The Greek war-god, not in the sense of a warlike deity who leads his people into battle, but rather a deification of warlike spirit. It is possible that Ares was originally a deity of vegetation, who became a war-god secondarily by some unknown process. There is, however, no reason to believe Ares was worshipped by the earliest Greeks. He is unpopular, is an important god only in Thebes and perhaps Athens, belongs especially to the northern and western communities (Aetolia, Thessaly, etc.) and has been considered by some to be of Thracian origin. It is conceivable that he was 'projected' from some widespread rite of war-magic, earlier than civilisation in any Greek people. He never develops into a god with any moral functions, like Zeus or Apollo, and in mythology he appears either as instigator to violence or as a tempestuous lover, a divine *miles gloriosus*. He frequently has Aphrodite as his partner (e.g. at Thebes they are the parents of Harmonia); he is associated with her, Athena and Enyo in his temple at Athens. It must be noted that Aphrodite, like many mother-goddesses, has warlike qualities. Hence, as she is also thought of as wife of Hephaestus, the story that Ares is her paramour.

In his ritual perhaps the most remarkable feature is that at Tegea he was worshipped by women under the title of *Gunaikothoinas* (relating to women); it should be remembered that women are often active in war-magic. Dogs were sacrificed to him (under his common title of Enyalios) at Sparta, a procedure associated with purifications and deities of an uncanny sort, such as Hecate. The name Enyalios as that of a god occurs on a tablet at Cnossos, and this deity may have been identified later with Ares.

In mythology, although son of Zeus and Hera, he is commonly the helper of foreign peoples, such as the Trojans, or unusually warlike ones, such as the Amazons. He is father, by various mothers, of numerous children, mostly sons, and commonly of warlike, often violent and outrageous character, Ascalaphus; Diomedes the Thracian; Cyenus the brigand; Meleager in some versions of the story; Phlegyas, eponym of a whole people of impious raiders and ferocious fighters. Such genealogies seem to waver between the complimentary (a brave warrior is a 'shoot from Ares' stock' - in Homer), and the uncomplimentary, the god's own character being ferocious and unlovely. That he is the father of Eros is a by-product of the original lack of any association between Eros and Aphrodite. Of his daughters, Harmonia has already been mentioned; by Agraulus, daughter of Cecrops he became the father of Alcippe, who was violated by Halirrhothius, son of Poseidon. Killing him, he was tried by the Areopoagus and acquitted, or sent into a year's serfdom. As early as Hesiod, Aphrodite bears him his Homeric attendants Deimos and Phobos (Fear and Rout). Cicero adds Anteros to the family from some later author.

In Rome he was identified with Mars.

In early art Ares is seldom shown by himself but often in assemblies of gods; in the Gigantomachy; the Birth of Athena; the wedding of Peleus and Thetis; the return of Hephaestus to Olympus; the introduction of Heracles; and on the Parthenon frieze. There is also an archaic tradition showing Ares and Aphrodite as a wedded couple in a chariot. Early a bearded warrior, he is later shown naked and young (already on the Parthenon); and often as Aphrodite's lover.

(Taken from the Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2nd edition)

From the Time-Life Myth and Mankind Series, "Titans and Olympians". 1st or 2nd century Roman statue known as the Ares Ludovisi, contrasts the masculinity of Mars with the vulnerability of the baby playing at his feet.

Many thanks to JinXavier for the screen captures and the picture of Ares.

This document was created by Kendaa on the 20/10/98