Ares: Difference between revisions

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Although Ares' name shows his origins as [[Mycenae]]an, his reputation for savagery was thought by some to reflect his likely origins as a Thracian deity. Some cities in Greece and several in Asia Minor held annual festivals to bind and detain him as their protector. In parts of Asia Minor, he was an oracular deity. Still further away from Greece, the [[Scythians]] were said to ritually kill one in a hundred prisoners of war as an offering to their equivalent of Ares. The later belief that ancient Spartans had offered human sacrifice to Ares may owe more to mythical prehistory, misunderstandings, and reputation than to reality.

Ares' nearest counterpart in Roman religion is [[Mars (mythology)|Mars]], who was given a more important and dignified place in [[Religion in ancient Rome|ancient Roman religion]] as ancestral protector of the Roman people and state. During the [[Hellenization]] of [[Latin literature]], the myths of Ares were [[interpretatio graeca|reinterpreted]] by Roman writers under the name of Mars, and in later [[Western culture|Western art and literature]], the mythology of the two figures became virtually indistinguishable.

==Names==

The etymology of the name ''Ares'' is traditionally connected with the [[Greek language|Greek]] word {{lang|grc|ἀρή}} (''arē''), the [[Ionic Greek|Ionic]] form of the [[Doric Greek|Doric]] {{lang|grc|ἀρά}} (''ara''), "bane, ruin, curse, imprecation".<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0073%3Aentry%3Da%29rh%2F ἀρή], Georg Autenrieth, ''A Homeric Dictionary''. {{LSJ|a)ra/|ἀρή|ref}}.</ref> [[Walter Burkert]] notes that "Ares is apparently an ancient abstract noun meaning throng of battle, war."<ref name="Burkert, p. 169">Burkert, [https://archive.org/details/greekreligion0000burk/page/169/mode/2up?view=theater p. 169].</ref> [[Robert S. P. Beekes|R. S. P. Beekes]] has suggested a [[Pre-Greek]] origin of the name.<ref>[[Robert S. P. Beekes|R. S. P. Beekes]], ''Etymological Dictionary of Greek'', Brill, 2009, pp. 129–130.</ref> The earliest attested form of the name is the [[Mycenaean language|Mycenaean Greek]] {{lang|gmy|{{script|Linb|𐀀𐀩}}}}, ''a-re'', written in the [[Linear B]] syllabic script.<ref>{{cite journal|title=A-re in the Linear B Tablets and the Continuity of the Cult of Ares in the Historical Period| url=http://www.utexas.edu/research/pasp/publications/pdf/are.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.utexas.edu/research/pasp/publications/pdf/are.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|first=Joannn|last=Gulizio|journal=Journal of Prehistoric Religion|volume=15|pages=32–38}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| last=Raymoure| first=K.A.| url=http://minoan.deaditerranean.com/resources/linear-b-sign-groups/a/a-re/| title=a-re| work=Minoan Linear A & Mycenaean Linear B| publisher=Deaditerranean| year=2012| access-date=2014-03-08| archive-date=2016-03-18| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160318004206/http://minoan.deaditerranean.com/resources/linear-b-sign-groups/a/a-re/| url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.palaeolexicon.com/default.aspx?static=12&wid=346723|title=The Linear B word a-re|website= Palaeolexicon, Word study tool of ancient languages}}</ref>