Ares (Mars)

God of war. Ares was a son of Zeus and Hera, and was known as the Roman god, Mars. Ares was the brother of Hebe, Eileithyia and possibly of Hephaestus, though most writers say that Hephaestus was son of Hera alone.

Ares may possibly appear in the Linear B tablets. In Knossos, Crete, his name was AR-E, but in Mycenaean Pylos, he name was spelt A-RE-JA. Enyalius (E-NU-WA-RI-JO, also found in the Linear B tablet in Knossos), Greek god of war, was probably an epithet of Ares. Otherwise, Enyalius was a personification of war and brother of Enyo. Ares was also said to be the brother of Eris (Discord) and was the father of a son named Strife. In the battlefield, he was accompanied by Enyo (called Bellona by the Romans), goddess of war. Enyo (Ἐνυω) was either his sister or his daughter by Aphrodite.

Though Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus, she had a long term affair with Ares (see Hephaestus about Hephaestus capturing his wife and Ares in bed). Through Aphrodite, Ares was the father of Anteros (Passion), Eros, Deimus (Fear), Phobus (Panic), and a daughter named Harmonia, wife of Cadmus of Thebes.

Cadmus only married Harmonia after he served the war god for 8 years because Cadmus had killed the dragon which guarded the spring dedicated to Ares, at Thebes.

As a god of war, many Greek kingdoms did not worship him because Ares personified uncontrolled and murderous killing in war, and he engaged in bloody strife for the sheer love of combat itself. Many Greeks preferred Athena, the goddess of war, whose judgment was not clouded by the passion of fighting. She represented disciplined and cool purpose.

Even though he was the god of war, Athena always seemed to be a better fighter whenever there was a confrontation between the two. During the Trojan War when Ares charged at Athena, brandishing his sword, the goddess coolly hurled a stone at the god of war. She left him crumpled to the ground.

This was not the only time he engaged in combat with Athena. According to the Epic Cycle Telegony, Ares was on the side of the Brygi against the Thesprotians, led by the hero Odysseus. Ares routed Odysseus' army, so Athena, being a patron of Odysseus, decided to engage Ares in another combat. Neither side gained the other hand, because Apollo intervened.

Despite being a god of war, Ares was not a great fighter. He even lost to mortals in several encounters. Twice, Heracles had defeated him; he also lost to Diomedes, a hero in the Trojan War. Both heroes seriously wounded the war god. When Ares was wounded by Diomedes, his scream was louder than thousands of men shouting.

Ares fought against Heracles when the hero killed Cyncus at Itonus, in southern Thessaly. Cyncus was the son of Ares and Pelopia or Pyrene. Cyncus had the habit of challenging travellers to fight with him. Ares was actually fighting beside his son when Heracles wounded the war god. Heracles would have done more harm to Ares had not Zeus intervened by hurling a thunderbolt.

The two giant sons (Aloidae) of Poseidon (?) and Iphimedia – Otus and Ephialtes – once captured Ares and put him in a bronze vessel. He was held there for 13 months until Hermes eventually rescued him.

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In Athens, there was a hill near the Acropolis called Areopagus (Areiopagos), which means the "Hill of Ares". The Areopagus was used by the Athenians to try a person for murder. According to Apollodorus, Ares seduced Agraulus (Agraulos), daughter of Actaius and wife of Cecrops. So Ares became the father of a daughter named Alcippe. When Alcippe was raped by Halirrhothius (Halirrhothios, or Seafoam according to Pausanias), son of Poseidon and the nymph Euryte, Ares came to his daughter's aid and killed Halirrhothius.

Ares was the first being to be tried for murder on this hill. Poseidon was the one who brought charges against him, while the other ten gods were his judges. Ares was acquitted. The hill was named after him, after the trial. According to Aeschylus' Eumenides, Orestes was also tried at Areopagus for murdering his mother Clytemnestra. Orestes was brought before twelve jurors, but Athena herself acted as the judge who tried Orestes. Orestes was similarly acquitted.

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Ares had many epithets; among them were Enyalius (god of war), Gradivus (leader of armies), Alloprosallos and Aphneius (bountiful). His main places of worship were possibly Sparta and Thebes (otherwise he had no cities in Greece), and Thrace. He was also said to be worshipped in Scythia where they sacrificed men and animals to a sword.

Ares' favourite animals were the dog and the vulture. Ares had a chariot pulled by his horses: Aithon ("Red Fire"), Conabos ("Tumult"), Phlogios ("Flame") and Phobos ("Terror").

According to early Roman accounts, Mars was known more as a god of agriculture than that of war. However, his aspect became more warlike as the Romans became more powerful. Mars became the second most important god in the Roman pantheon after his father Jupiter (Zeus).