th cent. BC	<ref name="p. 169">Hesiod, Theogony 934; Hard, p. 169.</ref>
Deimos		Hes. Theog.	8th cent. BC	<ref name="p. 169"/>
Harmonia		Hes. Theog.	8th cent. BC	<ref>Hesiod, Theogony 934–7; Hard, p. 169; Grimal, s.v. Ares, pp. 52–53; Scholia on Homer, Iliad 2.494, [= Hellanicus fr. 51a Fowler, pp. 179–181]; Gantz, p. 468.</ref>
Eros		Simonides		<ref>Simonides, fr. 24 Diehls [= fr. PMG 575]; Gantz, p. 3; Hard, p. 196; Brill's New Pauly, s.v. Eros; Oxford Classical Dictionary, s.v. Ares, pp. 103–104.</ref>
Anteros		Cic. DND	1st cent. BC	<ref>Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3.59; Brill's New Pauly, s.v. Anteros.</ref>
Odomantus	Calliope
Mygdon
Edonus
Biston	Terpsichore	Etym. Mag.	12th cent. AD	<ref name="179.59 p. 179">Etymologicum Magnum, 179.59 (p. 179).</ref>
	Callirrhoe	Steph. Byz.	6th cent. AD	<ref name="s.v. Bistonia pp. 352, 353">Stephanus of Byzantium, s.v. Bistonia (pp. 352, 353).</ref>
Enyalius	Enyo			<ref>Brill's New Pauly, s.v. Enyalius.</ref>
Dragon of Thebes	Erinys of Telphusa
Nike	No mother mentioned	HH 8		<ref>Homeric Hymn to Ares (8), 4.</ref>
Sinope (possibly)	Aegina	Schol. Ap. Rhod.		<ref name=":0">Scholia on Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 2.946</ref>
Edonus	Callirrhoe	Steph. Byz.	6th cent. AD	<ref name="s.v. Bistonia pp. 352, 353"/>
Odomantus		Steph. Byz.	6th cent. AD	<ref name="s.v. Bistonia pp. 352, 353"/>
Cycnus	Cleobula			<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref>
	Pelopia	Apollod.	1st/2nd cent. AD	<ref>Apollodorus, 2.7.7.</ref>
	Pyrene	Apollod.	1st/2nd cent. AD	<ref>Apollodorus, 2.5.11.</ref>
Diomedes of Thrace	Cyrene	Apollod.	1st/2nd cent. AD	<ref>Apollodorus, 2.5.8.</ref>
Crestone		Tzetzes	12th cent. AD	<ref>Tzetzes on Lycophron, Alexandra 499: Thrace was said to have been called Crestone after her.</ref>
The Amazons	Harmonia
Oenomaus	Sterope	Hyg. Fab.	1st cent. AD	<ref>Hyginus, Fabulae 84; Hyginus, De Astronomica, 2.21.5; Brill's New Pauly, s.v. Oenomaus.</ref>
	Harpina	Diod. Sic.	1st cent. BC	<ref>Pausanias, 5.22.6; Diodorus Siculus, 4.73.1; Gantz, p. 232.</ref>
	Eurythoe the Danaid	Tzetzes	12th cent. AD	<ref>Tzetzes on Lycophron, Alexandra 157.</ref>
Evenus	Sterope	Ps.-Plutarch		<ref>Pseudo-Plutarch, Parallela minora 40.</ref>
	Demonice	Apollod.	1st/2nd cent. AD	<ref>Apollodorus, 1.7.7.</ref>
Thrassa	Tereine	Ant. Lib.	2nd/3rd cent. AD	<ref name=":anl21"/>
Melanippus	Triteia	Paus.	2nd cent. AD	<ref>Pausanias, 7.22.8; Smith, s.v. Melanippus (4).</ref>
Aeropus	Aerope	Paus.	2nd cent. AD	<ref>Pausanias, 8.44.8; Tripp, s.v. Ares; Smith, s.v. Aphneius.</ref>
Alcippe	Aglauros	Apollod.	1st/2nd cent. AD	<ref>Apollodorus, 3.14.2; Peck, s.v. Ares.</ref>
Meleager	Althaea	Apollod.	1st/2nd cent. AD	<ref>Gantz, p. 328; Apollodorus, 1.8.2; Hyginus, Fabulae 14.3.</ref>
Calydon	Astynome			<ref>Brill's New Pauly, s.v. Calydon (2).</ref>
Ascalaphus	Astyoche	Paus.	2nd cent. AD	<ref>Brill's New Pauly, s.vv. Ascalaphus (2), Pausanias, 9.37.7.</ref>
Ialmenus		Paus.	2nd cent. AD	<ref>Brill's New Pauly, Ialmenus; Grimal, s.v. Ialmenus, p. 224; Pausanias, 9.37.7.</ref>
Parthenopaeus	Atalanta	Apollod.	1st/2nd cent. AD	<ref>Gantz, p. 336; Apollodorus, 3.9.2.</ref>
Solymus	Caldene	Etym. Mag.	12th cent. AD	<ref>Etymologicum Magnum, 721.43–44 (p. 654); Grimal, s.v. Solymus, p. 424.</ref>
Phlegyas	Chryse	Paus.	2nd cent. AD	<ref>Pausanias, 9.36.1; Hard, p. 560; Grimal, s.v. Phlegyas, pp. 367–368.</ref>
	Dotis	Apollod.	1st/2nd cent. AD	<ref>Apollodorus, 3.5.5; Hard, p. 560; Grimal, s.v. Phlegyas, pp. 367–368.</ref>
Pangaeus	Critobule	Ps.-Plutarch		<ref>Pseudo-Plutarch, On Rivers, 3.2.</ref>
Molus, Pylus	Demonice	Apollod.	1st/2nd cent. AD	<ref>Apollodorus, 1.7.7; Brill's New Pauly, s.v. Thestius.</ref>
Thestius	Pisidice	Ps.-Plutarch		<ref>Pseudo-Plutarch, On Rivers, 22.1.</ref>
	Demonice	Apollod.	1st/2nd cent. AD	<ref>Apollodorus, 1.7.7; Hard, p. 413; Grimal, s.v. Thestius, p. 452; Brill's New Pauly, s.v. Thestius.</ref>
Stymphelus	Dormothea	Ps.-Plutarch		<ref>Pseudo-Plutarch, On Rivers 19.1.</ref>
Antiope	Otrera	Hyg. Fab.	1st cent. AD	<ref>Brill's New Pauly, s.v. Antiope (2); Hyginus, Fabulae 30.</ref>
Hippolyta		Hyg. Fab.	1st cent. AD	<ref>Hyginus, Fabulae 30.</ref>
Melanippe
Penthesilea		Apollod.	1st/2nd cent. AD	<ref>Apollodorus, E.5.1; Hyginus, Fabulae 112.</ref>
Sinope	Parnassa	Eumelus		<ref>Scholia on Apollonius of Rhodes, 2.946–54c [= Eumelus, fr. 29 West, pp. 246, 247].</ref>
Lycaon	Pyrene			<ref>Grimal, s.v. Lycaon (3), p. 263.</ref>
Lycastus	Phylonome	Ps.-Plutarch		<ref name="data.perseus.org">Pseudo-Plutarch, Parallela minora 36; Grimal, s.vv. Lycastus (2), Parrhasius.</ref>
Parrhasius		Ps.-Plutarch		<ref name="data.perseus.org"/>
Oxylus	Protogeneia	Apollod.	1st/2nd cent. AD	<ref>Apollodorus, 1.7.7; Grimal, s.v. Oxylus (1); Brill's New Pauly, s.v. Oxylus (1).</ref>
Bithys	Sete			<ref>eponym of the Thracian tribe of Bithyae in Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica s.v. Bithyai</ref>
Tmolus	Theogone	Ps.-Plutarch		<ref>Pseudo-Plutarch, On Rivers, 7.5.</ref>
Ismarus	Thracia			<ref name=":1" />
Alcon of Thrace	No mother mentioned	Hyg. Fab.	1st cent. AD	<ref>Hyginus, Fabulae 173.</ref>
Chalyps				<ref>eponym of the Chalybes in Scholia on Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 2. 373.</ref>
Cheimarrhoos		Schol. Hes., WD		<ref>Scholia on Hesiod, Works and Days 1, p. 28.</ref>
Dryas		Apollod.	1st/2nd cent. AD	<ref>Apollodorus, 1.8.2; Grimal, s.v. Dryas, p. 142.</ref>
Hyperbius				<ref>Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 7.57.</ref>
Lycus of Libya				<ref>Pseudo-Plutarch, Greek and Roman Parallel Stories, 23.</ref>
Nisos		Hyg. Fab.	1st cent. AD	<ref>Hyginus, Fabulae 198, 242; Tripp, s.v. Nisus.</ref>
Oeagrus		Nonnus	5th cent. AD	<ref>Nonnus, Dionysiaca XIII.428.</ref>
Paeon		Etym. Mag.	12th cent. AD	<ref name="179.59 p. 179"/>
Portheus (Porthaon)		Ant. Lib.	2nd/3rd cent. AD	<ref>Antoninus Liberalis, 2.</ref>
Tereus		Apollod.	1st/2nd cent. AD	<ref>Apollodorus, 3.14.8; Hard, p. 169.</ref>

Mars

File:Wall painting - Ares and Aphrodite - Pompeii (VII 2 23) - Napoli MAN 9249 - 03.jpg

Wall-painting in Pompeii, c. 20 BC – 50s AD, showing Mars and Venus. The Roman god of war is depicted as youthful and beardless, reflecting the influence of the Greek Ares.

The nearest counterpart of Ares among the Roman gods is Mars, a son of Jupiter and Juno, pre-eminent among the Roman army's military gods but originally an agricultural deity.<ref>Beard, Mary, North, John A., Price, Simon R. F., Religions of Rome: A History (Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 47–48</ref> As a father of Romulus, Rome's legendary founder, Mars was given an important and dignified place in ancient Roman religion, as a guardian deity of the entire Roman state and its people. Under the influence of Greek culture, Mars was identified with Ares,<ref name=Lar>Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia, The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215.</ref> but the character and dignity of the two deities differed fundamentally.<ref>Kurt A. Raaflaub, War and Peace in the Ancient World (Blackwell, 2007), p. 15.</ref><ref>Paul Rehak and John G. Younger, Imperium and Cosmos: Augustus and the Northern Campus Martius (University of Wisconsin Press, 2006), pp. 11–12.</ref> Mars was represented as a means to secure peace, and he was a father (pater) of the Roman people.<ref>Isidore of Seville calls Mars Romanae gentis auctorem, the originator or founder of the Roman people as a gens (Etymologiae 5.33.5).</ref> In one tradition, he fathered Romulus and Remus through his rape of Rhea Silvia. In another, his lover, the goddess Venus, gave birth to Aeneas, the Trojan prince and refugee who "founded" Rome several generations before Romulus.

In the Hellenization of Latin literature, the myths of Ares were reinterpreted by Roman writers under the name of Mars. Greek writers under Roman rule also recorded cult practices and beliefs pertaining to Mars under the name of Ares. Thus in the classical tradition of later Western art and literature, the mythology of the two figures later became virtually indistinguishable.<ref>The scene in which Ares and Aphrodite are entrapped by Hephaestus' net (Homer, Odyssey VIII: 166-365 is also in Ovid's Latin language Metamorphoses IV: 171-189 [5]</ref>

Renaissance and later depictions

In Renaissance and Neoclassical works of art, Ares's symbols are a spear and helmet, his animal is a dog, and his bird is the vulture. In literary works of these eras, Ares is replaced by the Roman Mars, a romantic emblem of manly valor rather than the cruel and blood-thirsty god of Greek mythology.

In popular culture

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

See also

• Family tree of the Greek gods

References

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• Template:Cite book
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