ARES LOVES

ARES was the Olympian god of war, battlelust and manliness.

This page describes the loves of the god. Most of these, however, appear only in the ancient genealogies with no accompanying story. The most significant of the love-myths was the tale of his affair with the goddess Aphrodite. The pair were commonly depicted together in ancient art--to such an extent that she could properly be described as his consort.

(1) DIVINE LOVES (GODDESSES)

APHRODITE The goddess of love and beauty had a long love affair with Ares which lasted for the duration of her marriage to Hephaistos and beyond. She bore him four divine sons and a daughter: Eros, Anteros, Deimos, Phobos and Harmonia.

EOS The goddess of the dawn with whom Ares had a brief love affair. She was cursed with a rampant sexuality by the jealous Aphrodite. No offspring are mentioned of this pair.

ENYO The goddess of war and strife was said to have borne Ares a son Enyalios. [see Family]

ERINYS TELPHOUSIA Either one of the Erinyes or the goddess Demeter (who was titled the Erinys of Thelpousa). She bore Ares the Drakon of Thebes. From the sowing of this Drakon's teeth were born a tribe of warrior-men known as the Spartoi.

PERSEPHONE The gods Ares, Hermes, Apollon and Hephaistos all wooed Persephone before her marriage to Haides. Demeter rejected all their gifts and hid her daughter away from the company of the gods.

(2) SEMI-DIVINE LOVES (NYMPHS)

HARMONIA A nymph of Assyria (Asia Minor) who was seduced by Ares in the Akmonian Wood. She bore him the first of the Amazones tribe.

HARPINNA A Naiad-nymph of Pisa, Elis (southern Greece) loved by Ares, and according to some the mother of Oinomaos. [see Family]

KYRENE (Cyrene) A nymph of Bistonia in Thrake (north of Greece) loved by Ares. She bore him a son Diomedes. Kyrene is probably the same as Pyrene the mother of Kyknos. [see Family]

STEROPE A Pleiad-nymph of Elis (southern Greece), loved by Ares. She bore him one or two sons Oinomaos and Euenos (though the latter is usually called a son of Ares by Demonike). [see Family]

TANAGRA A Naiad-nymph of Argos (isouthern Greece) whom the gods Ares and Hermes competed over in a boxing match. Hermes won the contest and lay with her.

TEREINE A Naiad-nymph of the Triballoi of Thrake (north of Greece), loved by Ares. She bore him a daughter Thrassa. [see Family]

TRITEIA A sea-nymph of Triteia in Akhaia (southern Greece) loved by Ares who bore him a son Melanippos. [see Family]

(3) MORTAL LOVES (WOMEN)

AEROPE An Aitolian (central Greece) princess loved by Ares. She bore him a son Aeropos.

AGLAUROS A princess of Attika (southern Greece) loved by Ares. She bore him a daughter Alkippe. [see Family]

ALTHAIA (Althaea) A queen of Aitolia (central Greece), wife of King Oineus, loved by Ares. According to some she bore him a son Meleagros. [see Family]

ASTYOKHE (Astyoche) A princess of Orkhomenos (central Greece) loved by Ares. She bore him twin sons Askalaphos and Ialmenos.

ATALANTA A princess and huntress from Arkadia (southern Greece) loved by Ares. According to some she bore him a son Parthenopaios. [see Family]

DEMONIKE (Demonice) A princess of Aitolia (central Greece) loved by Ares. She bore him four sons Euenos, Molos, Pylos and Thestios.

DOTIS A woman of Phlegyantis in Boiotia (central Greece), who according to some was the mothero f Phlegays by Ares. [see Family]

ILIA A princess of Latium (central Italy) and Vestal Virgin. She was seduced by Ares (Mars) in her sleep and bore him twin sons Romulus and Remus.

KHRYSE (Chyrse) A lady of the town of Almones in Boiotia (central Greece) who was loved by Ares. According to some she bore him a son Phlegyas. [see Family]

OTRERE (Otrera) A queen of the Amazones (Asia Minor) loved by Ares. She bore him a daughter, the Amazon Queens Hippolyte, Antiope, and Penthesileia. [see Family]

PELOPIA A woman of Thessalia or Makedonia (northern Greece) loved by Ares. According to some she bore him a son Kyknos. [see Family]

PHYLONOME An Arkadian (southern Greece) princess loved by Ares. She bore him twin sons Lykastos and Parrhasios.

PROTOGENEIA A princess of Aitolia (central Greece) loved by Ares. She bore him a son Oxylos. [see Family]

PYRENE A woman of Makedonia (northernGreece) loved by Ares. According to some she bore him a son Kyknos. She was probably the same as Kyrene, mother of Diomedes. [see Family]

CLASSICAL LITERATURE QUOTES

Seneca, Phaedra 185 ff (trans. Miller) (Roman tragedy C1st A.D.) :
"This winged god [Eros] rules ruthlessly throughout the earth and inflames Jove [Zeus] himself, wounded with unquenched fires. Gradivus [Ares], the warrior god, has felt those flames; that god [Hephaistos] has felt them who fashions the three-forked thunderbolts."

ARES LOVES : APHRODITE

LOCALE : Mt Olympos (Home of the Gods)

I. EROS CAUSES ARES & APHRODITE TO FALL IN LOVE

The Anacreontea, Fragment 28 (trans. Campbell, Vol. Greek Lyric II) (C5th B.C.) :
"One day Ares came in from the battlefield brandishing a strong spear and began to make fun of Eros' weapon. Eros said ‘This one is heavy : try it and you will see.’ Ares took the javelin, while Kypris [Aphrodite] smiled quietly; and with a groan he said, ‘It is heavy : take it back.’ ‘Keep it,’ said Eros [and so presumably bound Ares and Aphrodite in love.]."

II. ARES LOSES APHRODITE TO HEPHAISTOS IN MARRIAGE

The story of the Marriage of Hephaistos and Aphrodite can be reconstructed from text fragments and ancient Greek vase paintings :
Hephaistos had been cast from heaven by his mother Hera at birth, for she was ashamed at bearing a crippled son. He was rescued by Thetis and Eurynome and raised in a cave on the shores of the River Okeanos where he became a skilled smith. Angry at his mother's treatment, Hephaistos sent various gifts to Olympos including a Golden Throne for Hera. When the goddess sat upon this cursed throne she was bound fast.
Zeus sought the assistance of the gods in the freeing his Queen and offered the goddess Aphrodite in marriage to the god who could bring Hephaistos to Olympos. Aphrodite agreed to the arrangment in the belief that her beloved Ares would prevail.
Ares stormed the forge of Hephaistos, bearing arms, but was driven back by the Divine Smith with showers of flaming metal.
Dionysos next approached the god, and suggested that he might claim Aphrodite for himself if he were to release his mother willingly. Hephaistos was pleased with the plan and ascended to Heaven with Dionysos, released his mother and wed the reluctant Love-Goddess.
Image K9.4 of an archaic vase (see below) depicts the god sitting dejected as Hephaistos returns to Olympos to claim Aphrodite as his bride. The goddess herself stands apart beside the palace entrance.

Pausanias, Description of Greece 1. 20. 3 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"There are paintings here [in the temple of Dionysos at Athens]--Dionysos bringing Hephaistos up to heaven. One of the Greek legends is that Hephaistos, when he was born, was thrown down by Hera. In revenge he sent as a gift a golden chair with invisible fetters. When Hera sat down she was held fast, and Hephaistos refused to listen to any other of the gods [including Ares] save Dionysos--in him he reposed the fullest trust--and after making him drunk Dionysos brought him to heaven."

Suidas s.v. Deimos (trans. Suda On Line) (Byzantine Greek lexicon C10th A.D.) :
"Deimos (Fear) : [Deimos (Fear)] and Phobos (Fright) and Kydoimos (Din of War), attendants of Ares, the sons of war; they too experienced what Ares did, after Hephaistos had not been frightened by them." [N.B. When Ares tried to fetch Hephaistos to Olympos to release Hera from the throne, the prize for this labour being the hand of Aphrodite in marriage, which Hephaistos claimed for himself.]

III. THE ADULTERY OF ARES AND APHRODITE

Homer, Odyssey 8. 267 ff (trans. Shewring) (Greek epic C8th B.C.) :
"Demodokos [the Phaiakian bard] struck his lyre and began a beguiling song about the loves of Ares and Aphrodite, how first the lay together secretly in the dwelling of Hephaistos. Ares had offered many gifts to the garlanded divinity and covered with shame the marriage bed of Lord Hephaistos. But Helios (the sun-god) had seen them in their dalliance and hastened away to tell Hephaistos; to him the news was bitter as gall, and he made his way towards his smithy, brooding revenge. He laid the great anvil on its base and set himself to forge chains that could not be broken or torn asunder, being fashioned to bind lovers fast. Such was the device that he made in his indignation against Ares, and having made it he went to the room where his bed lay; all round the bed-posts he dropped the chains, while others in plenty hung from the roof-beams, gossamer-light and invisible to the blessed gods themselves, so cunning had been the workmanship. When the snare round the bed was complete, he made as if to depart to Lemnos, the pleasant-sited town, which he loved more than any place on earth. Ares, god of the golden reins, was no blind watcher. Once he had seen Hephaistos go, he himself approached the great craftman's dwelling, pining for love of Kytherea [Aphrodtie]. As for her, she had just returned from the palace of mighty Zeus her father, and was sitting down in the house as Ares entered it. He took her hand and spoke thus to her : ‘Come, my darling; let us go to bed and take our delight together. Hephaistos is no longer here; by now, I think, he has made his way to Lemnos, to visit the uncouth-spoken Sintians.’
So he spoke, and sleep with him was a welcome thought to her. So they went to the bed and there lay down, but the cunning chains of crafty Hephaistos enveloped them, and they could neither raise their limbs nor shift them at all; so they saw the truth when there was no escaping. Meanwhile the lame craftsman god approached; he had turned back short of the land of Lemnos, since watching Helios (the sun-god) had told him everything. Cut to the heart, he neared his house and halted inside the porch; savage anger had hold of him, and he roared out hideously, crying to all the gods : ‘Come, Father Zeus; come, all you blessed immortals with him; see what has happened here--no matter for laughter nor yet forbearance. Aphrodite had Zeus for father; because I am lame she never ceased to do me outrage and give her love to destructive Ares, since he is handsome and sound-footed and I am a cripple from my birth; yet for that my two parents are to blame, no one else at all, and I wish they had never begotten me. You will see the pair of lovers now as they lie embracing in my bed; the sight of them makes me sick at heart. Yet I doubt their desire to rest there longer, fond as they are. They will soon unwish their posture there; but my cunning chains shall hold them both fast till her father Zeus has given me back all the betrothal gifts I bestowed on him for his wanton daughter; beauty she has, but no sense of shame.’
Thus he spoke, and the gods came thronging there in front of the house with its brazen floor. Poseidon the Earth-Sustainer came, and Hermes the Mighty Runner, and Lord Apollon who shoots from afar; but the goddesses, every one of them, kept within doors for very shame. Thus then the bounteous gods stood at the entrance. Laughter they could not quench rose on the lips of these happy beings as they fixed their eyes on the stratagem of Hephaistos, and glancing each at his neighbour said some such words as these : ‘Ill deeds never prosper; swift after all is outrun by slow; here is Hephaistos the slow and crippled, yet by his cunning he has defeated the swiftest of all the Olympian gods, and Ares must pay an adulterer's penalty.’ . . .
For Poseidon there was no laughing; he kept imploring the master smith Hephaistos in hopes that he would let Ares go. He spoke in words of urgent utterance : ‘Let him go; I promise that he shall pay in full such rightful penalty as you ask for--pay in the presence of all the gods.’ But the great lame craftsman answered him : ‘Poseidon, Sustainer of the Earth, do not ask this of me. Pledges for trustless folk are trustless pledges. If Ares should go his way, free of his chains and his debt alike, what then? Could I fetter yourself in the presence of all the gods.’
Poseidon who shakes the earth replies : ‘Hephaistos, if Ares indeed denies his debt and escapes elsewhere, I myself will pay what you ask.’ Then the great lame craftsman answered him : ‘I must no and cannot refuse you now,’ and with that he undid the chains, powerful though they had proved. Unshackled thus, the lovers were up and off at once; Ares went on his way to Thrake, and Aphrodite the laughter-lover to Paphos in Kypros."

Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 1. 14c (trans. Gullick) (Greek rhetorician C2nd to 3rd A.D.) :
"Demodokos at the Phaiakian court sings of the armours of Ares and Aphrodite, not in approval of such passion, but to deter his hearers from illicit desires, or else because he knew that they had been brought up in a luxurious mode of life and therefore offered for their amusement what was most in keeping with their character."

Plato, Republic 390b (trans. Shorey) (Greek philosopher C4th B.C.) :
"[From Plato's critique of the portrayal of the gods in Homer :] Nor will it profit them to hear of Hephaistos' fettering Ares and Aphrodite for a like motive [i.e. for passion]."

Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana 7. 26 (trans. Conybeare) (Greek biography C1st to 2nd A.D.) :
"[Poets] recite your rhapsodies . . . and tell them how . . . Ares, the most warlike of the gods, was first enchained in heaven by Hephaistos."

Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 14. 40 ff (trans. Way) (Greek epic C4th A.D.) :
"Her head darkly mantled in her veil . . . with cheek shame-crimsoned, like [Aphrodite] the Queen of Love, what time the Heaven-abiders saw her clasped in Ares' arms, shaming in sight of all the marriage-bed, trapped in the myriad-meshed toils of Hephaistos: tangled there she lay in agony of shame, while thronged around the Blessed, and there stood Hephaistos' self : for fearful it is for wives to be beheld by husbands' eyes doing the deed of shame."

Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 148 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"When Vulcanus [Hephaistos] knew that Venus [Aphrodite] was secretly lying with Mars [Ares], and that he could not oppose his strength, he made a chain of adamant and put it around the bed to catch Mars by cleverness. When Mars came to the rendezvous, the together with Venus fell into the snare so that he could not extricate himself. When Sol [Helios the sun] reported this to Vulcanus, he saw them lying there naked, and summoned all the gods who saw. As a result, shame frightened Mars so that he did not do this. From their embrace Harmonia was born, and to her Minerva [Athena] and Vulcanus [Hephaistos] gave a robe ‘dipped in crimes’ as a gift. Because of this, their descendants are clearly marked as ill-fated."

Ovid, Metamorphoses 4. 170 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"Sol (the Sun) [Helios] is thought to have been the first to see Venus' [Aphrodite's] adultery with Mars [Ares] : Sol is the first to see all things. Shocked at the sight he told the goddess' husband, Junonigena [Hephaistos], how he was cuckolded where. Then Volcanus' [Hephaistos'] heart fell, and from his deft blacksmith's hands fell too the work he held. At once he forged a net, a mesh of thinnest links of bronze, too fine for eye to see, a triumph not surpassed by finest threads of silk or by the web the spider hands below the rafters' beam. He fashioned it to respond to the least touch or slightest movement; then with subtle skill arranged it round the bed. So when his wife lay down together with her paramour, her husband's mesh, so cleverly contrived, secured them both ensnared as they embraced. Straightway Lemnius [Hephaistos] flung wide the ivory doors and ushered in the gods. The two lay there, snarled in their shame. The gods were not displeased; one of them prayed for shame like that. They laughed and laughed; the joyful episode was long the choicest tale to go the rounds of heaven."

Virgil, Georgics 4. 345 ff (trans. Fairclough) (Roman bucolic C1st B.C.) :
"Among these [the nymphs] Clymene was telling of of Vulcanus' [Hephaistos'] baffled care, of the wiles and stolen joys of Mars [Ares]."

Cicero, De Natura Deorum 2. 21 (trans. Rackham) (Roman rhetorician C1st B.C.) :
"[Aphrodite] the daughter of Jupiter [Zeus] and Dione, wedded Vulcanus [Hephaistos], but is said to have been the mother of Anteros by Mars [Ares]."

Statius, Thebaid 2. 265 ff (trans. Mozley) (Roman epic C1st A.D.) :
"The Lemnian [Hephaistos], so they of old believed, long time distressed at Mars' [Ares'] deceit and seeing that no punishment gave hindrance to the disclosed armour, and the avenging chains removed not the offence [of his affair with Hephaistos' then wife Aphrodite], wrought this [a cursed necklace] for Harmonia [the daughter born of the love affair] on her bridal day to be the glory of her dower."

Statius, Silvae 1. 2. 51 (trans. Mozley) (Roman poetry C1st A.D.) :
"Once on a time, where the milky region is set in a tranquil heaven, lay kindly Venus [Aphrodite] in her bower, whence night had but lately fled, faint in the rough embrace of her Getic lord [Mars-Ares] . . . Weary she lies upon her cushions, where once the Lemnian chains [of Vulcan-Hephaistos] crept over the bed and held it fast, learning its guilty secret."

Seneca, Phaedra 124 ff (trans. Miller) (Roman tragedy C1st A.D.) :
"Venus [Aphrodite], detesting the offspring of the hated Sol (the Sun) [Helios], is avenging through us the chains that bound her to her loved Mars [Ares]."

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 3. 400 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :
"Both the parents of Harmonia, Ares and Kythereia [Aphrodite], who mounted one bed, were of one father, another pair of blood-kindred."

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 5. 88 ff :
"Aphrodite wishing to delight Ares in the deep shrewdness of her mind, clasped a golden necklace showing place about the girl's blushing neck [a gift to their daughter Harmonia at her marriage to Kadmos], a clever work of Hephaistos set with sparkling gems in masterly refinement. This he had made for his Kyprian bride, a gift for his first glimpse of Archer Eros (Love) [born to Aphrodite the wife of Hephaistos but fathered by her lover Ares]. For the heavyknee bridegroom always expected that Kythereia would bear him a hobbling son, having the image of his father in his feet. But his though was mistaken; and when he beheld a whole-footed son [Eros] brilliant with wings like Maia's son Hermes, he made this magnificent [cursed] necklace."

Suidas s.v. Moixagria (trans. Suda On Line) (Byzantine Greek lexicon C10th A.D.) :
"Moixagria (Adultery fine): The fine for adultery, paid by the man caught [acting as] an adulterer." [N.B. the word occurs in Homer, Odyssey 8.332, of the adultery between Ares and Aphrodite.]

Suidas s.v. Helios :
"[N.B. The following is a rationalisation of the myth by some late classical author:]
Helios : After the death of Hephaistos [Ptah], the king of Egypt, Helios [Ra] his son took the rule . . . Helios, then, maintained the laws of his father, and denounced his wife when he discovered she had been debauched. Homer changed this to make it poetic, saying that the sun (helios) exposed the fact that Aphrodite had lain with Ares, calling her desire ‘Aphrodite’ and the soldier who was caught with her ‘Ares.’"

IV. APHRODITE CONSORT OF ARES

Aphrodite was described as the usual consort of the god Ares, including in the Iliad of Homer, where she is replaced as the wife of Hephaistos by Aglaia.
The story of Aphrodite's marriage to Hephaistos may have ended in divorce: in Homer's story of her affair, Hephaistos threatens to return her to Zeus and demand back the bride price he has paid.
In art Aphrodite is almost always depicted as the consort of Ares: including depictions of the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, the Gigantomachia, the Trojan War, and of the gods feasting on Olympos.

Hesiod, Theogony 933 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or 7th B.C.) :
"Kythereia [Aphrodite] bare to Ares the shield-piercer Phobos (Panic) and Deimos (Fear), terrible gods who drive in disorder the close ranks of men in numbing war, with the help of Ares, sacker of towns: and Harmonia whom high-spirited Kadmos made his wife."

Ibycus, Fragment 575 (from Scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes) (trans. Campbell, Vol. Greek Lyric III) (Greek lyric C6th B.C.) :
"Apollonius makes Eros child of Aphrodite . . . Simonides makes him child of Aphrodite and Ares."

Ibycus, Fragment 575 :
"[Eros] you cruel child of guileful Aphrodite, whom she bore to Ares."

Simonides, Fragment 575 (from Scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes) (trans. Campbell, Vol. Greek Lyric III) (C6th to 5th B.C.) :
"Simonides makes him [Eros] child of Aphrodite and Ares. ‘You cruel child of guileful Aphrodite, whom she bore to . . . Ares.’"

Aeschylus, Suppliant Women 662 ff (trans. Weir Smyth) (Greek tragedy C5th B.C.) :
"Ares, the partner of Aphrodite's bed."

Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 1. 909 ff (trans. Way) (Greek epic C4th A.D.) :
"Aphrodite glorious-crowned, the Bride of [Ares] the strong War-god."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 5. 18. 5 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"[Depicted on the chest of Kypselos dedicated at Olympia :] There is also Ares clad in armour and leading Aphrodite. The inscription by him is ‘Enyalios.’"

Pseudo-Hyginus, Preface (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"From Venus [Aphrodite] and Mars [Ares] [were born], Harmonia and Formido (Fear) [Phobos]."

Statius, Silvae 1. 2. 51 (trans. Mozley) (Roman poetry C1st A.D.) :
"Where the milky region is set in a tranquil heaven, lay kindly Venus [Aphrodite] in her bower, whence night had but lately fled, faint in the rough embrace of her Getic lord [Mars-Ares]. About the posts and pillows of her couch swarm a troop of tender Amores (Loves) [Erotes]."

For other MYTHS of Ares and Aphrodite see:
(1) Ares & the Trojan War (sides with Aphrodite in the war)
(2) Ares Wrath: Adonis (slays Aphrodite's lover Adonis)
(3) Ares Loves: Eos (Aphrodite curses Eos for sleeping with Ares)
For MORE information on this goddess see APHRODITE

ARES LOVES : EOS

LOCALE : Non-specific

Ares had an affair with Eos, the goddess of the dawn.

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 27 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"Eos, whom Aphrodite tormented with constant passion as punishment for sleeping with Ares."

For MORE information on this goddess see EOS

ARES LOVES : ERINYS TELPHUSIA

LOCALE : Boiotia (Central Greece)

The Aionian Drakon guarded Ares' sacred Ismenian spring near Thebes. It was slain by the hero Kadmos who sowed its teeth, birthing a crop of fully-armed and grown warriors, known as the Spartoi.
The Drakon was said to have been a son of Ares and the Erinys Telphousia. She was probably the goddess Demeter who was worshipped under the title of Erinys in the Arkadian town of Thelpousia. She was also the likely mother considering the method of the Drakon's offspring's, the Spartoi's, birth - born from the ploughed furrows of the earth.
Ares and the Erinys Telphousia are named as the parents of the Drakon by one of the ancient Scholiasts, not currently quoted here.

ARES LOVES : PERSEPHONE

LOCALE : Mt Olympos (Home of the Gods)

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 5. 562 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :
"All that dwelt in Olympos were bewitched by this one girl [Persephone], rivals in love for the marriageable maid, and offered their dowers for an unsmirched bridal. Hermes . . . offered his rod as gift to adorn her chamber. Apollon produced his melodious harp as a marriage-gift. Ares brought spear and cuirass for the wedding, and shield as bride-gift [but all their offers were declined by her mother Demeter]."

For MORE information on this goddess see PERSEPHONE

ARES LOVES : HARMONIA

LOCALE : Assyria (Anatolia)

Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 2. 989 ff (trans. Rieu) (Greek epic C3rd B.C.) :
"The Amazones of the Doiantian plain were by no means gentle, well-conducted folk; they were brutal and aggressive, and their main concern in life was war. War, indeed, was in their blood, daughters of Ares as they were and of the Nymphe Harmonia, who lay with the god in the depths of the Akmonion Wood and bore him girls who fell in love with fighting."

For MORE information on this nymph see HARMONIA

ARES LOVES : TANAGRA

LOCALE : Boiotia (Central Greece)

Corinna, Fragment 654 (trans. Campbell, Vol. Greek Lyric IV) (C5th B.C.) :
"Of these nine daughters [of Asopos carried off by gods] . . . Tanagra [eponym of the Boiotia town], was seized by Hermes."

Corinna, Fragment 666 :
"For your [Tanagra's] sake Hermes boxed against Ares."

For MORE information on this nymph see TANAGRA

ARES LOVES : AEROPE

LOCALE : Arkadia (Southern Greece)

Pausanias, Description of Greece 8. 44. 7 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"On the right of the road [from Tegea, Arkadia through the Manthouric Plain] is a small mountain called Mount Kresios, on which stands the sanctuary of Aphneios. For Ares, the Tegeans say, mated with Aerope, daughter of Kepheus, the son of Aleus. She died in giving birth to a child, who clung to his mother even when she was dead, and sucked great abundance of milk from her breasts. Now this took place by the will of Ares, and because of it they name the god Aphneios (Abundant ); but the name given to the hill was, it is said, Aeropos."

ARES LOVES : ASTYOCHE

LOCALE : Orkhomenos (Central Greece)

Homer, Iliad 2. 512 ff (trans. Lattimore) (Greek epic C8th B.C.) :
"Askalaphos led these [the men of Orkhomenos in the Trojan War], and Ialmenos, children of Ares, whom Astyokhe bore to him in the house of Aktor Azeus' son, a modest maiden; she went into the chamber with strong Ares, who was laid in bed with her secretly."

Homer, Iliad 9. 802 ff :
"Askalalphos and Ialmenos, sons both of Ares."

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 113 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"[Argonauts] Askalaphos and Ialmenos, sons of Ares."

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3. 131 :
"[Suitors of Helene:] Askalaphos and Ialmenos, sons of Ares."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 9. 37. 7 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"The kingdom of Orkhomenos was taken by Askalaphos and Ialmenos [after the death of their cousin Trophonios], said to be sons of Ares, while their mother was Astyokhe, daughter of Aktor, son of Azeos, son of Klymenos. Under the leadership of these the Minyans marched against Troy."

Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 159 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"Sons of Mars [Ares] . . . Ascalaphus. Ialmenus."

ARES LOVES : DEMONICE

LOCALE : Aitolia (Central Greece)

Hesiod, Catalogues of Women Fragment 22 (from Porphyrius, Commentary on Homer's Iliad 189) (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or 7th B.C.) :
"As it is said in Hesiod in the Catalogue of Women concerning Demodoke the daughter of Agenor: 'Demodoke whom very many of men on earth, mighty princes, wooed, promising splendid gifts, because of her exceeding beauty."

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 59 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"Demonike [daughter of Agenor, son of Pleuron king of Pleuron in Aitolia] bore to Ares Euenos, Molos, Pylos, and Thestios."

ARES LOVES : PHYLONOME

LOCALE : Arkadia (Southern Greece)

Pseudo-Plutarch, Greek and Roman Parallel Stories 36 (trans. Babbitt) (Greek historian C2nd A.D.) :
"Phylonome, the daughter of Nyktimos and Arkadia, was wont to hunt with Artemis; but Ares, in the guise of a shepherd, got her with child. She gave birth to twin children and, fearing her father, cast them into the Erymanthos [River]; but by some divine providence they were borne round and round without peril, and found haven in the trunk of a hollow oak-tree. A wolf, whose den was in the tree, cast her own cubs into the stream and suckled the children. A shepherd, Gyliphos, was witness of this event and, taking up the children, reared them as his own, and named them Lykastos and Parrhasios, the same that later succeeded to the throne of Arcadia. So says Zopyros of Byzantium in the third book of his Histories."

MARS LOVES : ILIA - RHEA SILVIA

LOCALE : Latium (Central Italy)

Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 252 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"Those suckled by animals . . . Romulus and Remus, sons of Mars [the Roman Ares] and Ilia, by a she-wolf."

Other references not currently quoted here: Ovid Fasti 3.41, Virgil Aeneid 1.273 & 6.777, Plutarch Parallel Stories 36 & Romans 3.3 & 4.2, Dionysus Halicarnassus 1.79.2

SOURCES

GREEK

• Homer, The Iliad - Greek Epic C8th B.C.
• Homer, The Odyssey - Greek Epic C8th B.C.
• Hesiod, Theogony - Greek Epic C8th - 7th B.C.
• Hesiod, Catalogues of Women Fragments - Greek Epic C8th - 7th B.C.
• Greek Lyric III Ibycus, Fragments - Greek Lyric C6th B.C.
• Greek Lyric III Simonides, Fragments - Greek Lyric C6th - 5th B.C.
• Greek Lyric IV Corinna, Fragments - Greek Lyric C5th B.C.
• Aeschylus, Suppliant Women - Greek Tragedy C5th B.C.
• Plato, Republic - Greek Philosophy C4th B.C.
• Apollodorus, The Library - Greek Mythography C2nd A.D.
• Apollonius Rhodius, The Argonautica - Greek Epic C3rd B.C.
• Pausanias, Description of Greece - Greek Travelogue C2nd A.D.
• Plutarch, Moralia - Greek Historian C1st - 2nd A.D.
• Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae - Greek Rhetoric C3rd A.D.
• Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana - Greek Biography C2nd A.D.
• Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy - Greek Epic C4th A.D.
• Nonnus, Dionysiaca - Greek Epic C5th A.D.

ROMAN

• Hyginus, Fabulae - Latin Mythography C2nd A.D.
• Ovid, Metamorphoses - Latin Epic C1st B.C. - C1st A.D.
• Virgil, Aeneid - Latin Epic C1st B.C.
• Virgil, Georgics - Latin Bucolic C1st B.C.
• Cicero, De Natura Deorum - Latin Rhetoric C1st B.C.
• Seneca, Phaedra - Latin Tragedy C1st A.D.
• Statius, Thebaid - Latin Epic C1st A.D.
• Statius, Silvae - Latin Poetry C1st A.D.

BYZANTINE

• Suidas, The Suda - Byzantine Greek Lexicon C10th A.D.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A complete bibliography of the translations quoted on this page.