There are many deities and spirits that can be found all throughout the Greek pantheon that have some kind of association with war but there is only one that is considered legal of war and no I’m not referring to Kratos befall of the hardcore go to war fans jump in the comments to tell me dish guy is wrong everyone knows that great joy before he killed all of the cards no today’s video will be on Ares the actual god of war for anyone who’s already familiar of Ares you know that he was one of the twelve olympic deities the son of zeus and hera so the unbridled rage violent behavior and constant need for bloodshed definitely isn’t a huge surprise considering that his parents aren’t exactly known for their calm and forgiving nature to the ancient Greeks Ares embodied war he represented its necessity and unpredictability but much like war itself Ares divided the Greek people he only had a handful of cults and temples with most been located in Sparta the Spartans saw Ares as the perfect example of what a soldier should be physically strong resilient and well versed in combat all things that we can associate back to the God of War needless to say not all Greeks agreed and it’s quite fitting that his largest worship took place in Sparta with their biggest opposition being the Athenians and Athena if the role Ares plays in Greek mythology is rather small and I think most of this comes down to Athena being seen as superior if you haven’t already guessed Athena and Ares or bitter rivals who found themselves in constant competition most of this comes down to the attitudes and beliefs of the ancient Greek people.
Ares represented what many Greeks strive not to be whereas Athena was seen as much more well-rounded she was calm intelligent and highly skilled in warfare Athena represented the best of both aspects the scholar and the warrior or as Ares would have been seen as not much more than a soldier so we can see that the phenol was definitely favored to areas in the eyes of the Greek people but she was also a favorite of Zeus with most of his father’s praise an attention being directed towards his sister we can definitely see that this is something Ares is affected by we do actually see this directly addressed in book 5 of Homer’s Iliad where Ares accuses his father of sure in favor towards Athena claiming that it’s because she was physically born from Zeus and this might actually be true but it might also be because Athena did more than just wage war the few appearances that Ares does actually make I’m sure many of you have guessed feature around war conflict with the most famous being the Trojan War which he was unfortunately on the wrong side of with Athena once again emerging the victor it was often said that Ares wrote a chariot into battlefield of his children so the app would definitely default far from the tree these children included Phobos meaning fear demos meaning terror and n yo who’s often associated of discord but who also appeared in numerous forms depending on the story ranging from his mother or sister to even one of his numerous lovers together any own Ares had one son named Annie alias who was said to replace his father as the god of war and no Kratos didn’t kill him either.
Ares – Greek God of War Of Greek Mythology
There are some accounts of Ares or at least what we can consider the God of War existing during the time of the Mycenaean Greek people where at times he was actually referred to as in Yaya’s so the name has existed for some time and generally has connotations of war he also fathered the goddess Harmonia who can discuss a bit later on and address Tia the goddess of equilibrium the female warrior tribe known as the Amazons were also said to be direct descendants of Ares who the most famous example being hipolito who became Queen when Ares gave her a magical girdle that signified strength and authority the sacred shrines of the Amazons who also said to be guarded by the birds of Ares which was said to have arrow like feathers and were quite similar to the magnet instant failure Birds slain by Heracles the only story that really features the birds of Ares is that of Jason and his Argonauts when they came across the birds during their quest for the golden fleece when the birds rained down their feathers Jason and his men raised their shields to block the endless volleys eventually using Spears to poke the birds out of the sky and drive the flock away in the stories where eros is considered to be the son of Aphrodite it’s speculated that his father was Ares which isn’t really too unreasonable if we consider the fact that Aphrodite was a goddess associated of love and Ares himself for someone driven by intense emotion and passion to then have children who are solely associated of an emotion as powerful as love does make some sense or at least it does to me anyway there are a few stories that Ares does make an appearance in so let’s start with the one that I find most amusing the affair with Aphrodite so in order for Zeus to convince her Festus to set his mother free he was offered a marriage of Aphrodite but as great as that may have been for her Festus the goddess was left a miserable and so when she noticed the attention of Ares it wasn’t long before the two started their affair which I’m sure we can all guess was destined to end in disaster one day when her Festus was away Aphrodite in Aries was seen by the Titan Helios who then told her Festus of what he had seen FSS then did what most people seem to do in that situation he decided that he would catch them together and so he created an invisible golden net that was designed to ensnare them.
The next time Aphrodite in Aries enjoyed each other’s company the booby trap was triggered and the two were ensnared in a very compromising position her Festus then decided that he would drag them outside and invite all of the gods and goddesses of Olympus to witness them in this position and the two were then thoroughly mocked and ashamed but some gods did state that they would happily trade places of Aries as a testament to the beauty of Aphrodite with Aphrodite in Aries now totally embarrassed they had no choice but to return to their respective cities but her Festus wasn’t quite finished together Ares and Aphrodite had a daughter known as Harmonia and when her Festus heard that she was marrying Cadmus he decided to attend the wedding as a wedding gift he would offer her money and necklace that he had crafted himself this trinket will then be known as a necklace of Harmonia and was said to bring bad luck in disaster Kirstin anyone in its possession another story involving Ares details his interaction was a to see Giants fel tez and Otis who often referred to as the alo died one day the two brothers came across the God of War and decided they would kidnap him and place him in a giant bronze jar where he would remain for an entire lunar year they would only let Ares go if the goddess Artemis agreed to marry one of them Artemis did eventually make an appearance and true to their word Aries were set free but then the two brothers began to argue as to who would marry her whilst this was happening Artemis transformed herself into a deer and hopped him between the two eager to not let Artemis escape the two brothers threw their Spears accidentally impaling each other because Giants are dumb for the most part arias is described by Homer has been fairly neutral during the Trojan War but he did eventually join the side of the Trojans after being convinced by Aphrodite despite the initial promise he made to Hera and Athena to join the side of the Achaeans when Diomedes initially saw Ares on the battlefield he pulled his men back out of fear but Athena would later order him and his men to launch a full-scale attack on Ares now face the face of Ares Diomedes launched his spear and with the guidance of Athena he impaled the god of war who let out a scream so loud and terrified they calls those on both sides to tremble in fear Aries now heavily wounded had no choice but to flee and so did the trojan forces knowing that without the God of War they could not win this battle when Aerys had heard the news that his son ascalaphus had been slain by the Trojans he was eager to swap sides and join their canyons but at this point in Sue’s had forbidden any of the Olympians from joining the wall and when Aerys attempted to enter the battle he was stopped by Athena when Zeus once again allowed the gods to join the war.
The first thing Aries did was attack Athena seeking revenge for the previous injury he had sustained but Athena would once again best Ares by hurling an enormous boulder at him yet another example of Athena emerging victorious over her brother something that I see quite often in the comment section are people asking me to cover the Roman counterparts to these Greek deities and it definitely seems to be some confusion as to the similarities and differences for the most part the Roman counterparts are quite similar they do feature in some different stories and have slightly different behavior but I think the real differences can be seen in how they were perceived by the people of ancient Greece and Rome and in some cases it definitely gets quite interesting we saw last video that Minerva is slightly different to Athena but there is definitely an interesting contrast between Ares and his Roman counterpart Mars we’ve established that Ares was seen as a necessary evil but he was by no means a popular god nor was he widely worshipped by the ancient Greeks because they instead favored Athena Mars however was portrayed in a completely different way to the Romans he was seen as a protector in the same way that Athena was similar to how in the Greek pantheon Athena was only second to Zeus Mars was only second to Jupiter where the Greeks saw Ares is destructive the Romans saw Mars as a peacekeeper the Romans highly value their military so naturally it makes sense that Mars was considered a highly respected deity I think most of this boils down to the difference in ideas between the tube the Greeks were quite abstract thinkers who placed a heavy emphasis on philosophy cosmology and metaphysics so deities like Ares would have been seen as an unfortunate necessity the Romans however believed in the physical and practical implementation of an idea they highly valued manliness toughness of physicality and war was seen as a way to keep the peace which is why Mars is such an integral figure to their set of beliefs and mythology a point that I think is definitely quite interesting is that the Roman counterpart of Ares is actually more similar to Athena than Ares himself and the role that Mars plays in the Roman pan. Theon is quite similar to that of Athena in the Greek pantheon.
