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ARES GOD ΑΡΗΣ

GENERAL INFO

I) What was Ares the god of?

II) What were his symbols, attributes,
sacred plants and animals?

III) Who were the family & attendants of Ares?

IV) Where and how was he worshipped?

V) What were some of the popular myths about Ares?

PICTURES

I) Depictions of Ares in Greek Vase Painting

These images of Ares come from Ancient Greek Vases, painted approximately
2,500 years ago. NB Click on thumbnails to view full-size images.

II) Other Classical Depictions of Ares

Ares was also depicted in classical statues, stone reliefs, frescoes and coins.

SELECTED MYTHS (short versions)

I) The Love-affair of Ares and Aphrodite

"Sol [Helios the Sun] 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." Source: Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.170

II) Ares and the Giants Aloadai

"Many of us who have our homes on Olympos endure things from men, when ourselves we inflict hard pain on each other. Ares had to endure it when strong Ephialtes and Otos, sons of Aloeus, chained him in bonds that were too strong for him, and three months and ten he lay chained in the brazen cauldron; had not Eeriboia, their stepmother, the surpassingly lovely, brought word to Hermes, who stole Ares away out of it, as he was growing faint and the hard bondage was breaking him." Source: Homer, Iliad 5.385

III) Ares and the Giant EKhidnades

"[Ares] brought low Ekhidnades, the gods’ enemy, spitting the horrible poison of hideous Ekhidna [the serpent Nymphe]. He had two shapes together, and in the forest he shook the twisting coils of his mother’s spine. Kronos used this huge creature to confront the thunderbolt [of Zeus], hissing war with the snaky soles of his feet; when he realised his hands above the circle of the breast and fought against your Zeus, and lifting his high head, covered it with masses of cloud in the paths of the sky. Then if the birds came wandering into his tangled hair, he often swept them together into his capacious throat for a dinner. This masterpiece Ares killed." Source: Nonnus, Dionysiaca 18.274

IV) Ares and the murder of Halirrhothios

"Agraulos [daughter of Kekrops king of Athens] and Ares had a daughter Alkippe. As Halirrhothios, son of Poseidon and a nymphe named Eurtye, was trying to rape Alkippe, Ares caught him at it and slew him. Poseidon had Ares tried on the Areopagos with the twelve gods presiding. Ares was acquitted." Source: Apollodorus , The Library 3.180

V) Diomedes wounds Ares in the Trojan War

"Pallas Athene took up the whip and the reins [of the chariot of the hero Diomedes], steering first of all straight on against Ares the single foot horses. Ares was in the act of striping gigantic Periphas ... But Athene put on the helm of Haides, that stark Ares might not discern her.
Now as manslaughtering Ares caught sight of Diomedes the brilliant, he let gigantic Periphas lie in the place where he had first cut him down and taken the life away from him, and made straight against Diomedes, breaker of horses. Now as they in their advance had come close together, Ares lunged first over the yoke and the reins of his horses with the bronze spear, furious to take the life from him. But the goddess grey-eyed Athene in her hand catching the spear pushed it away from the car, so he missed and stabled vainly. After him Diomedes of the great war cry drove forward with the bronze spear; and Pallas Athene, leaning in on it, drove it into the depth of the belly where the war belt girt him. Picking this place she stabbed and driving it deep in the air flesh wrenched the spear out again. Then Ares the brazen bellowed with a sound as great as nine thousand men make, or ten thousand, when they cry as they carry in to the fighting the fury of the war god. And a shivering seized hold alike on Akhaians and Trojans in their feet at the bellowing of battle-insatiate Ares.
As when out of the thunderhead the air shows darkening after a day’s heat when the storm wind uprises, thus to Tydeus’ son Diomedes Ares the brazen showed as he went up with the clouds into the wide heaven. Lightly he came to the gods’ citadel, headlong Olympos, and sat down beside Kronian Zeus, grieving in his spirit, and showed him the immortal blood dripping from the spear cut." Source: Homer, Iliad 5.699

FURTHER INFO (12 detailed pages on Ares)

PART 1: INDEX & ILLUSTRATIONS
Index of Aress pages
Illustrations from Greek Vase Paintings
Quotes - Descriptions, Hymns

PART 2: ARES GOD OF
Quotes - describing his various divine functions

PART 3A: MYTHS GENERAL 1
Quotes - general stories about Ares

PART 3B: MYTHS GENERAL 2
Quotes - general stories about Ares continued

PART 4: MYTHS WRATH
List of those Punished
Quotes - stories of those punished by the god

PART 5: MYTHS BLESSINGS
List of those Blessed
Quotes - stories of heroes blessed or assisted by the god

PART 6A: MYTHS LOVES
List of Lovers
Quotes - stories of the women loved by Ares

PART 6B: MYTHS CHILDREN
List of Children
Quotes - children of Ares

PART 7: TREASURES
Lists of divine Possessions
Quotes - items owned by the god; sacred plants and animals

PART 8: ATTENDANTS
Lists of divine Attendants
Quotes - attendants of the god

PART 9: CULT & TITLES OF ARES
Quotes - cult of the god organised by region
List of Cult Titles and Poetic Epithets

 

PAGE BORDER: Derived from on an ancient Greek vase painting