Mythman's Major Olympian Gods
ALL ABOUT THE GODS OF MOUNT OLYMPUS

ARES - GOD OF WAR

LATIN - MARS


ARES
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ARES PAGE FOUR

MUCH MORE ARES INFO COURTESY OF THOMAS GANGALEE

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.

Dionysus, 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.

 

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