Ares: Greek God of War

Greetings fans of Greek and Roman mythology! After having recently written about Persephone, Hades, and Hephaestus, I will now move on to the brother of Hephaestus, Ares.  Since Hephaestus was the son of Zeus and Hera, so too would Ares be the sibling of Hephaestus (the only other child of Zeus and Hera was Hebe, the cupbearer of the gods, who married Heracles).  The symbol of Ares was this:  ♂.  This symbol depicts the shield and spear of Ares (or Mars, the Roman name for Ares), which has become a symbol for man, just as the hand mirror of Aphrodite (♀) became the symbol for women.
     Ares, despite the fact that he was the god of war, was quite cowardly.  He would not think twice about switching sides during a battle if the other side were winning.  He would also not think twice about killing a rival.  In the story of Adonis and the boar, the beautiful goddess Aphrodite was madly in love with Adonis, probably the most handsome of all mortals.  Before this, of course, up on Mt. Olympus, Aphrodite was in love with Ares, despite the fact that she was married to Hephaestus.  We must keep in mind that we are dealing with gods, and gods do not behave like (most) mortals do.  Everything seems pretty crazy, but that's only because we're not gods!  Anyway, Aphrodite decided to get married to Adonis, and settle down with him on Earth, leaving Mt. Olympus itself.  Adonis must have been one amazingly handsome guy. But then, of course, Aphrodite would do anything for love since she was, after all, the goddess in charge of that overwhelming emotion!
    Aphrodite and Adonis were living simply a peaceful, beautiful life until the friends of Adonis began bugging Adonis to go hunting with them.  Adonis had once loved to go hunting, but Aphrodite, once getting married to him, would no longer let Adonis go on the hunt since he might get injured, or perhaps die.  In those days, hunters would go after boars, terribly large pigs with great tusks that could easily gore and kill a human.  Hunters hunted only with spears in those days, so they had to get close to their prey (unlike today, where you can comfortably shoot prey from a tree, or from half a mile away).  Boars, terribly strong (even my Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs are enormously strong, and they are relatively small ... I had to move one once from my garden to its enclosure, and it almost killed me!), would often rip through hunters, eviscerating them on the spot.  One can little wonder then why Aphrodite was nervous about Adonis going after such a ferocious creature.
     But one day the friends of Adonis had had enough.  They hadn't seen him for months, and they missed their hunting buddy, so one morning, very early before Aphrodite got up, they knocked on the door of Adonis and asked him if he'd like to go hunting with them, since there was a terribly ferocious boar that had just wandered into that neck of the woods, and the hunt for him would be fine and highly exciting.  When Adonis hesitated, his friends began to taunt him; you can imagine them calling him "chicken" and "hen-pecked" and "boar bullied" and things that were probably less nice than that.  Adonis, young and foolish, caved, hoping that Aphrodite wouldn't find out. Off he went on the hunt.
     And did not return.  Unfortunately, the boar had killed Adonis.  Aphrodite found his dead body, abandoned by his friends (no one wanted to face her wrath).  Aphrodite mourned and mourned, but eventually returned to Mt. Olympus and Ares (oh, and Hephaestus, when she wanted some new jewels).
     Aphrodite never discovered that the boar had actually been Ares in disguise.

*Interesting Fact* The goddess Athena, Goddess of Wisdom and Battle, was so much more powerful than Ares that a mere glance from her could cast aside the great spear of Ares when he hurled it at her.

*Interesting Fact* Another enormous boar, the Calydonian Boar, was the subject of another even more famous hunt, which I shall write about when I discuss the heroine Atalanta.  Yet another boar, the Erymanthian Boar, was the 4th Labor of Heracles.

*Interesting Fact*  Mars, the Roman name of Ares, is nicknamed the "Red Planet" because of its red sands.  The planet was so named Mars because it resembled the color of blood, much of which is shed during war.  Note that the names of the planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto --  yes, yes, I know that Pluto was demoted, but really ...) are named after the Roman names of Greek gods.

*Interesting Fact* The month March was also named after Mars.  Martial campaigns would take a break during the winter months, but when spring began in March, armies would once again go off to war.

*Interesting Fact* The Latin name for our day "Tuesday" is Martis, or "Day of Mars."  This crossed directly over into Spanish Martes, French Mardi, and Italian Martedi.  All, apparently, good days for war.  Our day Tuesday, in fact, is named after the Norse god of war, Tiw.  So, "Tiw's Day," or "Tuesday."

*Mythology Book Corner*   The story of the Erymanthian Boar is nicely told and depicted in a stunningly illustrated graphic novel entitled Hercules: The Twelve Labors: A Greek Myth.  All the other 12 Labors of Heracles are described as well.  For those of you who love to read myths and love to see pictures as well, this book is certainly for you!

Interested in English vocabulary and its Latin and Greek roots?  Take a look at
www.wordempire.com, a site which describes the most comprehensive dictionary available based on English derivatives that come from Latin and Greek root words.