ARES PAGE TWO

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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 self loathing 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.

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.

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