Did you know that Ares, the Greek god of war, was usually depicted
negatively while the goddess Athena, also associated with warfare, was not.
Hello and welcome to World History Encyclopedia! My name is Kelly and today's video is all about
probably the least popular god in the Greek pantheon - Ares, the god of war. Don't forget,
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Ares was the ancient Greek god of war and is described in Hesiod's "Theogony" as
'shield-piercing Ares' and 'city-sacking Ares', while Athena was the goddess of
warcraft and strategy, Ares was the god of the brutal, violent and bloody side of war,
and loved war for war's sake. He was the son of Zeus and Hera and had two siblings Eileithyia,
the goddess of childbirth and the labour pains and Hebe, the goddess of youth and a cup-bearer of
the gods, although in Homer's "Iliad", Eris, the goddess of strife is also named a sister of Ares.
Ares never married but did fall in love with the goddess of love Aphrodite, who in turn was
married to Hephaestus, the god of metallurgy, and together they had a bunch of kids; Deimos, the
god of terror and dread, Phobos, the god of panic and fear, Eros, the god of love, Anteros, the god
of either requited love or unrequited love, and Harmonia, the goddess of harmony. He also had a
whole bunch of mortal kids - as many of the Greek gods do, including the Amazons, Alcippe, Diomedes,
Cycnus, and as Mars, his Roman equivalent, Romulus and Remus. Ares had an unquenchable
thirst for conflict and in the stories, he's often seen in Greek myths accompanied by
Phobos and Deimos, as well as his sister Eris and his charioteer Ennyo. Ares was associated with the
serpent and some birds, like the vulture, and he was depicted either wearing or holding his helm
and sometimes with a shield and spear, or a sheathed sword. These common military
attributes often makes it hard to distinguish Ares from other warrior figures in Greek art.
Sometimes, he was depicted on a chariot being pulled by fire-breathing horses and his battle
with Herakles, which we will get to very soon, was a popular subject for 6th century BCE attic faces
When Hera gave birth to Hephaestus, she was ashamed that he was ugly and crippled,
and so she cast him from Olympus and he landed on the island of Lemnos. He was cared for by Thetis
and perhaps the daughter of Oceanus, Eurynome, and constructed his workshop on the island's volcano,
and became a skilled metalsmith. Unsurprisingly, Hephaestus was very unimpressed with the way his
mother had treated him, and so he sent some gifts to Olympus, and one of them
was a golden throne for Hera. The second Hera sat down, she was bound fast by invisible chains
and Hephaestus would only release her if she agreed to his marriage to Aphrodite.
Of course as we know already, Aphrodite was very unfaithful to Hephaestus and had numerous
affairs with Ares. Hephaestus didn't just sit back and let this happen though, oh no.
In book eight of the "Odyssey", you will find the story of how Hephaestus was told by Helios,
the sun, of his wife's infidelity. Hephaestus worked on invisible chains that couldn't be
broken and then covered his marriage bed with the chains. Hephaestus pretended to leave for the town
of Lemnos, but Ares was watching and waiting, and once Hephaestus left, Ares entered the home where
Aphrodite had just returned from visiting Zeus. The two went to the bed and were immediately
bound by Hephaestus' invisible net. Hephaestus returned and called upon all the Olympians
to have a look at the adulterous pair held captive to which all the gods roared with laughter.
In Homer's "Iliad", Ares was on the side of the Trojans;
he's shown sometimes leading them into battle alongside Hector,
and is depicted in a pretty negative light with epithets like 'hateful',
'the man-killer', 'the war-glutton' and the 'curse of men'. Although he is the god of bloodthirsty
war, he is shown to be weaker than the goddess Athena, who knocks him out with a large rock,
and he loses a fight with the Achaean hero, Diomedes, who even manages to injure the god with
his spear - although Diomedes was getting a bit of help from Athena. After being injured, his scream
is described as like the shouts of ten thousand men and then he retreats to Olympus for healing.
Ares and the mortal hero Herakles were often in conflict with each other, beginning with two of
Herakles twelve labours including children of Ares. One of Herakles labours was to retrieve
the mares of Diomedes. Diomedes was the son of Ares and his mares were man-eating,
so Herakles fed Diomedes to the mares and thereby completed his labour. The second was when Herakles
had to retrieve the girdle from Hippolyta, who was an Amazon and daughter of Ares. Initially Herakles
was welcomed by the Amazons, until a rumour spread that he was actually going to capture Hippolyta,
who was the Queen of the Amazons at the time, and then enslave them all.
This rumour brought on a battle and according to one version of the myth, during the fight
Herakles killed Hippolyta, took the belt and left, although another version of the story
tells it a bit more peacefully and no one dies. Another confrontation between Ares and Herakles
is known from the ancient poem the "Shield of Herakles" which was written in the style
of Hesiod, but is now believed to have been written by someone else, later on. Kyknos
was the son of Ares who would invite guests over for dinner and then murder them, and he would rob
pilgrims who were on their way to the Sanctuary of Apollo. One day, Herakles and his nephew Iolaos
were travelling and met Kyknos and Ares. They all stopped by the Sanctuary of Apollo and Kyknos
challenged Herakles to a fight. Herakles wins the battle and kills Kyknos, and then in revenge Ares
tries to kill Herakles, but the hero has Athena on his side. Ares is wounded by Herakles in the
thigh and begins to weep before his sons Phobos and Deimos take him back to Olympus for healing.
Of course, there are a couple of myths where Ares isn't the bad guy;
like how after Sisyphus, the man who cheated death twice,
bound Thanatos, the personification of death, in Hades and then escaped the Underworld back to
life. Ares was the one to free Thanatos from his bonds, and when the twin giants Otus and Ephialtes
tried to storm Olympus by stacking mountains on top of each other, Ares was bound by the giants
and imprisoned in a bronze jar or cauldron for a whole year, until he was freed by Hermes.
In myth, Ares was accused of killing Halirrhothios, the son of Poseidon,
near a stream below the Athenian acropolis. On a hill near the stream, a special court known as the
Areopagos was convened to hear the case. Ares was acquitted when it was revealed that Halirrhothios
had forced himself upon his daughter Alcippe, and from then on in Athens, the Areopagos
was the place for trials that involved murder and impiety, as well as other issues of course.
There weren't many temples to Ares, but he was held in great esteem in Sparta, a Greek
city-state with a strong militaristic culture. Although he wasn't widely worshipped, cult sites
with temples to Ares have been found on Crete, and he was mentioned in the Linear B tablets found at
Knossos - the great palace complex of Crete, at Argos, Athens, Megalopolis and Tegea, among other
places. He also had a cult in Thrace and was popular among the Colchians on the Black Sea.
Why do you think the ancient Greeks had two different gods, Ares and Athena,
responsible for different aspects of war, rather than one single war deity? Let us know what you
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