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Who is Ares in Greek mythology?
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Who is the Greek god of war?
Ares, in Greek religion, god of war or, more properly, the spirit of battle. Unlike his Roman counterpart, Mars, he was never very popular, and his worship was not extensive in Greece. He represented the distasteful aspects of brutal warfare and slaughter.
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- 2-Min Summary
Ares, Greek god of war. Unlike his Roman counterpart, Mars,...
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Ares ( / ˈɛəriːz /; Ancient Greek: Ἄρης, Árēs [árɛːs]) 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.
Ares is the god of war, one of the Twelve Olympian gods and the son of Zeus and Hera. In literature he represents the violent and physical untamed aspect of war, which is in contrast to Athena who represents military strategy and generalship as the goddess of intelligence.
- Male
- War
- Ares, Areios
- Ares’ Role
- Ares' Family
- Ares, The Unloved God
- Ares and Aphrodite
- Ares’ Companions and Other Children
- Ares: Myths and Hidden Truths
- Unraveling Ares: War, Passion, and Mythology
- Ares Sources
Greek War God
Quite appropriately, Ares’ name seems to have been an ancient word for battle or war.
Ares' Portrayal and Symbolism
In art, Ares is usually represented wearing a helmet, a shield and either a sword or a spear. He drives a four-horse chariot and is accompanied by dogs or vultures. Sometimes, his sons Deimos and Phobosare also depicted beside him.
Ares' Epithets
Unlike his nobler Roman counterpart Mars, Ares was an unpopular god and never developed beyond the image of a divine battle-frenzy butcher. Consequently, only a few epithets have reached us. Unsurprisingly, few of them are flattering: “the bane of mortals,” “the slayer of men,” “the city-stormer,” “the armor-clattering,” “the arm-bearing.”
Ares was the oldest child of Zeus and Hera, and, according to those who think that Hephaestus was born through parthenogenesis, their only son. Either way, he certainly had two sisters: Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth, and Hebe, the goddess of eternal youth.
Battle with Diomedes
Since he was the savage god of senseless war, Ares was almost universally detested. At one point, after Ares is wounded in battle by Diomedes, even Zeus calls him “the most hateful of all the gods,” remarking that if he hadn’t been his son, he would have surely ended up in Tartarus with Cronus and the Titans.
Trojan War
The episode with Diomedes is only one of many in which Ares comes off second-best in his martial encounters. During the Trojan War, Athenaneeds no more than one stone to floor him, after which she spends some time mocking him and bragging of her superiority as a warrior.
Ares Defeats
Heracles defeats Ares not once, but twice – first during the battle of Pylos, and then after killing his son Cycnus. Most humiliatingly, Otus and Ephialtes, the Aloadae, once manage to kidnap Ares and imprison him in a bronze jar for thirteen months. Homer says that if their stepmother Eriboea hadn’t told Hermesabout it, this would have spelled the end of Ares.
Ares had many women, but none of his affairs was as famous as the one he had with Aphrodite. At the time, the goddess of beauty was married to Ares’ brother, Hephaestus, who was told by Helios of his wife’s transgressions. Hephaestus fashioned a delicate, almost invisible, bronze net, which he put on the bed where Ares and Aphrodite were supposed t...
Ares War Companions
Ares can rarely be seen alone on the battlefield. He is typically joined by a bloodthirsty crowd, a number of infernal associates symbolizing the terror of war. His sons Deimos (Panic or Dread) and Phobos (Fear) are almost always beside him. The same holds true for Ares’ “comrade and sister” Eris (Strife) and Enyo (the Sacker of Cities and “sister of war”). Sometimes, Kydoimos appears as well – the personification of the confusion and muddle of battle. Most frighteningly, so do the Keres, the...
Ares and Greek Heroes
Ares was associated with many bellicose heroes in Greek mythology, such as the aforementioned Cycnus or Diomedes of Thrace, whose man-eating mares Heracles was supposed to capture as his eight labor. Probably with his daughter Harmonia, Ares fathered a whole race of warriors: the Amazons. Otrera gave him the most famous four: Hippolyta, Antiope, Melanippe, and Penthesilea. In recent times, Ares' name is used by a number of sports teams like the Greek Football Team Aris Salonika.
It is a common misconception that Ares is a universally hated god. While it is true that he is not as beloved as some other Olympian gods, there were communities in ancient Greece, such as the Spartans, who held Ares in high regard, as they saw him as the embodiment of courage, valor, and military strategy. Another misconception is that Ares is a g...
Throughout our exploration of Ares, the Olympian god of war, we have been captivated by the depths of his raw power and intensity. We've experienced a mix of emotions, from being awed by the sheer force he represents to feeling empathy for the unloved god. In our research, we were particularly struck by the passionate love story between Ares and Ap...
“The Homeric Hymn to Ares” contains some of the very few flattering verses directed at Ares. A large part of the fifth book of the “Iliad” revolves around him and Athena. You can read all about Ares and Aphrodite’s affair and Hephaestus’ subsequent revenge in the eighth book of the “Odyssey.” See Also: Aphrodite, Zeus, Athena, Eros
Jan 18, 2017 · Ares is the Greek god of war that was known for his destructive behavior. While it is known that Athena was also a goddess of war (and sibling to Ares) the two couldn’t be any more different.
May 21, 2023 · Ares, the Greek god of war, is one of the twelve Olympian gods and is often depicted as a fierce and bloodthirsty warrior. He is the son of Zeus and Hera, and his siblings include Athena, Apollo, and Hermes. In Greek mythology, Ares is associated with violence, conflict, and the brutality of war.
Ares, Greek god of war. Unlike his Roman counterpart, Mars, his worship was not extensive. From the time of Homer, he was one of the Olympian deities, the son of Zeus and Hera, but disliked by the other gods. His worship occurred largely in northern Greece.
