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ARES

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 455 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ARES , in See also:

ancient See also:Greek See also:mythology, the See also:god of See also:war, or rather of See also:battle, son of See also:Zeus and See also:Hera. (For the See also:Roman god, identified with Ares, see See also:MARS.) As contrasted with See also:Athena, who added to her other attributes that of being the goddess of well-conducted military operations, he personifies See also:brute strength and the See also:wild rage of conflict. His delight is in war and bloodshed; he loves fighting for fighting's See also:sake, and takes the See also:side of the one or the other combatant indifferently, regardless of the See also:justice of the cause. His quarrelsomeness was regarded as inherited from his See also:mother, and it may have been only as an See also:illustration of the perpetual strife between Zeus and Hera that Ares was accounted their son. According to a later tradition, he was the son of Hera (See also:Juno) alone, who became pregnant by touching a certain See also:flower (See also:Ovid, See also:Fasti, v. 255). All the gods, even Zeus, hate him, but his bitterest enemy is Athena, who fells him to the ground with a huge See also:stone. Splendidly armed, he goes to battle, sometimes on See also:foot, sometimes in the war See also:chariot made ready by his sons Deimos and Phobos (Panic and Fear) by whom he is usually accompanied. In his See also:train also are found Enyo, the goddess of war who delights in bloodshed and the destruction of cities; his See also:sister, See also:Eris, goddess of fighting and strife; and the Keres, goddesses of See also:death, whose See also:function it is especially to roam the battle-See also:field, carrying off the dead to Hades. In later accounts (and even in the Odyssey) Ares' See also:character is some-what toned down; thus, in the " Homeric " hymn to Ares, he is addressed as the assistant of See also:Themis (Justice), the enemy of tyrants, and See also:leader of the just. It is to be noted, however, that in this little poem he is to some extent confounded with the See also:planet named after him (Ares, or Mars). The See also:primitive character of Ares has been much discussed.

He is a god of storms; a god of See also:

light or a See also:solar god; a chthonian god, one of the deities of the subterranean See also:world, who could bring prosperity as well as ruin upon men, although in See also:time his destructive qualities obscured the others. In this last aspect he was one of the See also:chief gods of the Thracians, amongst whom his See also:home was placed even in the time of See also:Homer. In See also:Scythia an old See also:iron See also:sword served as the See also:symbol of the god, to which yearly sacrifices of See also:cattle and horses were made, and in earlier times (as apparently also at See also:Sparta) human victims, selected from prisoners of war, were offered. Thus Ares See also:developed into the god of war, in which character he made his way into See also:Greece. This theory may have been nothing more than an instance of the Greek tendency to assign a See also:northern or " hyperborean " home to deities in whose character something analogous to the stormy elements of nature was found. But it appears that the Thracians and Scythians in See also:historical times (See also:Herodotus i. 59) worshipped chiefly a war god, and that certain Thracian settlements, formed in Greece in prehistoric times, See also:left behind them traces of the See also:worship of a god whom the Greeks called Ares. The See also:story of his imprisonment for thirteen months by the Aloidae (Iliad, v. 385) points to the See also:conquest of this chthonian destroyer of the See also:fields by the arts of See also:peace, especially See also:agriculture, of which the See also:grain-fed sons of Aloeus (the thresher) are the personification. In Homer Ares is the See also:lover of See also:Aphrodite, the wife of See also:Hephaestus, who catches them together in a See also:net and holds them up to the ridicule of the gods. In what appears to be a very See also:early development of her character, Aphrodite also was a war goddess, known under the name of Areia; and in See also:Thebes, the most important seat of the worship of Ares, she is his wife, and bears him See also:Eros and See also:Anteros, Deimos and Phobos, and See also:Harmonia, wife of See also:Cadmus, the founder of the See also:city (See also:Hesiod, Theog. 933).

In the See also:

legend of Cadmus and his See also:family Ares plays a prominent See also:part. His worship was not so widely spread over Greece as that of other gods, although he was honoured here and there with festivalsand sacrifices. Thus, at Sparta, under the name of Theritas, he was offered See also:young See also:dogs and even human beings. The Dioscuri were said to have brought his See also:image from See also:Colchis to See also:Laconia, where it was set up in an old See also:sanctuary on the road from Sparta to Therapnae. At See also:Athens, he had a See also:temple at the foot of the See also:Areopagus, with a statue by See also:Alcamenes. It was here, according to the legend, that he was tried and acquitted by a See also:council of the gods for the See also:murder of Halirrhothius, who had violated Alcippe, the daughter of Ares by Agraulos. The figure of Ares appears in various stories of ancient mythology. Thus, he engages in combat with Heracles on two occasions to avenge the death of his son Cycnus; once Zeus separates the combatants by a flash of See also:lightning, but in the second encounter he is severely wounded by his adversary, who has the active support of Athena; maddened by See also:jealousy, he changes himself into the See also:boar which slew See also:Adonis, the favourite of Aphrodite; and stirs up the war between the See also:Lapithae and See also:Centaurs. His attributes were the See also:spear and the burning See also:torch, symbolical of the devastation caused by war (in ancient times the hurling of a torch was the See also:signal for the commencement of hostilities). The animals sacred to him were the See also:dog and the See also:vulture. The worship of Ares being less See also:general throughout Greece than that of the gods of peace, the number of statues of him is small; those of Ares-Mars, among the See also:Romans, are more frequent. Previous to the 5th See also:century B.C. he was represented as full-bearded, grim-featured and in full See also:armour.

From that time, apparently under the See also:

influence of Athenian sculptors, he was conceived as the ideal of a youthful See also:warrior, and was for a time associated with Aphrodite and Eros. He then appears as a vigorous youth, beardless, with See also:curly See also:hair, broad See also:head and stalwart shoulders, with See also:helmet and chlamys. In the See also:Villa Ludovisi statue (after the See also:style of See also:Lysippus) he appears seated, in an attitude of thought; his arms are laid aside, and Eros peeps out at his feet. In the See also:Borghese Ares (also taken for See also:Achilles) he is See also:standing, his only armour being the helmet on his head. He also appears in many other See also:groups, with Aphrodite, in See also:marble and on engraved gems of Roman times. But before this grouping had recommended itself to the Romans, with their legend of Mars and See also:Rhea Silvia, the Greek Ares had again become under Macedonian influence a bearded, armed and powerful god.

End of Article: ARES

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