Aphrodite was still married to Hephaestus at the time, so they were doomed from the start. Ares famously had a love affair with Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love. But he still had several love affairs and fathered many children. Given that Ares was such hard work, perhaps it is no surprise that he never married. He Never Married Ares kneeling before Aphrodite, from an Attic-black volute krater, 570 -565 BCE, image courtesy of the University of California, Berkeley He Was Almost Rejected by Zeus Ares, Greek god of war, image courtesy of AgAuNEWSĤ. Instead, Athena’s calculating, intelligent approach to warfare was encouraged.ģ. The reason Ares’s myths all end badly is because they sent a moralizing message to ancient Greeks that mindless violence and aggression are a sign of weakness and failure. He almost helped the Trojans win the war, but he was stopped by his own half-sister Athena, who struck him on the back with a sharp rock, causing grievous harm. This meant he was fighting against his friends, parents and sisters. Typically, Ares was up to no good, and he chose to side with the Trojans instead of his Greek counterparts. One of the worst was during the Trojan War. His Stories All End Badly Amphora depicting the Birth of Athena, around 540 BCE, image courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, BostonĪs if to add insult to injury, in all his myths Ares suffered a series of humiliations and defeats, even at the hands of his own family. In the Iliad, Zeus says to Ares, “Hera’s urgings, I trust, have made you insufferable.”Ģ. He even caused conflict between his own parents! Zeus accused Hera of mollycoddling Ares, and blamed her for causing his terrible behaviour. Unfortunately, because he was such a handful, neither of his parents, nor his family, particularly liked him. Athena, the goddess of war, was his half-sister. He was the first child of Zeus and Hera, and had a further three siblings: Eileithyia, Hebe and Hephaestus. Ares Is the Greek God of War Bust of Ares, after the antique, image courtesy of Sotheby’sĪres is most famously known as the God of War.
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