ARES PAGE THREE

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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, reveling 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 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.

Ialmenus: Son of Ares and Astyoche, he was one of the Argonauts, one of the Suitors of Helen, one of the Achaean Leaders and one of those who were inside the Wooden Horse.

Licymnius: Sometimes listed as a son of Ares, Lycimnius is called the bastard son of King Electryon of Mycenae. The only one of the brothers who did not die at the hands of the sons of Pterelaus. He was killed by Tlepolemus, who was beating a servant when Licymnius ran in between.

Melanippus: Son of Ares and Triteia, a priestess of Athena. Melanippus founded the city in Achaea he called Triteia after his mother.

Meleager: Son of Ares and Althea. When Meleager was seven days old the Moerae came and declared that he should die when the brand burning on the hearth was burnt out. On hearing that, his mother snatched up the brand and deposited it in a chest. But later, when Meleager killed his mother's brothers, Althaea kindled the brand out of grief. Meleager was one of the Argonauts and one of the Calydonian Hunters.

Molus: Son of Ares and Demonice.

Nike: Daughter of Ares according to one of three versions of her parentage. Goddess of victory.

Nisus: Son of Ares, he was King of Megara when this city was captured by the fleet of King Minos of Crete. He had a purple lock of hair on which his life depended but his daughter Scylla fell in love with Minos and pulled out her father's purple hair.

Oeagrus: Son of Ares, and father of Orpheus.

Oenomaus: Son of Ares by either Sterope, one of the Pleiades, or Harpina, a daughter of the River God Asopus. Oenomaus was the king of Pisa who used to put to death his daughter's suitors and nail their heads to his house, as an oracle had said that he would die whenever his daughter Hippodameia should marry.

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