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===Thrace and Scythia=== | ===Thrace and Scythia=== | ||
A Thracian god identified by [[Herodotus]] ({{circa|484}} – {{circa|425 BC}}) as Ares, through ''[[interpretatio Graeca]]'', was one of three otherwise unnamed deities that Thracian commoners were said to worship. Herodotus recognises and names the other two as "Dionysus" and "Artemis", and claims that the Thracian aristocracy exclusively worshiped "Hermes".<ref>{{Cite web|title=Herodotus, The Histories, Book 5, chapter 7, section 1|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0126:book=5:chapter=7:section=1|access-date=2021-07-23|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref><ref>Oppermann, Manfred, Dimittrova, Nora M., ''religion, Thracian'', "Oxford Classical Dictionary, https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.5553 ..."Ares suggests the existence of a war-god, Dionysus probably stood for a deity of orgiastic character linked with fertility and vegetation, while Artemis was an embodiment of the major female deity, frequently interpreted as the Great Goddess"...</ref> In Herodotus' ''Histories'', the [[Scythian]]s worship an indigenous form of Greek Ares, who is otherwise unnamed, but ranked beneath [[Tabiti]] (whom Herodotus claims as a form of [[Hestia]]), Api and Papaios in Scythia's divine hierarchy. His cult object was an iron sword. The "Scythian Ares" was offered blood-sacrifices (or ritual killings) of cattle, horses and "one in every hundred human war-captives", whose blood was used to douse the sword. Statues, and complex platform-altars made of heaped brushwood were devoted to him. This sword-cult, or one very similar, is said to have persisted among the [[Alans]].<ref>Sulimirski, T. (1985). "The Scyths" in: Fisher, W. B. (Ed.) The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 2: The Median and Achaemenian Periods. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0-521-20091-1}}. pp. 158–159. Sulimirski is citing Herodotus, Book IV, 71-73, for the account of sacrifice to Ares.</ref> Some have posited that the "[[Sword of Mars]]" in later European history alludes to the [[Huns]] having adopted Ares.<ref>Geary, Patrick J. (1994). "Chapter 3. Germanic Tradition and Royal Ideology in the Ninth Century: The Visio Karoli Magni". Living with the Dead in the Middle Ages. Cornell University Press. p. 63. {{ISBN|978-0-8014-8098-0}}.</ref> | A Thracian god identified by [[Herodotus]] ({{circa|484}} – {{circa|425 BC}}) as Ares, through ''[[interpretatio Graeca]]'', was one of three otherwise unnamed deities that Thracian commoners were said to worship. Herodotus recognises and names the other two as "Dionysus" and "Artemis", and claims that the Thracian aristocracy exclusively worshiped "Hermes".<ref>{{Cite web|title=Herodotus, The Histories, Book 5, chapter 7, section 1|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0126:book=5:chapter=7:section=1|access-date=2021-07-23|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref><ref>Oppermann, Manfred, Dimittrova, Nora M., ''religion, Thracian'', "Oxford Classical Dictionary, https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.5553 ..."Ares suggests the existence of a war-god, Dionysus probably stood for a deity of orgiastic character linked with fertility and vegetation, while Artemis was an embodiment of the major female deity, frequently interpreted as the Great Goddess"...</ref> In Herodotus' ''Histories'', the [[Scythian]]s worship an indigenous form of Greek Ares, who is otherwise unnamed, but ranked beneath [[Tabiti]] (whom Herodotus claims as a form of [[Hestia]]), Api and Papaios in Scythia's divine hierarchy. His cult object was an iron sword. The "Scythian Ares" was offered blood-sacrifices (or ritual killings) of cattle, horses and "one in every hundred human war-captives", whose blood was used to douse the sword. Statues, and complex platform-altars made of heaped brushwood were devoted to him. This sword-cult, or one very similar, is said to have persisted among the [[Alans]].<ref>Sulimirski, T. (1985). "The Scyths" in: Fisher, W. B. (Ed.) The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 2: The Median and Achaemenian Periods. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0-521-20091-1}}. pp. 158–159. Sulimirski is citing Herodotus, Book IV, 71-73, for the account of sacrifice to Ares.</ref> Some have posited that the "[[Sword of Mars]]" in later European history alludes to the [[Huns]] having adopted Ares.<ref>Geary, Patrick J. (1994). "Chapter 3. Germanic Tradition and Royal Ideology in the Ninth Century: The Visio Karoli Magni". Living with the Dead in the Middle Ages. Cornell University Press. p. 63. {{ISBN|978-0-8014-8098-0}}.</ref> | ||
===Asia Minor=== | |||
In some parts of Asia Minor, Ares was a prominent [[oracle|oracular deity]], something not found in any Hellennic cult to Ares or Roman cult to Mars. Ares was linked in some regions or polities with a local god or cultic hero, and recognised as a higher, more prestigious deity than in mainland Greece. His cults in southern Asia Minor are attested from the 5th century BC and well into the later Roman Imperial era, at 29 different sites, and on over 70 local coin issues.<ref>Gonzales, 2005, pp.263, 271, 280-283.</ref> He is sometimes represented on coinage of the region by the "Helmet of Ares" or carrying a spear and a shield, or as a fully armed warrior, sometimes accompanied by a female deity. In what is now western Turkey, the Hellenistic city of [[Metropolis (Anatolia)|Metropolis]] built a monumental temple to Ares as the city's protector, not before the 3rd century BC. It is now lost, but the names of some of its priests and priestesses survive, along with the temple's likely depictions on coins of the province.<ref>Millington, A.T. (2013) "Iyarri at the Interface: The Origins of Ares" in A. Mouton, I. Rutherford, & I. Yakubovich (eds.) ''Luwian Identities: Culture, Language and Religion Between Anatolia and the Aegean'' (Leiden) pp.555-557</ref> | |||