Ares

Ares is a major deity and a member of the Twelve Olympians, a son of Zeus and Hera, in Greek mythology. Though often referred to as the Olympian god of warfare, he is more accurately the god of bloodlust, or slaughter personified: "Ares is apparently an ancient abstract noun meaning throng of battle, war."[1] He also presides over the weapons of war, the defence and sacking of cities, rebellion and civil order, banditry, manliness and courage.

The etymology of his name is traditionally connected with the Greek word ἀρή (are), the Ionic form of the Doric ἀρά (ara), "bane, ruin, curse, imprecation".[2] There may also be a connection with the Roman god of war Mars, via hypothetical Proto-Indo-European *M̥rēs; compare Ancient Greek μάρναμαι (marnamai), "to fight, to battle", or Hindi and Punjabi maarna (to kill).[3] The earliest attested form of the name is the Mycenaean Greek a-re, written in Linear b syllabic script.[4]

He is an important Olympian god in the epic tradition represented by the Iliad. The reading of his character remains ambiguous, in a late 6th-century funerary inscription from Attica: "Stay and mourn at the tomb of dead Kroisos/ Whom raging Ares destroyed one day, fighting in the foremost ranks".[5]



The Romans identified him as Mars, the god of war and agriculture, whom they had inherited from the Etruscans; but, among them, Mars stood in much higher esteem. (See also Athena.)

Among the Hellenes, Ares was always distrusted.[6] Although Ares' half-sister Athena was also considered a war deity, her stance was that of strategic warfare, whereas Ares's tended to be one of unpredictable violence. Athena and Ares were enemies. His birthplace and true home was placed far off, among the barbarous and warlike Thracians,[7] to whom he withdrew after his affair with Aphrodite was revealed.[8]

"Ares" remained an adjective and epithet in Classical times, which could be applied to the war-like aspects of other gods: Zeus Areios, Athena Areia, even Aphrodite Areia Burkert (1985). Greek Religion. pp. 169. In Mycenaean times, inscriptions attest to Enyalios, a name that survived into Classical times as an epithet of Ares. Vultures and dogs, both of which prey upon carrion in the battlefield, were sacred to him.