The Origins Of Ares
According to Greek mythology, Ares is the son of the supreme god Zeus, king of the gods, and Hera, queen of the gods. Although many consider him as being the god of war, this is theory is somewhat inaccurate. Ares is actually more or less the god of bloodlust; the savagery of warfare, and the bloodshed. His sister, Athena, was actually his half sister, begotten my Zeus and a mistress other than Hera. Athena was the god of strategic war; planning, tactics, and deliberate moves forward, whereas Ares was more barbaric in nature. As Mars, in Roman mythology, he was held in higher esteem than Minerva; Minerva was Athena’s Roman counterpart, although many confuse Diana or Artemis, as the Roman version of Athena.
Ares was considered to have been born far way among the barbarians known as the Thracians, according to Greek mythology, who influenced the violent and fierce unpredictability of warfare in his nature. His female counterpart, the goddess Athena was born from Zeus’s forehead after he swallowed her pregnant mother. According to mythology, she was dressed in full armor when born. The animals sacred to Ares are the scavengers that feast on the dead after battle; dogs and vultures. The Hellenes, or the Greeks, as they were known before history was assembled, had a wariness and distrust of Ares. To put things simply, Ares was the god of fighting dirty. After he was discovered to be Aphrodite’s secret lover, he withdrew from the other gods. Also as recorded in Greek mythology, once Ares’ secret affair was discovered, he ostracised himself, and returned to the Thracians.
Ares is depicted as being in a carriage in the illustrations and art produced by the Greeks, being pulled by four immortal, fire breathing stallions. In southern Greece, his most sacred bird was the vulture, but in other regions, other fowl that were sacred to the god were the barn owl, woodpecker, and the eagle owl. According to the Argonautica, these birds protected the shrine to Ares built by the Amazons, on an island in the Black Sea. Dogs were sacrificed in Sparta, at one point to the god Enyalios who may have been a separate deity of war, but is often synonymous with Ares. Eventually, in Sparta, a dog was sacrificed to Ares the night before battle, in the hope of enlisting the god’s aid in the fight.
