Ares: God of War and Dance

Welcome back, Greeks and Geeks! Today, I am going to be telling you about Ares, the Greek God of war and, sometimes, dancing. This is a bit of a longer story, so strap yourselves in!

Ares was much more praised as his Roman counterpart, Mars, but the Ancient Greeks did not worship him as much, apart from the Spartans, who devoted every aspect of their lives to the god. The other eleven Olympians didn’t care much for him either.

Ares was the first son of Zeus and Hera, and if you are at all familiar with their parenting skills, you would know they are really bad at it. Zeus stated outright that he hated Ares, and would banish him to Tartarus if he was not his son. Therefore, the other gods did not go out of their way to be kind to the war god.

When he was a boy, he was very rambunctious. Being a child god of war, you can imagine all the things he got up to. He eventually got into trouble with two giant twins, called the Aloadae (or Aloadai, depending on the spelling), who captured him and kept him locked in a bronze jar for thirteen months.

Though he was a god and had immortal strength, he could not escape. Hermes discovered he was trapped, and rescued him.

Following his rescue, Hera sent him away from Mount Olympus, to be raised by Priapus, who was a deformed phallic god. Priapus taught Ares everything he knew, but before Ares learned anything about the art of war, he had to learn how to dance first.

Despite being the god of war, he was not how many would think he is. He is not always ready to fight, or an angry, blood-thirsty god. In fact, he was actually quite caring.

Unlike many of his fellow gods, he was not disrespectful to women. He never tricked or forced a woman to be with him, and he cared for the people he was with, both romantically and sexually. In fact, he even defended women who were forced to do anything by a man.

(TW: Sexual Assault) His daughter, Alcippe, was raped by Halirrhothius, the son of Poseidon, after she rejected his initial advances. Ares stopped Halirrhothius and brutally killed him before he could harm his daughter any more.

When Poseidon learned of the murder of his son, he demanded that Ares be taken to court (which would be the first court trial in history). At the time, it was common for the gods to force women into sexual relationships, so many of the male gods probably thought Ares was out of his mind, or overreacting, for saving and defending his daughter.

Thankfully, Ares was found not guilty of murder. His murdering of the son of Poseidon was a unique reaction, as he took the time to understand the pain that women went through.

(This is one of the reasons Ares is one of my favorite gods. He should be your favorite, too.)

Ares’ more headstrong, bloodthirsty side was often seen the most when he was defending his family. Many of the fights he got into were a result of him trying to avenge their death or suffering, or by being on their side.

During the Trojan War, Ares sided with his lover, Aphrodite, rather than siding with Zeus and the rest of the gods. Ares fought with everything he had to defend Aphrodite, but when he and Athena had their fight, he was defeated.

Ares and Aphrodite’s affair was infamous, probably due to how other Olympian’s responded to it. Ares and Aphrodite fell in love before she was forced to marry Hephaestus, and they continued their relationship in secret once they were married.

Hephaestus discovered their affair after being told by Helios, and he hatched a plan to trap them and expose them and their affair to all the other gods and goddesses.

He made a bronze net that would only deploy once Ares and Aphrodite were engaged in a compromising position, and once it was and they were trapped, Hephaestus barged into the room with various other gods, and they all laughed at the two trapped Olympians.

However, Ares had the last laugh since he fathered as many as ten children for Aphrodite, while its unknown if Hephaestus fathered any.

Another instance of him defending his family was with the death of his son, Cycnus. Cycnus was a pretty bad dude, having plans to build a temple for Ares out of bones of humans and animals. He was eventually killed by Hercules, who was ordered by the gods to do so.

Ares was enraged by his son’s death, and tried to kill Hercules for it. Athena tried to stop him, but Ares kept on going for Hercules before, eventually, he was injured by him.

Ares, though a war god who did get into trouble occasionally, was always caring and respectful to those he cared for, unlike many of his fellow Olympians. And despite his war-like nature, he wasn’t the best fighter. In his most famous fights and battles, he lost.

Ares had a bed rep simply due to him being the god of war, but war is not always anger and bloodthirstiness, but also an art and acts of revenge or loyalty, which Ares was, through and through.

As always, thank you for reading, and I hope to see you again soon. Αντίο, Σοφία.