Ares / Mars
God of war and battle frenzy
Ares was the Greek god of war — not of strategy and victory, like Athena, but of the bloody chaos of battle itself: the shouting, the wounds, and the terror. The other gods disliked him, the Greeks barely worshipped him, and yet no army went to war without him.
How they were born
Ares was the son of Zeus and Hera, the king and queen of Olympus, and the only one of their children who was a full Olympian in his own right. Some versions of the myth say Hera bore him on her own, without Zeus, in answer to Zeus having produced Athena from his head alone. He grew up on Olympus alongside his siblings Hephaestus, Hebe, and Eileithyia, but he was never a favorite: in the Iliad, Zeus tells him outright that he is the most hateful god on Olympus, because he loves nothing but strife and battle.
The greatest stories
Ares in the Bronze Jar
The twin giants Otus and Ephialtes, the Aloadae, decided to storm Olympus itself and carry off the goddesses Hera and Artemis as their wives. On the way, they managed to capture Ares, chaining him up and stuffing him into a great bronze jar, where he screamed for help for thirteen months — a whole lunar year. Nobody on Olympus noticed he was gone, which tells you something about how much he was missed. At last their stepmother told Hermes where he was hidden, and Hermes and Artemis went to rescue him. Artemis distracted the giants by turning into a deer and leaping between them, so that each brother threw his spear at her and killed the other instead. Hermes freed Ares from the jar, and Ares — humiliated — asked them to tell everyone that he had rescued them.
Ares and Aphrodite in the Net
Ares' great love was Aphrodite, the goddess of love, who was married to his own brother Hephaestus, the smith god. The two met in secret whenever Hephaestus was away at his forge, but the sun god Helios, who sees everything, told Hephaestus what was happening. Hephaestus forged a net of bronze chains so fine it could barely be seen, and hung it above his bed. When Ares and Aphrodite lay down together, the net fell and trapped them, and Hephaestus called the whole of Olympus to come and laugh at them. The gods roared with laughter at the sight of the god of war caught like a fish — but Ares and Aphrodite were not shamed, and their children included Phobos (Fear), Deimos (Terror), and Harmonia (Harmony).
Ares in the Trojan War
In the Trojan War, Ares fought for Troy, while his half-sister Athena fought for the Greeks — and the two war gods met in battle more than once. Ares was huge and terrifying, and his war cry was said to sound like ten thousand men shouting at once. But Athena was cleverer: she helped the Greek hero Diomedes drive his spear into Ares' belly, and Ares bellowed like a wounded bull and fled to Olympus to complain to Zeus. Later Athena knocked him down with a single thrown boulder. Zeus, who had called Ares his most hateful son, told him to stop whining. The message of the Iliad is clear: brute force loses to brains, every time.
The Dragon of Ares
When Cadmus came to found the city of Thebes, he sent his men to fetch water from a sacred spring — but the spring was guarded by a great dragon, the son of Ares, which killed them all. Cadmus fought the dragon himself and slew it, then, on Athena's advice, sowed its teeth in the ground. Armed warriors sprouted from the earth, fought each other until only five were left, and those five became the noble families of Thebes. But Ares was furious at the death of his dragon, and Cadmus had to serve him for eight years as atonement. In the end, Cadmus married Harmonia, the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite — so the founder of Thebes and the god of war were bound together as family.
The Hill of Ares
Ares had a daughter, Alcippe, by the Athenian princess Aglaurus. When Poseidon's son Halirrhothius assaulted her, Ares killed him on the spot — and Poseidon demanded that Ares stand trial for murder. The gods gathered on a rocky hill in Athens to judge him, and Ares was acquitted, the first murder trial in history. From then on, that hill was called the Areopagus, the 'Hill of Ares,' and Athens held its court for murder cases there for centuries. Even the god of war had to answer for a killing — and even he could be judged innocent when he acted to protect his child.
Family & connections
Symbol, animal & weapon
Fun facts
- In the Iliad, Zeus tells Ares he is 'the most hateful to me of all the gods who hold Olympus' — because he loves only war, quarrels, and bloodshed.
- The planet Mars and the month of March are both named after his Roman form, Mars — and Tuesday is named for Mars in French (mardi) and Spanish (martes).
- The Spartans, famously warlike, loved Ares more than any other Greeks did — Pausanias reports that they kept a statue of Ares in chains, so the god of war could never abandon their city.
- The Areopagus, the hill in Athens where murder trials were held for centuries, was named for Ares' own trial there — its name means 'Hill of Ares.'
- Ares' sons Phobos (Fear) and Deimos (Terror) rode with him into battle, and the two moons of Mars are named Phobos and Deimos after them.
Gallery — sculpture & art
