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===Aksum=== | ===Aksum=== | ||
In Africa, [[Maḥrem]], the principal god of the [[kings of Aksum]] prior to the 4th century AD, was invoked as Ares in Greek inscriptions. The anonymous king who commissioned the [[Monumentum Adulitanum]] in the late 2nd or early 3rd century refers to "my greatest god, Ares, who also begat me, through whom I brought under my sway [various peoples]". The monumental throne celebrating the king's conquests was itself dedicated to Ares.<ref>[[Glen Bowersock]], ''The Throne of Adulis: Red Sea Wars on the Eve of Islam'' (Oxford University Press, 2013), pp. 45, 47–48.</ref> In the early 4th century, the last pagan king of Aksum, [[Ezana]], referred to "the one who brought me forth, the invincible Ares".<ref>Bowersock, ''Throne of Adulis'', p. 69.</ref> | In Africa, [[Maḥrem]], the principal god of the [[kings of Aksum]] prior to the 4th century AD, was invoked as Ares in Greek inscriptions. The anonymous king who commissioned the [[Monumentum Adulitanum]] in the late 2nd or early 3rd century refers to "my greatest god, Ares, who also begat me, through whom I brought under my sway [various peoples]". The monumental throne celebrating the king's conquests was itself dedicated to Ares.<ref>[[Glen Bowersock]], ''The Throne of Adulis: Red Sea Wars on the Eve of Islam'' (Oxford University Press, 2013), pp. 45, 47–48.</ref> In the early 4th century, the last pagan king of Aksum, [[Ezana]], referred to "the one who brought me forth, the invincible Ares".<ref>Bowersock, ''Throne of Adulis'', p. 69.</ref> | ||
==Characterisation== | |||
[[File:Ares Borghese2.gif|thumb|250px|The ''[[Ares Borghese]]'']] | |||
Ares was one of the [[Twelve Olympians]] in the archaic tradition represented by the ''[[Iliad]]'' and ''[[Odyssey]].'' In [[ancient Greek literature|Greek literature]], Ares often represents the physical or violent and untamed aspect of war and is the personification of sheer brutality and bloodlust ("overwhelming, insatiable in battle, destructive, and man-slaughtering", as Burkert puts it), in contrast to his sister, the armored [[Athena]], whose functions as a [[knowledge deity|goddess of intelligence]] include military strategy and generalship.<ref>[[Walter Burkert]], ''Greek Religion'' (Blackwell, 1985, 2004 reprint, originally published 1977 in German), pp. 141; William Hansen, ''Classical Mythology: A Guide to the Mythical World of the Greeks and Romans'' (Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 113.</ref> An association with Ares endows places and objects with a savage, dangerous, or militarized quality;<ref>Hansen, ''Classical Mythology'', pp. 114–115.</ref> but when Ares does appear in myths, he typically faces humiliation.<ref name="Hansen, pp. 113">Hansen, ''Classical Mythology'', pp. 113–114.</ref> | |||
In the ''Iliad'', Zeus expresses a recurring Greek revulsion toward the god when Ares returns wounded and complaining from the [[Trojan War|battlefield at Troy]]: | |||
{{poem quote|Then looking at him darkly Zeus who gathers the clouds spoke to him: | |||
"Do not sit beside me and whine, you double-faced liar. | |||
To me you are the most hateful of all gods who hold Olympus. | |||
Forever quarrelling is dear to your heart, wars and battles. | |||
... | |||
And yet I will not long endure to see you in pain, since | |||
you are my child, and it was to me that your mother bore you. | |||
But were you born of some other god and proved so ruinous | |||
long since you would have been dropped beneath the gods of the bright sky."<ref>''Iliad'', Book 5, lines 798–891, 895–898 in the translation of [[Richmond Lattimore]].</ref>}} | |||
This ambivalence is expressed also in the Greeks' association of Ares with the [[Thracians]], whom they regarded as a barbarous and warlike people.<ref>''[[Iliad]]'' 13.301; [[Ovid]], ''Ars Amatoria'', II.10.</ref> [[Thrace]] was considered to be Ares's birthplace and his refuge after the affair with [[Aphrodite]] was exposed to the general mockery of the other gods.{{refn|group=n|Homer ''Odyssey'' viii. 361; for Ares/Mars and Thrace, see [[Ovid]], ''[[Ars Amatoria]]'', book ii.part xi.585, which tells the same tale: "Their captive bodies are, with difficulty, freed, at your plea, Neptune: Venus runs to Paphos: Mars heads for Thrace."; for Ares/Mars and Thrace, see also [[Statius]], ''Thebaid'' vii. 42}} | |||
A late 6th-century BC funerary inscription from [[Attica]] emphasizes the consequences of coming under Ares's sway:{{poem quote|Stay and mourn at the tomb of dead Kroisos | |||
Whom raging Ares destroyed one day, fighting in the foremost ranks.<ref>Athens, NM 3851 quoted in Andrew Stewart, ''One Hundred Greek Sculptors: Their Careers and Extant Works'', Introduction: I. "The Sources"</ref>}} | |||