Ares Greek God of war ~ History
Ares Greek God of war
Mars to the Romans
"I am Ares, God of war. Terror and Fear shall come in my wake. And I shall sing to your bloodshed
Ares god of war is the ultimate fighter. He is a son of Zeus and Hera
Ares, the god of war,, but he was more specifically the God of war-like frenzy and bloodlust
battle, civil order and manly courage
The symbol of Ares is often held to be a dog and a vulture.
Another main symbol is his very important spear.
he is a merciless god he shows no mercy on the battle field
The god was especially hostile towards Athena, who is Goddess of war and wisdom
Ares is also well known for the part he played in the Trojan War.
He was on the side of the Trojans, but he was injured by Athena, when she threw a huge boulder on him
However Ares was very well known for his Affairs with Aphrodite the Goddess of love
Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus but he limped and was not handsome
Aphrodite's inability to see past the superficial led her into the arms of Ares, the God of War. The passion from which their relationship was created is symbolic of the destructive attraction between men and women; love and war. Aphrodite and Ares are symbolic of the yin and the yang of universe. It is this polarity that makes for such a strong and passionate longing for one another.
The attraction of Aphrodite to Ares may be in the belief that with courage comes virility, which gave him the ability to seduce her. The bond between the two divinities expresses the Greek belief that men fight for women and that the origin of war is fundamentally a rivalry for them.
In fact, this belief was so strong that even Herodotus the great historian himself felt that the Trojan War may have been caused by a rivalry for women . The destructive relationship between Aphrodite, Goddess of Love and Ares, God of War, can be seen, therefore, as the polar attraction of opposites or the relationship of the masculine with the feminine.
The affair between Aphrodite and Ares caused tension amongst the Gods. It is told that once, when the two lovers slept too late, Helios, the sun, observed them and told Hephaestus, who plotted a trap out of anger. He positioned a bronze net upon her bed and caught the two in a naked embrace for all to see.
This affair resulted in the eventual birth of three children: Harmony, Fear and Terror. Harmony was the oldest daughter of Mars and Venus, while Fear and Terror, the younger boys, followed after their father's footsteps and had a passion for battle. While Aphrodite bore several children by different fathers, she and Hephaestus never had any children of their own. Their union was one of beauty and craft out of which art is born
She bore him four divine sons and a daughter: Eros, Anteros, Deimos, Phobos and Harmonia.
DEIMOS The god of Terror was a son of Ares and Aphrodite who often would accompany his father on the battle field
PHOBOS The god of Fear was a son of Ares and Aphrodite
EROS The winged boy god of love was a son of Aphrodite and Ares. Evidence of this is Eros Fires Arrows at mortals to make them fall in love
Arrows are something Ares would do in battle
HARMONIA is the goddess of harmony and concord. As a daughter of Aphrodite, she presided over marital harmony, soothing strife and discord; as a daughter of Ares, she represented harmonious action in war. Late Greek and Roman writers sometimes portrayed her as harmony in the more abstract sense : a deity presiding over the cosmic harmony.
Harmonia was born of Aphrodite's adulterous affair with the god Ares. She was awarded to Kadmos, the hero founder of Thebes, in a wedding attended by all the gods. Hephaistos, however, was still furious over his wife's betrayal, and presented Harmonia with a cursed necklace, which doomed her descendants to endless tragedy
Harmonia conceived several children for Cadmus, but many of her children underwent or suffered great tragedies in their lives. Her daughter, Semele, was seduced by Zeus, and was burned alive after seeing him in his godly form; her son became the god, Dionysus. Ino and Autnoe took their lives for their duplicity in Semele's death, and Actaeon was mauled to death by his own dogs after watching Artemis bathing in a spring.
Grief-stricken at the tragedies to befall their family, Cadmus and Harmonia retired to Illyria (modern Yugoslavia), conquered by their son Illyrius, after leaving their throne to their grandson, Pentheus. After their deaths, Ares granted them ever-lasting life in the Elysian Fields.
After her departure from Earth, Harmonia's descendant, Polyneices, the son of Oedipus, used her necklace to bribe his daughter, Eriphyle, into persuading her husband, Amphiaraus, to undertake an expedition against Thebes. This lead to the death of Eriphyle, Alcmaeon, Phegeus and his sons. The necklace was left in a Temple to Athena, but was carried off in 352 BC by the Phocian leader Phylleus who gave it to his mistress, causing madness to her son who burned her home down around her.
Ares is Brother To Hecules but Ares has hated Hercules ever since Hercules killed Ares' pets, the monstrous Stymphalian birds buring his 12 labors
Ares has hated Hercules when he noticed Hercules being favored by their father, while he was shunned for his brutal behavior. Further adding to his hatred, is that in modern times, war is shunned and disliked, whereas Hercules is still beloved by the masses, despite his own history of death and destruction
Hercules also killed the Ares son Kyknos who Ares loved and vowed revenge but only Zeus watchful Eye and thunder bolts, prevents Ares from exacting revenge
Ares like his father Zeus Fathered many mortal children with mortal women his daughters became the Amazon warriors his sons became the Spartans who formed Sparta and dedicated an entire Society to the art of war and combat
In ancient Athens, one very important and very powerful legal and legislative institution was Areopagus (Areios Pagos).
In Greek, it actually means "hill or rock of Ares", and refers to both the name of the "ancient council of elders", which usually combined judicial and legislative functions, as well as the site where this council convened.
The site itself is a rocky hill, 370 ft (113 m) high, northwest of the Acropolis in Athens.
According to ancient sources, there are two stories which link the god of war to the origin of the name of Areopagus:
Ares had a daughter named Alcippe, who was, according to myth, raped by Poseidon's son,Halirrothius. To avenge his daughter, the god killed the rapist, but Poseidon appealed to the council of the gods, seeking justice.
The court convened on a hillock near the Acropolis of Athens. Ares was declared innocent, but to purify himself from the murder, he was convicted to work as a slave for a year. The hillock was later named Areopagus.
Ares appears in countless TV shows and movies including by the Great Actor the late Kevin smith R. .I.P on the TV series Xena warrior princess
he also appears in Videogames and Comics today
Apollodorus, The Library - Greek Mythography C2nd BC
Apollonius Rhodius, The Argonautica - Greek Epic C3rd BC
Callimachus, Hymns - Greek C3rd BC
Greek Papyri III Euphorion, Fragments - Greek Epic C3rd B.C.
Pausanias, Guide to Greece - Greek Geography C2nd AD
Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History - Greek History
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