What does ares look like

History Talk 0. Categories 12 Olympians Male Gods Immortals. Fan Feed 1 Zeus 2 Ares 3 Aphrodite. Universal Conquest Wiki. Ares is the god of war, one of the Twelve Olympian gods and the son of Zeus and Hera. In literature Ares represents the violent and physical untamed aspect of war, which is in contrast to Athena who represents military strategy and generalship as the goddess of intelligence.

Although Ares embodied the physical aggression necessary for success in war, the Greeks were ambivalent toward him because he was a dangerous, overwhelming force that was insatiable in battle.

He is well known as the lover of Aphrodite , who was married to Hephaestus , and though Ares plays a limited role in literature, when he does appear in myths it is typically facing humiliation.

For example, one famous story of Ares and Aphrodite exposes them to ridicule by the gods when her husband Hephaestus trapped them both naked in a bed using a clever device he made.

The Roman counterpart to Ares was Mars , who was known as a father to the Roman people. Because of this, he was a less aggressive and physical form, revealing a more calm and understanding demeanour.

If you use any of the content on this page in your own work, please use the code below to cite this page as the source of the content. Home » Greek Gods » Ares. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. The ancient Greeks had a love-hate relationship with Ares as they knew he was important yet were also fully aware of the more negative aspects of the said deity. Athens who primarily worshipped Athena often wrote him as a psychotic brute and coward, but Sparta worshipped him as their primary deity, as Athens did more trade with the rest of Greece and placed a higher value on diplomacy their outlook on Ares is the one that permeated most of the ancient world.

Even among Spartans, Ares was portrayed as violent, but since ancient Sparta was an extreme militant city-state where things like public drafting for those as young as ten, the war-god's traits were seen in a favorable light, emphasizing the importance of the warrior mentality. Like almost all deities Ares is more accurately described as amoral rather than evil as he had both positive and negative traits much like the concepts he embodied , though his negative traits are shown more often, and a number of people who study Greek mythology believe that Ares is the closest thing the Greek pantheon has to a "god of evil," as he is extremely brutal, even by Olympian standards, blanketing himself in the skins of his victims.

For this, and many other reasons, he is greatly loathed by his fellow deities, who often speak negatively of him. As a god, Ares' powers are technically omnipotent.

However, each god has a role which they do not often stray away from. Ares is most often associated with fire, one poem describes a city as bursting into flame merely upon the unsheathing of his blade and numerous plays associate him with fire. Ares is credited as a great warrior of master weapon use, as god of war his technical fighting skills were second to none, but this does not include tactics, something Athena specifically emphasized and he ignored in favor of brute force and personal combat prowess.

Ares is portrayed as one of the physically strongest gods, at least of the second generation of Olympians, the likes of Zeus and Poseidon were far, far above any of their children. Ares' favorite ability was turning men against each-other. He rode with the goddess of discord, Eris , by his side constantly. Ares loved Eris as her very presence would cause petty bickering, enraged arguments and would cause lines in the sand to be drawn even between dear friends and family, at which point Ares fanned these arguments even further until both sides of any given disagreement were driven into murderous fervor.

This was Ares standard process to sew the seeds of war, have Eris created a base divide between friends and then escalating the disagreements into all out war. Ares' status as a coward is entirely dependent on which version of stories were told.

Ares was stated to be one of the most handsome and beautiful male gods, this trait itself was used by Athenians and Spartans to inform his character in two completely different ways: Athenians attributed Ares' good looks to the fact that he was cowardly and ran from combat the second he personally was endangered leaving the people he incited to die fighting for him; Spartans attributed Ares' good looks to being such a refined warrior that his features remained perfect and unblemished as no one was ever able to lay a single scratch on him.

His favourite haunt is the land of the wild and warlike Thracians. In form and equipment the ideal of warlike heroes, who are therefore called "Ares-like" and "darlings of Ares," he advances, according to Homer, now on foot, now in a chariot drawn by magnificent steeds, attended by his equally bloodthirsty sister Eris strife , his sons Deimos and Phobos fear and fright , and Enyo, the goddess of battle and waster of cities he himself being called Enyalios , rushing in blind rage through indiscriminate slaughter.

Though fighting on the Trojan side, the bloodshed only is dear to his heart. But his unbridled strength and blind valour turn to his disadvantage, and always bring about his defeat in the presence of Athena, the goddess of ordered battalions; he is also beaten by heroes fighting under her leadership, as by Heracles in the contest with Cycnus, and by Diomedes before Troy. And this view of Ares as the bloodthirsty god of battles is in the main that of later times also.