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Athens named its most solemn homicide court the Areopagus, “Hill of Ares,” after the tradition that Ares himself was tried there by the assembled gods for killing Poseidon’s son Halirrhothius, who had assaulted his daughter Alcippe. The court that emerged from this myth became, for centuries, the body that judged the most serious crimes in Athenian law, a striking legacy for a god ancient sources otherwise treat with open disdain. This tension, a deity ancient Greeks rarely praised yet whose mythology underwrites one of Athens’s most important legal institutions, runs through everything Ares represents: violence that a civilization cannot simply banish, however uncomfortable it makes that civilization.
Son of Zeus and Hera
Ares is son of Zeus and Hera, making him one of the few major gods born from the king and queen’s legitimate union rather than one of Zeus’s many affairs. This legitimate birth did nothing to secure him respect among the other gods; in the Iliad, Zeus himself tells Ares directly that he is the most hateful god on Olympus to him, a remarkably blunt paternal assessment that ancient audiences would have understood as characterizing Ares’s entire reputation.
War's Violence, Not Its Strategy
Ares governs war’s raw violence, bloodshed, and chaos, a domain that pointedly distinguishes him from Athena, the other major war deity. Athena embodies discipline, strategy, and fighting for justified cause; Ares embodies combat’s appetite for violence regardless of cause or outcome. Greek narrative consistently portrays Athena as superior to Ares in direct confrontation, a symbolic ranking of strategic wisdom over undisciplined bloodlust that recurs throughout the mythological record.
A God More Honored in Thrace Than in Greece
While mainland Greek sources treat Ares with consistent distaste, ancient writers including Herodotus record that Thracian peoples to Greece’s northeast held Ares in genuinely high regard, treating him as a principal deity of their pantheon. This regional variation is worth noting: Ares’s poor reputation was not universal across the ancient Mediterranean, it was specifically a Greek literary and religious judgment, reflecting Greek cultural values about the proper, disciplined conduct of war rather than any universal ancient consensus about violence itself.
Caught in Hephaestus's Net
Ares’s most famous myth involves his affair with Aphrodite, wife of Hephaestus. When the sun god Helios reports the affair to Hephaestus, the smith god crafts an unbreakable, invisible net and catches the lovers in bed, then invites the other gods to witness their humiliation. Ancient sources treat this scene with open comedy, the other gods reportedly laughing at the spectacle, a rare instance of Ares appearing not as a threat but as an object of ridicule.
Wounded by a Mortal
In the Trojan War, Ares supports the Trojan side, but even he proves vulnerable to mortal opposition. The hero Diomedes, aided directly by Athena, wounds Ares with his spear, sending him fleeing to Olympus with a scream Homer describes as equivalent to nine or ten thousand men shouting in battle simultaneously. This moment demonstrates that Ares’s battlefield dominance, however fearsome, is not absolute, and can be overcome through the combination of mortal courage and Athena’s strategic favor.
Children of Fear, Panic, and Harmony
With Aphrodite, Ares fathers several children, including Phobos (Fear) and Deimos (Panic), personified abstractions who accompany him onto the battlefield, and Harmonia, who despite her name born of war and love’s union later marries the founding hero Cadmus and becomes queen of Thebes, a genealogical detail some scholars read as symbolically resolving the tension between violence and civilized order through her eventual civic marriage.
Mars: A Roman God Far More Honored Than His Greek Counterpart
Ares’s Roman counterpart Mars occupies a dramatically higher status than his Greek original. Mars features centrally in Rome’s founding mythology as father of Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of Rome itself, making him a foundational figure in Roman civic identity and military virtue in a way Ares never achieved within the more loosely organized and critically minded Greek religious world.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why was Ares so disliked among the Olympian gods?
Ares embodied war’s raw, undisciplined violence and bloodlust, regardless of cause. Zeus himself tells Ares directly in the Iliad that he is the most hateful god to him on Olympus.
Was Ares worshipped positively anywhere in the ancient world?
Yes. Ancient sources including Herodotus record that Thracian peoples held Ares in genuinely high regard as a principal deity, unlike the consistent distaste found in mainland Greek sources.
What happened when Hephaestus caught Ares with Aphrodite?
Hephaestus crafted an invisible, unbreakable net, caught the lovers in bed, and invited the other gods to witness their humiliation, a scene ancient sources treat with open comedy.
Why is Ares's Roman counterpart Mars so much more respected?
Mars features centrally in Rome’s founding mythology as father of Romulus and Remus, giving him foundational status in Roman civic identity that Ares never held in Greek religion.
Kaiqui Damasceno is a mythology writer and researcher dedicated to exploring the stories, gods, heroes, and ancient traditions that shaped human culture. Through engaging storytelling and thoughtful analysis, Kaiqui brings mythology to life, uncovering the deeper meanings, conflicts, symbols, and timeless lessons hidden within ancient myths.
