Ares Ludovisi , Roman marble copy of an original Greek dating back to about 320 BC

Ares (in ancient Greek : Ἄρης , Árēs ) in the Greek religion is the son of Zeus and Era . It is often identified among the twelve Olimpi as the god of war in the general sense, but it is an imprecision: in reality Ares is the only god of the most violent aspects of war and of the struggle as a thirst for blood .For the Greeks , Ares was a god of which to always be wary. [1] His place of birth and his true residence were in Thrace , at the extreme limits of Greece, a country inhabited by barbarous and belligerent people; [2] And in Thrace Ares decided to retire after he was discovered in bed with Aphrodite . [3] Even Athena is the goddess of war, but its field of action is that of combat strategies and dell'astuzia applied to the battles, while Ares has fun and is enhanced for outbursts of fury and violence, most welcome by Ares if suddenly and slanderous, whether in war, or atrocities connected with war (rocks, barbarians, raids ...), it is no coincidence that Eris is his sister, and also, in some texts, one of his lovers. Among his sacred animals there was the dog , the boar and the vulture .The word " Ares " up to the classic era was also used as an adjective, meaning ravenous or belligerent , for example Zeus Areios , Athena Areia , or even Aphrodite Areia . [4] Some entries dating back to the Mycenaean era include Enyalios , a name that survived until the classic era as Ares's epithet.Although being the protagonist in the war stories, Ares was rarely a winner. It was more frequent, however, that he retired from contention, as when he fought alongside Hector against Diomedes , or in the melee of the gods under the walls of Troy : in both cases he took refuge in the Olympus because he was in serious trouble, directly or indirectly, from Athens. Other times, his brutal fury was opposed and frustrated by heroes or half-hearted, for example by the lucid cunning and strength of Heracles, as in the episode of the heroic confrontation with his son Cicno.The Romans identified Ares with the god Mars , who was an ancient goddess of the Indo - Europeans , whose figure had, however, assumed different characters in Italic territory, being originally a "rural" goddess of peace and charity already venerated more than Ares. It was also taken by the Etruscans under the name of Maris

`The cult of Ares`

Ares Ludovisi , Roman marble copy of an original Greek dating back to about 320 BC , restored by Gianlorenzo Bernini ( Rome , Roman National Museum )Although his figure was important for poets and aedi , Ares worship was not widespread in ancient Greece, except in Spartawhere he was invoked to give his favor before the battles and despite being present in the legends concerning the foundation of Thebes , is one of the few on account of which the oldest myths are less restful. [5]At Sparta there was a statue of Ares depicting it chained, symbolizing that the spirit of war and victory could never leave the city; during the ceremonies in his honor were sacrificed dogs, a tradition borrowed from the ancient practice of sacrificing puppies to the cynical gods . [6]In Athens, the temple of Ares in Agora , which geographer Pausania saw in the second century , was actually a temple dedicated to Mars . The Areopago , or Ares hill, on which Paul of Tarsus preached , is at a certain distance from the Acropolis and in the ancient times the processes were carried out, and his alleged relationship with Ares could only be the result of an erroneous etymological interpretation .

The Ares symbols

Ares had a chariot drawn by four horses immortal from fiery breath, tied to the wagon with harness d ' gold . [7] Among all the gods was distinguished for his bronze armor and glittering and in battle habitually branding a spear. His sacred birds were the barbarians , the woodpecker , the owl and, especially in the south of Greece, the vulture . According to Argonautics [8]Ares' birds, moving like a flock and dropping feathered claws like darts, defended his temple built byAmazons on an island near the Black Sea coast . Often Ares is represented on red-colored stone, red like blood, a symbol of fierce acts that take place in war.

The epithets of Ares

Enialio ( Ενυαλιος , transliterated also as Enialo ) or "Warrior", was a common epithet for Ares. It is noteworthy that in the tablets Micenee in Linear B script is the name of a god called Enialio , while " ares " seems to be simply the noun used to call the war . However, in the classical era, Enialio's figure had been downgraded to the rank of hero (and in this dress appears in Iliad ) while Ares was hired for the rank of divinity. Enialio then survived as a title of worship exclusively in certain areas, such as the oath that theEphesians came to Athens

`The birth`

Ares was the son of the King of the Gods and the Queen of the Gods. Her sisters were Ebe and Ilizia .According to Homer and Quinto Smirneo, Ares had a twin sister: Eris [9] [10] .According to another myth, reported by Ovid and the First Vatican Mitographer, Eris and Ares were conceived by Era simply by touching a flower, without the goddess playing with Zeus [11] [12] .

The Ares helpers

From his relationship with Aphrodite, two children were born, Deimos and Fobos , who personified the spirits of terror and fear . Sister and worthy companion of the bloody Ares was Enio , goddess of bloodshed, Bia , violence and Cratos , brute force. Usually Ares came to war with Cidoimo (the daemon of the battle), the Makhai (the spirits of the battle), the Hysminai (the spirits of the murder), Polemos (a spirit of the minor war) [13] and his daughter by Polemos Alalà, personification of the Greek cry of war and whose name Ares decided to use as his own cry of war. His faithful soldier was also Aletrion .

The foundation of Thebes

One of the most important myths about Ares is that of his involvement in the foundation of the city of Tebe in Beozia . The Cadmo hero had received from the Oracle of Delphi the order of following a cow and founding a city in the place where he had stopped. The animal stopped at a source guarded by a sacred aquatic dragon at Ares. Cadmo killed the monster and, on Athena's advice, sowed his teeth to the ground: instantly Warriors were born, Spartiatiwhich helped Cadmo to found what would become Tebe. Before falling into the king's mind, however, Ares had to serve for eight years to defeat the affront of the murder by killing the dragon, as well as marrying the daughter of God and Aphrodite, Armonia, to settle discord among themselves.

`Heracles and Cycnus`

Some tales speak of a son of Ares who lived in Macedonia , Cicno , who was so bloody that he had attempted to build a temple devoted to his father using the bones and skulls of the travelers he had stolen. This monster was in turn killed by Heracles : the death of his son aroused the anger of Ares who in turn collided with the greatest of the heroes, but ended up hurt and defeated. [14]

The treachery of Aphrodite

In the legend sung by the bardo in the hall of the Alcinoo palace [15] it is said that the god of the sun Helios once saw Ares and Aphrodite hiding in the chamber of Hephaestus and who immediately went to report it. Hephas studied a system to surprise the couple and made a golden net with which he tied the two clandestine lovers: he waited and, during a loving encounter, the two remained trapped in the net and ended up stuck in a very intimate and compromising position. Hephaestus, still unhappy, called the other of the Olympusto show them the two unlucky lovers. The goddesses for modesty refused to go, but the gods went without delay. Some abandoned comments about Aphrodite's beauty, others remarked that they would gladly take Ares's seat and, basically, no one missed the opportunity to mock them. When Ares was released, embarrassed and full of shame, he departed back to Thrace , his native land.A version of the late legend says that Ares had put the young Alectrione in the doorway to warn him about the arrival of Helios, as he knew that if he discovered them, he would have revealed it to Hephaestus, but the young man ended up asleep. Ares, as Alectrione had not respected the deliveries, became furious and to turn him into a cock , an animal that never forgets in the morning to warn of the arrival of the sun.

Ares kidnapped by the Aloads

In Iliad , goddess Dionus tells Aphrodite's daughter that many gods have suffered because of the mortals and tell of Ares's abduction by Oto and Efialte .Apollodorus tells us that the two brothers, Semidei as Poseidon sons , but called Aloadi by the name of the second husband of their mother Ifimedea, once declared war at the Olympus , decided that first Ares should be neutralized they went to Thrace , where they kidnapped the god of war, chained him and put him in a bronze vessel where he was imprisoned for thirteen months, that is, a lunar year .And that would have been the end of Ares and his desires of war if the beautiful Eribea, the stepmother of the two giants, did not tell Hermes what the two had done , explains the goddess to her daughter in the poem. [16] Ares was closed in the jar to scream and complain until Ermes went to save him while Artemisinduced at the same time an Oto and Efialte trick to kill one another

The Iliad

Iliad Artemis shows that in that story Ares had not fixed tight alliances with any of the contenders, and even showed respect for themes , the personification of order and justice. He promised Athena and was about to be on the side of the Achaeans , but Aphrodite was able to convince him to go to the side of the Troy. [18] During the Diomedes war , as he clashed with Hector , he saw Ares fighting in the Troy deployment and thus ordered his men to slowly fold. The god personally guided Ettore's mortal blade against many Achaean warriors, killingTeutnant , Oreste , Treco , Eleno , Enomao, and Oresbio , while alone slaughtered the strong Periphnia . Hera, Ares's mother, saw this improper intrusion and asked Zeus permission to move her son away from the battlefield. The goddess exhorted Diomedes to attack Ares, so the hero hurled him against a lance and his scream screamed as Troy as the Achaeans. Athena made sure the spear hit Ares, screaming with pain fleeing the Olympus, forcing the Troy to retire. [19]During the counterattack to the ships he decides to land on the ground to avenge his own son by claiming that he does not care about retaliation by Zeus, but is stopped by Athena that persuades him to remain saying that the other gods would be punished. Subsequently, when Zeus allowed the gods to participate again in the war, Ares attempted to clash with Athena to avenge the wound he had previously suffered, but was again beaten and wounded when the goddess struck him by slamming it against a big boulder.