Ares

Not to be confused with ARES (artist).

Ares (Ancient Greek: Ἄρης, Árēs) is the Greek god of war and courage. He is one of the Twelve Olympians, and the son of Zeus and Hera. The Greeks were ambivalent towards him. He embodies the physical valour necessary for success in war but can also personify sheer brutality and bloodlust, in contrast to his sister, the armoured Athena, whose martial functions include military strategy and generalship. An association with Ares endows places, objects, and other deities with a savage, dangerous, or militarised quality.

Quotes

• Of all the gods who tread the spangled skies,
  Thou most unjust, most odious in our eyes!
  Inhuman discord is thy dire delight,
  The waste of slaughter, and the rage of fight;​
  • Homer, Iliad, V, 890; quoted by Polybius, XII, 6, 26
  • W. R. Paton, tr., The Histories of Polybius, IV (1925)