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Ares: Difference between revisions
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Ares plays a central role in the [[founding myth]] of [[Thebes, Greece|Thebes]], as the progenitor of the water-dragon slain by [[Cadmus]]. The dragon's teeth were sown into the ground as if a crop and sprang up as the fully armored [[indigenous peoples|autochthon]]ic [[Spartoi]]. Cadmus placed himself in the god's service for eight years to atone for killing the dragon.<ref name=":2">Roman, L., & Roman, M. (2010). {{Google books|tOgWfjNIxoMC|Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman mythology.|page=80}}</ref> To further propitiate Ares, Cadmus married [[Harmonia]], a daughter of Ares's union with Aphrodite. In this way, Cadmus harmonized all strife and founded the city of Thebes.<ref name="Burkert, p. 169"/> In reality, Thebes came to dominate [[Boeotia]]'s great and fertile plain, which in both history and myth was a battleground for competing polities.<ref>Marchand, Fabienne, and Beck, Hans,''The Dancing Floor of Ares: Local Conflict and Regional Violence in Central Greece,'' Ancient History Bulletin, Supplemental Volume 1 (2020) | Ares plays a central role in the [[founding myth]] of [[Thebes, Greece|Thebes]], as the progenitor of the water-dragon slain by [[Cadmus]]. The dragon's teeth were sown into the ground as if a crop and sprang up as the fully armored [[indigenous peoples|autochthon]]ic [[Spartoi]]. Cadmus placed himself in the god's service for eight years to atone for killing the dragon.<ref name=":2">Roman, L., & Roman, M. (2010). {{Google books|tOgWfjNIxoMC|Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman mythology.|page=80}}</ref> To further propitiate Ares, Cadmus married [[Harmonia]], a daughter of Ares's union with Aphrodite. In this way, Cadmus harmonized all strife and founded the city of Thebes.<ref name="Burkert, p. 169"/> In reality, Thebes came to dominate [[Boeotia]]'s great and fertile plain, which in both history and myth was a battleground for competing polities.<ref>Marchand, Fabienne, and Beck, Hans,''The Dancing Floor of Ares: Local Conflict and Regional Violence in Central Greece,'' Ancient History Bulletin, Supplemental Volume 1 (2020) | ||
{{ISSN|0835-3638}}</ref> According to Plutarch, the plain was anciently described as "The dancing-floor of Ares".<ref>Plutarch, ''Marcellus'', 21.2</ref> | {{ISSN|0835-3638}}</ref> According to Plutarch, the plain was anciently described as "The dancing-floor of Ares".<ref>Plutarch, ''Marcellus'', 21.2</ref> | ||
===Aphrodite=== | |||
In Homer's ''[[Odyssey]]'', in the tale sung by the bard in the hall of [[Alcinous]],<ref>''Odyssey'' 8.300</ref> the Sun-god [[Helios]] once spied Ares and Aphrodite having sex secretly in the hall of [[Hephaestus]], her husband.<ref>In the ''Iliad'', the wife of Hephaestus is Charis, "Grace," as noted by Burkert, [https://archive.org/details/greekreligion0000burk/page/168/mode/2up?view=theater p. 168].</ref> Helios reported the incident to Hephaestus. Contriving to catch the illicit couple in the act, Hephaestus fashioned a finely-knitted and nearly invisible net with which to snare them. At the appropriate time, this net was sprung, and trapped Ares and Aphrodite locked in very private embrace.{{refn|group=n|name="Odyssey, 8.295"|{{cite web | title = Odyssey, 8.295 | url = http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Od.+8.&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0218 | quote = [In [[Robert Fagles]]'s translation]: ... and the two lovers, free of the bonds that overwhelmed them so, sprang up and away at once, and the Wargod sped Thrace, while Love with her telltale laughter sped to Paphos ...}}}} | |||
But Hephaestus was not satisfied with his revenge, so he invited the Olympian gods and goddesses to view the unfortunate pair. For the sake of modesty, the goddesses demurred, but the male gods went to witness the sight. Some commented on the beauty of Aphrodite, others remarked that they would eagerly trade places with Ares, but all who were present mocked the two. Once the couple was released, the embarrassed Ares returned to his homeland, Thrace, and Aphrodite went to Paphos.{{refn|group=n|name="Odyssey, 8.295"}}<ref name="Hansen, pp. 113"/> | |||
In a much later interpolated detail, Ares put the young soldier [[Alectryon (mythology)|Alectryon]], who was Ares companion in drinking and even love-making, by his door to warn them of Helios's arrival as Helios would tell Hephaestus of Aphrodite's infidelity if the two were discovered, but Alectryon fell asleep on guard duty.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gallagher|first=David|url=https://brill.com/view/book/9789042027091/B9789042027091-s006.xml|title=Avian and Serpentine|date=2009-01-01|publisher=Brill Rodopi|isbn=978-90-420-2709-1|language=en}}</ref> Helios discovered the two and alerted Hephaestus. The furious Ares turned the sleepy Alectryon into a [[rooster]] which now always announces the arrival of the sun in the morning, as a way of apologizing to Ares.<ref>[[Lucian]], ''Gallus'' [http://lucianofsamosata.info/wiki/doku.php?id=home:texts_and_library:dialogues:the-rooster 3], see also scholiast on [[Aristophanes]], ''[[The Birds (play)|Birds]]'' 835; [[Eustathius of Thessalonica|Eustathius]], ''Ad Odysseam'' 1.300; Ausonius, 26.2.27; Libanius, ''Progymnasmata'' 2.26.</ref> | |||
The Chorus of [[Aeschylus]]' ''[[The Suppliants (Aeschylus)|Suppliants]]'' (written 463 BC) refers to Ares as Aphrodite's "mortal-destroying bedfellow". In the ''Illiad'', Ares helps the Trojans because of his affection for their divine protector, Aphrodite; she thus redirects his innate destructive savagery to her own purposes.<ref name="Millington, Alexander T. 2013, pp.555-557"/><ref name="discovery.ucl.ac.uk"/> | |||