Editing Religious war (section)

===Ancient warfare and polytheism===
{{further|Ancient warfare|Polytheism|List of war deities}}

During [[classical antiquity]], the [[Greco-Roman world]] had a [[Pantheon (gods)|pantheon]] with particular attributes and interest areas. [[Ares]] personified war. While he received occasional sacrifice from armies going to war, there was only a very limited "cult of Ares".<ref name="Burkert, p. 170">Burkert, ''Greek Religion'', p. 170.</ref> In [[Sparta]], however, each company of youths sacrificed to [[Enyalios]] before engaging in ritual fighting at the Phoebaeum.<ref>"Here each company of youths sacrifices a puppy to Enyalius, holding that the most valiant of tame animals is an acceptable victim to the most valiant of the gods. I know of no other Greeks who are accustomed to sacrifice puppies except the people of [[Colophon (city)|Colophon]]; these too sacrifice a puppy, a black bitch, to the Wayside Goddess." [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], 3.14.9.</ref>

[[Hans M. Barstad]] (2008) claimed that this [[ancient Greece|ancient Greek]] attitude to war and religion differed from that of [[History of ancient Israel and Judah|ancient Israel and Judah]]: "Quite unlike what we find with the Greeks, holy war permeated ancient Israelite society."<ref name="Barstad"/> Moreover, ever since the pioneering study of Manfred Weippert, "»Heiliger Krieg« in Israel und Assyrien" (1972), scholars have been comparing the holy war concept in the (monotheistic) [[Hebrew Bible]] with other (polytheistic) [[ancient Near East]]ern war traditions, and found "many [striking] similarities in phraseology and ideology".<ref name="Barstad">{{Cite book |last1=Barstad |first1=Hans M. |date=2008 |title=History and the Hebrew Bible: Studies in Ancient Israelite and Ancient Near Eastern Historiography |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zqJxkKy-cMMC&pg=PA57 |location=Tübingen |publisher=Mohr Siebeck |pages=57 |isbn=9783161498091 |access-date=21 March 2022}}</ref>