The Names of Ares

The origin of the name is uncertain. Possibly, along with Mars, it is connected with the Sanskrit mar and the Vedic maruts, meaning "storm divinities", or the Greek root meaning "to carry away". The Spartans called him Ares Enyalios (the warlike), while in Olympia he was known as Ares Hippios, god of horses.

Origin and Character

Until their absorption by Rome, the Greeks never achieved lasting political unity, and consequently warfare was endemic among the Hellenic and Hellenistic states. The Romans considered that the Greeks not only loved fighting among themselves but delighted in drawing foreign powers -- especially Rome -- into their petty, interminable feuds. It is interesting that although war was so ubiquitous in Greek history, it was never glorified in the form of a popular and noble war god. It is as though the Greeks sensed that their ungovernable passion for war was their own undoing and the basest aspect of their national character. It is of course very difficult to admit one's flaws in so straightforward a manner, and so it was natural for the Greeks to externalize this self­loathing in the form of a despicable war god and even lay the blame at his feet. While Christian nations have often warred among themselves, and the belligerents have prayed to the same god throughout, war has never been Jehovah's business but humanity's folly. However, war was quite obviously the trade of Ares. Of course, there was no reason for the Greeks to believe that Ares consistently championed a particular city-state, for history had amply demonstrated the vicissitudes of war, so again it was natural for them to regard him as a fickle god who enjoyed bloodshed for its own sake, one who would back any side in a war regardless of the justice of the cause. To the Greeks, Ares was the most evil of the gods, the animal-warrior, the embodiment of primitive rage and unquenchable bloodlust, a wonton and savage butcher.

Symbols

One of the signs for the war god Ares, representing the power of murderous aggression, violence and warfare in ancient Greece was . The Roman symbol for Mars may be derived from it. The symbol for Ares was also drawn and otherwise.

In the French hobo or gypsy sign system meant, "Here there is lots of money, alas very carefully hidden."

Sacred Animals

His bird is the vulture. His animal is the dog.

Associated Deities and Mortals

Ares, "bane of all mankind, crusted with blood," was the son of Zeus and Hera , the king and queen of heaven. He was born in Thrace, a rude and barbarous land to the north of Greece. Except for Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty and one of his many lovers, and also with the exception of his entourage of malevolent deities, he was hated by the Olympian gods, even by his own parents. He went into battle in heavy armor, either on foot or driving a chariot, accompanied by his sons Phobos and Deimos (Fear and Panic). Also in his host were his bloodthirsty sister Enyo, goddess of war, his sister Eris, goddess of strife, and the Keres, macabre goddesses of death who wandered the battlefield in search of bodies to carry off to Hades, god of the dead. Deimos and Phobos, being personifications of the emotions fear and panic, and have no myth of their own. Theseus is said to have sacrificed to Phobos before joining battle with the Amazons. When Troy was being taken, Enyo, revelling in the drunkenness of unmixed blood, danced all night throughout the city.

Besides Phobos and Deimos, whose mother was Aphrodite, the tales of the Greeks speak of other children of Ares. The nymph Harmonia was also born to Aphrodite as a result of her adulterous union with Ares. This daughter of the war god later became by him the mother of the Amazons, the race of warrior-women.

Alcippe, the daughter of Ares by the nymph Aglauros, was raped by Halirrhothius, son of Poseidon. Ares avenged his girl by killing her attacker, but was then indicted by Poseidon before the tribunal of the other Olympian gods and was tried on the hill in front of the Acropolis in Athens. Ares was acquitted, however, and in honor of the tribunal the hill was named Areopagus, which was thereafter the site of criminal trials.

Oenomaus was the son born to Harpina, daughter of the river god Asopus, after having been seduced by Ares. An oracle had prophesied his death at the hand of a son-in-law, so Oenomaus decreed that he would only give his daughter Hippodameia to the man who could beat him in a chariot race, being quite convinced that the winged horses given to him by his father would defeat any suitor. However, with the aid of Hippodameia's treachery, Pelops fulfilled the tragic prophesy.

Several other sons of Ares also met with unhappy fates. Phlegyas, his son by Chryse, was killed by Apollo. Another son named Diomedes, king of the Bistone tribe in Thrace and not to be confused with the Diomedes mentioned in the Illiad, died at the hands of Heracles. Cycnus was Ares's son by either Pelopeia or Pyrene, and was as predatory as his father. He took up the occupation of falling upon unwary travelers near his home in Tempe, and with the bones of his victims he was in the process of constructing a temple to his father's honor. The gruesome enterprise came to an abrupt end when the last traveler Cycnus ever attacked turned out to be Heracles. Ares came to the aid of his son, but Heracles bested them both, killing the son and wounding the father as well.

Worship

Little is known about the worship of Ares, who may have been a Thracian god before he was adopted into the Greek Pantheon. His cult was particularly strong among the barbarous and warlike peoples of Thrace and Scythia, but "the maniac, the dunce, the bane of all mankind" apparently did not receive much attention in the more civilized parts of the Greek world. Strangely though, this bitter enemy of Athena had a temple in Athens. Also, a spring was consecrated to him in Thebes.

It is said that before engaging the enemy, Greek armies would send a torch-bearer, who was thought to be under the protection of Ares and therefore inviolable, into the field between the two hosts. He would toss his torch in front of the enemy lines to disperse the spirits of their warrior ancestors.

The following hymn to Ares is recorded by Homer:

Ares, exceeding in strength, chariot-rider, golden-helmed, doughty in heart, shield-bearer, Savior of cities, harnessed in bronze, strong of arm, unwearying, mighty with the spear, O defense of Olympus, father of warlike Victory, ally of Themis, stern governor of the rebellious, leader of righteous men, sceptred King of manliness, who whirl your fiery sphere among the planets in their sevenfold courses through the aether wherein your blazing steeds ever bear you above the third firmament of heaven; hear me, helper of men, giver of dauntless youth! Shed down a kindly ray from above upon my life, and strength of war, that I may be able to drive away bitter cowardice from my head and crush down the deceitful impulses of my soul. Restrain also the keen fury of my heart which provokes me to tread the ways of blood-curdling strife. Rather, O blessed one, give you me boldness to abide within the harmless laws of peace, avoiding strife and hatred and the violent fiends of death.

Literary References

Ironically, the Greek war god was remarkably inept in single combat against gods, Giants, and mortal heroes alike. Otus and Ephialtes, twin Giants bent on overthrowing the Olympians, captured Ares and bound him in brass chains. The gods of Olympus did not hurry to rescue the detested Ares, and it was thirteen lunar months before Hermes, the fleetest of the gods, was dispatched to free him under cover of night. Ares was also bested by Hephaestus, the lame blacksmith of Olympus, on two occasions.

Hephaestus, alone among the gods, was deformed from birth, and Hera, not exactly a loving and devoted mother, was so ashamed of the ugliness she had brought into the world that she threw him into the sea from the peaks of Olympus. For nine years, Hephaestus lived on a deep grotto with the sea nymphs Thetis and Eurynome, fashioning many useful things for them and at the same time laboring to avenge himself against his mother. Then one day he sent his mother a gift of an ornately crafted throne of gold, which she of course sat upon, but when she tried to rise she found that she was held fast by some invisible force. The Olympians tried to free Hera, but to no avail, and Hephaestus refused to rise up from his grotto and release her. His brother Ares dove into the sea with the intention of hauling him by force back to Olympus, but was compelled to withdraw when Hephaestus pelted him with hot irons. Dionysius, by virtue of being the Greek god of wine, was the original party animal, and he succeeded in getting Hephaestus drunk enough to put him on a mule and lead them up the mountain to the Pantheon. Still, when Hephaestus sobered up, he refused to set his mother free unless the Olympians gave him for a bride the most beautiful of the goddesses, Aphrodite.

But apparently even a match made literally in heaven is no guarantee of marital bliss, and certainly Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty, could not help but be dissatisfied with being married off to the ugliest of the gods. She felt herself strongly attracted to the handsome, animalistic Ares, nor could the impulsive war god restrain his lust for the most desirable woman in the universe. So it too often seems in human affairs as well that the vain and beautiful disdains the unassuming and steady builders of man's hopes and flies instead to embrace the glorious and muscle-bound devastator of his dreams. Homer describes in Book 8 of the Odyssey how the two lovers took advantage of the immortal artisan's absence:

Now to his harp the blinded minstrel sang
of Ares' dalliance with Aphrodite:
how hidden in Hephaestus' house they played
at love together, and the gifts of Ares,
dishonoring Hephaestus' bed -- and how
the word that wounds the heart came to the master
from Helios, who had seen the two embrace;
and when he learned of it, Lord Hephaestus went
with baleful calculation to his forge.
There mightily he armed his anvil block
and hammered out a chain, whose tempered links
could not be sprung or bent; he meant that they should hold.
Those shackles fashioned, hot in wrath Hephaestus
climbed to the bower and the bed of love,
pooled all of his net of chain around the bed posts
and swung it from the rafters overhead --
light as a cobweb even the gods in bliss
could not perceive, so wonderful his cunning.
Seeing his bed now made a snare, he feigned
a journey to the trim stronghold of Lemnos,
the dearest of earth's towns to him. And Ares?
Ah, golden Ares' watch had its reward
when he beheld the great smith leaving home.
How promptly to the famous door he came,
intent on pleasure with sweet Kythereia!
She, who had left her father's side but now,
sat in her chamber when her lover entered;
and tenderly he pressed her hand and said:

"Come and lie down, my darling, and be happy!
Hephaestus is no longer here, but gone
to see his grunting Sintian friends on Lemnos."

And she, too, thought repose would be most welcome,
the pair went into bed -- into a shower
of clever chains, the netting of Hephaestus.
So trussed, they could not move apart, nor rise,
at last they knew there could be no escape,
they were to see the glorious cripple now --
for Helios had spied for him, and told him;
so he turned back, this side of Lemnos Isle,
sick at heart, making his way homeward.
Now in the doorway of the room he stood
while deadly rage took hold of him; his voice,
hoarse and terrible, reached all the gods:

"O Father Zeus, O gods in bliss forever,
here is indecorous entertainment for you,
Aphrodite, Zeus's daughter,
caught in the act, cheating me, her cripple,
with Ares -- devastating Ares.
Cleanlimbed beauty is her joy, not these
bandylegs I came into the world with:
no one to blame but the two gods who bred me!
Come see this pair entwining here
in my own bed! How hot it makes me burn!
I think they may not care to lie much longer,
pressing on one another, passionate lovers;
they'll have enongh of bed together soon.
And yet the chain that bagged them holds them down
till Father sends me back my wedding gifts --
all that I poured out for his damned pigeon,
so lovely, and so wanton."

All the others were crowding in, now to the brazen house --
Poseidon who embraces earth, and Hermes
the runner, and Apollo, lord of Distance.
The goddesses stayed home for shame; but these
munificences ranged there in the doorway,
and irrepressible among them all
arose the laughter of the happy gods.
Gazing hard at Hephaestus' handiwork
the gods in turn remarked among themselves:

"No dash in adultery now."

"The tortoise tags the hare --
Hephaestus catches Ares -- and Ares outran the wind."

"The lame god's craft has pinned him. Now shall he
pay what is due from the gods taken in cuckoldry."

They made these improving remarks to one another,
but Apollo leaned aside to say to Hermes:

"Son of Zeus, beneficent Wayfinder,
would you accept a coverlet of chain, if only
you lay by Aphrodite's golden side?"

To this the Wayfinder replied, shining:

"Would I not, though, Apollo of distances!
Wrap me in chains three times the weight of these,
come goddesses and gods to see the fun;
only let me lie beside the pale-golden one!"

The gods gave way again to peals of laughter,
all but Poseidon, and he never smiled,
but urged Hephaestus to unpinnion Ares,
saying emphatically, in a loud voice:

"Free him; you will be paid, I swear; ask what you will;
he pays up every jot the gods decree."

To this the Great Gamelegs replied:
"Poseidon, lord of the earth-surrounding sea, I should not
swear to a scoundrel's honor. What have I
as surety from you, if Ares leaves me
empty-handed, with my empty chain?"

The Earth-shaker for answer urged him:

"Hephaestus, let us grant he goes, and leaves
the fine unpaid; I swear, then, I shall pay it."

Then said the Great Gamelegs at last:

"No more! You offer terms I cannot well refuse."

And down the strong god bent to set them free,
till disencumbered of their bond, the chain,
the lovers leapt away -- he into Thrace,
while Aphrodite, laughter's darling, fled
to Kypros Isle and Paphos, to her meadow
and altar dim with incense. There the Graces
bathed and anointed her with golden oil --
a bloom that clings upon immortal flesh alone --
and let her folds of mantle fall in glory.

There was a mortal who came between Ares and his queen of beauty, with unhappy results. Adonis was so beautiful as a baby that Aphrodite took him under her protection. She hid him in a chest and asked Persephone to keep it safe. Persephone, who as a child had walked in sunlit golden fields of life-giving grain with her mother Demeter, goddess of vegetation, now seldom saw light, life, or beauty in her new station as queen of the underworld, and when she opened the chest and beheld this beautiful child, she refused to return him to Aphrodite. The goddess of love and beauty went down to the nether world to ransom the young Adonis, but to no avail. She then appealed to her father Zeus, who decreed that the boy should live in the upper world during part of the year, and with Persephone in the nether world for the other part. As the years passed, the boyish beauty of Adonis matured into magnificent manhood and roused the jealousy of Ares. The blood-encrusted god decided to kill his rival. To conceal his crime, Ares assumed the shape of a wild boar one day when Adonis was out hunting, and gored the youth to death. Grief-stricken Aphrodite mourned long and bitterly for her lost Adonis, unaware that he had been murdered by her Immortal lover.

The arch-enemy of Ares, the wanton destroyer, was Athena, the vigilant protector, the cool and intelligent warrior goddess. Strategy was her strength, rather than brute force and unrestrained aggression, and she could easily outwit the raging Ares. As opposed to the war god, the battle-maddened brute who delighted in bloodshed, Athena, in the manner of an illustrious general, considered war to be a regrettably necessary evil, to be won as quickly and as bloodlessly as possible through skill and maneuver. She disdained Ares as a bellowing dullard and missed no opportunity to humble him, while the mere sight of her was enough to put Ares into a rage. The antagonism between these two Immortals is well documented in Homer's account of the Trojan War.

Greek tradition blamed the cause of the Trojan War on a series of events which resulted from the feuding of the Olympians. Eris, who was despised by her fellow Olympians as much as her brother Ares, was intentionally left off the guest list to the wedding of Thetis and Pelaeus, to which all of the other gods were invited. She whose name means "strife" retaliated by tossing a golden apple into the midst of the wedding party. The apple was inscribed: "For the fairest." The resulting discord between Hera, Aphrodite, Athena, and their Immortal partisans in the Pantheon, over the rightful ownership of the golden apple, led Zeus to the conclusion that only a mortal could settle the issue impartially. He chose Paris Alexander, son of King Priam of Troy, to sit in judgement over the three contenders. However, perhaps reason prevailed over jealousy long enough for Hera and Athena to realize that they could not hope to win against Aphrodite -- the very definition of beauty -- in a fair competition, and they succeeded in corrupting the contest into a disgraceful exhibition of bribery. Hera offered Paris more earthly power than any man had ever imagined: dominion over both Europe and Asia. Athena promised him glory beyond his dreams: that he would lead his countrymen into battle and conquer Greece. Power and glory. Against these, what could the goddess of love and beauty offer? Aphrodite appeared before Paris and let her mantle fall. As Paris gazed upon her exquisite nude body, she let it be known that, while he could not have her, he could have the next best thing: the most beautiful mortal woman in the world. Power and glory are difficult to picture -- they are intangibles -- but there is nothing abstract about the sight, the touch, the scent of a woman... the most desirable woman in the universe! His passions aroused, Paris awarded the golden apple to Aphrodite, and Aphrodite promised that he would soon have that most beautiful of all mortals: Helen, daughter of Zeus and Leda. There was just one problem -- Helen was a married woman, and although Aphrodite arranged for Paris to succeed in wooing Helen away from her husband Menalaus, King of Sparta, the same ardor which impelled Paris would not allow Menalaus to happily lose so great a treasure. He called upon all the kings of the Greek city-states to join him in making war against Troy, and either compel Paris to give Helen up, or lay the city waste and return her to Sparta by force.

Ares had two strong personal reasons for supporting the Trojans in the defense of their city against the Greeks. First of all, Paris had chosen Aphrodite, who of course had in return embraced the Trojan cause for her own, and being her lover, Ares always sided with her in Olympian politics. Secondly, one of the goddesses offended by the Judgement of Paris was Athena, whom Ares could not stand, and out of spite Athena chose to support the Greeks. Of course, neither was there love lost between Ares and his mother, and Hera, as the other disappointed contestant, also sided with the Achaeans.

According to Homer, Ares took the field several times in the course of the war in support of his Trojans. While the animal-warrior nearly always seemed incapable of any noble sentiment or deed, he did behave gallantly toward Aphrodite when she was wounded in the hand by Diomedes, son of Tydeus, while attempting to rescue her son Aeneas. As Homer related in Book 5 of the Illiad:

So taunted, faint with pain, she quit the field,
being by wind-running Iris helped away
in anguish, sobbing, while her lovely skin
ran darkness. Then she came upon Ares resting
far to the left, his spearshaft leaning on
a bank of mist; there stood his battle team,
and falling on one knee she begged her brother
for those gold-bangled horses.

"Brother dear, please let me take your team,
do let me have them, to go up to the gods' home Olympos.
I am too dreadfully hurt: a mortal speared me.
Diomedes it was; he'd even fight with Zeus!"

Then Ares gave her the gold-bangled team,
and into the car she stepped, throbbing with pain,
while Iris at her side gathered the reins
and flicked the horses into eager flight.

"Bane of all mankind, crusted with blood, breacher of walls,
why not go in and take this man out of the combat,
this Diomedes, who would try a cast
with Zeus himself? First he attempted Kypris
and cut her lovely hand, then like a fury
came at me."

Apollo turned away to rest in Pergamos, upon the height,
while baleful Ares through the ranks of Trojans
made his way to stiffen them. He seemed
Akamas, a good runner, chief of Thracians,
appealing to the sons of Priam:

"Princes, heirs of Priam in the line of Zeus,
how long will the Akhaians have your leave
to kill your people? Up to the city gates?
Lying in the dust out there is one of us
whom we admire as we do Lord Hektor --
Aineias, noble Ankhises' son.
Come, we can save him from the trampling rout."

Surveying these Akhaians through the ranks
Hektor charged with a sudden cry. Beside him
strong Trojan formations moved ahead,
impelled by Ares and by cold Enyo
who brings the shameless butchery of war.
Ares wielding a gigantic spear
by turns led Hektor on or backed him up,
and as he watched this figure, Diomedes
felt like a traveler halted on a plain,
helpless to cross, before a stream in flood
that roars and spumes down to sea. That traveler
would look once and recoil: so Diomedes
backed away and said to his company:

"Friends, all we can do is marvel at Prince Hektor,
what a spearman he is, and what a fighter!
One of the gods goes with him everywhere
to shield him from a mortal wound. Look! there,
beside him -- Ares in disguise!
Give ground slowly; keep your faces toward the Trojans.
No good pitting ourselves against the gods."

Angered by the unfair advantage taken by Ares, Hera appealed to Zeus:

"Father Zeus, are you not thoroughly sick of Ares?
All those brutal acts of his? How great, how brave
the body of Akhaians he destroyed
so wantonly; he has made me grieve,
while Kypris and Apollo take their pleasure,
egging on that dunce who knows no decency.
Father, you cannot, can you, be annoyed
if I chastise and chase him from the field?"
Then Zeus who gathers cloud replied:
"Go after him. Athena, Hope of Soldiers, is the one
to match with him: she has a wonderous way
of bringing him to grief."

Hera and Athena hastened down to the battlefield and reproached the Greeks for their retreat. Then Diomedes answered Athena:

"I know you, goddess, daughter of Zeus who bears the stormcloud.
With all respect, I can explain, and will.
No fear is in me, and no weariness;
I simply bear in mind your own commands.
You did expressly say I should not face
the blissful gods in fight -- that is, unless
Aphrodite came in. One might feel free
to wound her anyway. So you commanded,
and therefore I am giving ground myself
and ordering all the Argives to retire
shoulder to shoulder here, because I know
the master of battle over there is Ares."

The grey-eyed goddess answered:

"Diomedes, dear to my heart: no matter what I said,
you are excused from it; you must not shrink
from Ares or any other god
while I am with you. Whip your team
toward Ares, hit him, hand to hand, defer
no longer to this maniacal god
by nature evil, two-face everywhere.
Not one hour ago I heard him grunt
his word to Hera and myself to fight
on the Argive side; now he forgets all that
and joins the Trojans."

Even as she spoke, she elbowed Sthenelos aside and threw him,
but gave him a quick hand up from the ground,
while she herself, impetuous for war
mounted with Diomedes. At her step
the oaken axle groaned, having to bear
goddess and hero. Formidable Athena
caught up the whip and reins and drove the horses
hard and straight at Ares.

Brute that he was, just at that point he had begun despoiling
a giant of a man, the Aitolians' best,
Periphas, brilliant scion of Okhesios.
The bloodstained god had downed him. But Athena,
making herself invisible to Ares,
put on the helm of the Lord of the Undergloom.
Then Ares saw Diomedes, whirled, and left
Periphas lying where he fell. Straight onward
for Diomedes lunged the ruffian god.
When they arrived in range of one another,
Ares, beating his adversary's horses,
rifled his spear over the yoke and reins
with murderous aim. Athena, grey-eyed goddess,
with one hand caught and deflected it
and sent it bounding harmless from the car.
Now Diomedes put his weight behind
his own bronze-headed spear. Pallas Athena
rammed it at Ares' belted waist so hard
she put a gash in his fair flesh, and pulled
the spearhead out again. Then brazen Ares
howled to heaven, terrible to hear
as roaring from ten thousand men in battle
when long battalions clash. A pang of fear
ran through the hearts of Trojans and Akhaians,
deafened by insatiable Ares' roar.

Like a black vapor from a thunderhead
riding aloft on stormwind brewed by heat,
so brazen Ares looked to Diomedes
as he rose heavenward amid the clouds.
High on Olympos, crag of the immortals,
he came to rest by the Lord Zeus. Aching,
mortified, he showed his bleeding wound
and querulously addressed him:

"Father Zeus, how do you take this insubordination?
What frightful things we bear from one another
doing good turns to men! And I must say
we all hold it against you. You conceived
a daughter with no prudence, a destroyer,
given to violence. We other gods
obey you, as submissive as you please,
while she goes unreproved, never a word
a gesture of correction comes from you --
only begetter of the insolent child.
She is the one who urged Diomedes on
to mad attempts on the immortals -- first
he closed with Kypris, cut her palm, and now
he hurled himself against me like a fury.
It was my speed that got me off, or I
should still be there in pain among the dead,
the foul dead -- or undone by further strokes
of cutting bronze."

But Zeus who amasses cloud regarded him
with frowning brows and said:

"Do not come whining here, you two-face brute,
most hateful to me of all the Olympians.
Combat and brawling are your element.
This beastly, incorrigible truculence
comes from your mother, Hera, whom I keep
but barely in my power, say what I will.
You come to grief, I think, at her command.
Still, I will not have you suffer longer.
I fathered you, after all;
your mother bore you as a son to me.
If you had been conceived by any other
and born so insolent, then long ago
your place would have been far below the gods."

With this he told Paieon to attend him,
and sprinkling anodyne upon his wound
Paieon undertook to treat and heal him
who was not born for death.

As wild fig sap when dipped in liquid milk will curdle it
as quickly as you stir it in, so quickly
Paieon healed impetuous Ares' wound.
Then Hebe bathed him, mantled him afresh,
and down he sat beside Lord Zeus,
glowing again in slendor.

And soon again to Zeus's home retired
Argive Hera, Boiotian Athena
who made the bane of mankind quit the slaughter.

Later in the war, in Book 21, the immortal enemies clashed again, and once more Ares came out the worse for it. With leveled spear, he charged Athena and roared:

"Why do you drive the gods to quarrel once more,
dogfly, with your bold and stormy ways,
and the violent heart that sets on you? Remember
telling Diomedes to hit me hard?
Remember: you yourself, taking the spear
quite openly, made a thrust at me, and gashed
my noble flesh? Now in your turn, for that
and all you've done, I think you'll have to pay!"

With this he struck hard at the stormcloud shield
that trails the rain of heaven; even a bolt
from Zeus will not undo it. Blood-encrusted
Ares hit it with his giant spear.
Recoiling, in her great hand she picked up
a boulder lying there, black, jagged, massive,
left by men of old as a boundary stone,
and hurling it hit Ares' neck. His knees
gave way and down he went on seven hundred
feet of earth, his long mane in the dust,
and armor clanged upon him. Laughing at him,
Athena made her vaunt above him:

"Fool, you've never learned how far superior
I'm glad to say I am. Stand up to me?
Lie there: you might fulfill your mother's curse,
baleful as she is, incensed at you,
because you switched to Trojans from Akhaians."

For all the favorable comparisons between her character and that of Ares, Athena was not always the noble and cool-headed warrior. It can be said that she violated the rules of civilized warfare (and what soldier does not hope that this is not an oxymoron) when she assaulted the noncombatant Aphrodite, who only appeared on the battlefield to evacuate the wounded Ares to Olympus. Then, like a common bully, she boasted to the gods of her easy triumph:

Now Aphrodite, Zeus's daughter, taking
Ares' hand, began to help him away,
as he wheezed hard and fought to get his breath.
But Hera saw her. She called out to Athena:

"Daughter of Zeus the Stormking, what a couple!
There that dogfly goes, escorting Ares,
bane of mankind, out of the deadly war
amid the battle din. Go after them!"

Athena followed, in a flash, with joy,
and from the side struck Aphrodite's breast
with doubled fist, so that her knees went slack,
her heart faint, and together she and Ares
lay in a swoon upon the earth. Athena
said derisively:

"If only all the gods who would assist the Trojans
came to fight the Argives with such power!
If only they were as bold as these, and tough
as Aphrodite was, rescuing Ares
under my nose! In that case, long ago
we should have dropped the war -- for long ago
we should have carried Illion by storm."

This is perhaps the earliest recorded example of a cheap shot.

Representations in Art

There were few sculptures of the unpopular Ares. Most representations of him are found in vase paintings. Depictions of him ranged from a bearded and heavily armored warrior in earlier times to later appearances as young and nude except for a helmet and spear, indicative of a softening of his character in Greek religion.