Ares

Greek mythology – Present

God of war’s rage and bloodshed; less honored in Greece than Athena, who stands for strategy rather than frenzy.

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Ares was the Greek god of war as frenzy and blood, the son of Zeus and Hera. Greeks needed him to explain the terror of battle, but they rarely made him a favorite. Homer often shows other gods mocking him. Athena is the contrast: she is war as plan, he is war as rage. That contrast is the teaching point. When students meet Athena protecting Odysseus, they are meeting a goddess who prizes self-control. Ares is what happens when fighting has no craft. He has fewer great temples than Athena or Apollo; even that gap is evidence of Greek values. How we know. The Iliad is the main literary source. Compare Athena’s contest for Athens with Ares’s thin civic role, then the Odyssey journey.

Ares

Further reading