Ares

Ares (; , Árēs ) is the Greek god of war and courage. He is one of the Twelve Olympians, and the son of Zeus and Hera. Many Greeks were ambivalent towards him. He embodies the physical valor necessary for success in war but can also personify sheer brutality and bloodlust, in contrast to his sister Athena, whose martial functions include military strategy and generalship. An association with Ares endows places, objects, and other deities with a savage, dangerous, or militarized quality.

AI overview

Ares is the Greek god of war and courage, one of the twelve most important deities in ancient Greek religion and the son of Zeus and Hera. He represents both the physical bravery needed in battle and the brutal violence of war itself, which is why the ancient Greeks had mixed feelings about him—especially compared to his sister Athena, who represented the strategic and leadership aspects of warfare instead.

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Key facts

Deity.spouse: Aphrodite
Deity.type: Greek
Deity.name: Ares
Deity.image: Ares Canope Villa Adriana b.jpg
Deity.caption: Cast of a Roman statue from Hadrian's Villa, copied from a Greek original. Traditionally identified as Ares or Hermes.
Deity.god_of: God of war and courage
Deity.member_of: the Twelve Olympians
Deity.abode: Mount Olympus, temples in mainland Greece, Crete and Asia minor
Deity.symbols: Sword, spear, shield, helmet
Deity.parents: Zeus and Hera
Deity.siblings: Hephaestus, Eileithyia, Hebe and several paternal half-siblings
Deity.children: the Erotes (Eros and Anteros), Phobos, Deimos, Phlegyas, Harmonia, Enyalius, Thrax, Oenomaus, Cycnus, and the Amazons
Deity.Roman_equivalent: Mars
Deity.day: Tuesday (hēméra Áreōs)
Deity.planet: Mars

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Image: Ο Άρης (Borghese-Λούβρου).jpg

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Commons category: Ares
Commons gallery: Ares (god)
native label: Ἄρης
name in native language: Ἄρης

Sources (7)

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Article

28 sections

Contents

Names
Epithets
Cult
Chained statues
Sacrifices
Thrace and Scythia
Asia Minor
Crete
Aksum
Characterisation
Mythology
Birth
Argonautica
Founding of Thebes
Aphrodite
Giants
''Iliad''
Attendants
Offspring and affairs
List of offspring and their mothers
Mars
Renaissance and later depictions
In popular culture
Genealogy
See also
Footnotes
Notes
References

Although Ares's name shows his origins as Mycenaean, his reputation for savagery was thought by some to reflect his likely origins as a Thracian deity. Some cities in Greece and several in Asia Minor held annual festivals to bind and detain him as their protector. In parts of Asia Minor, he was an oracular deity. Still further away from Greece, the Scythians were said to ritually kill one in a hundred prisoners of war as an offering to their equivalent of Ares. The later belief that ancient Spartans had offered human sacrifice to Ares may owe more to mythical prehistory, misunderstandings, and reputation than to reality.