The God the Greeks Loved to Hate
Ares was the son of Zeus and Hera and the god of war — but specifically of war's brutal, chaotic face: the slaughter, the bloodlust, the raw violence of the battlefield. The Greeks were ambivalent about him. Homer has Zeus himself call Ares the most hateful of all the gods. Strategy and disciplined victory belonged to Athena; Ares embodied the carnage no one could fully control.
His name may derive from a Greek word for "ruin," "bane," or "battle-din," fitting his destructive nature. The Romans, by contrast, revered his counterpart Mars as a dignified father of their people and second only to Jupiter — a striking reversal of Greek attitudes.
Lover, Loser, and Father
Ares's most famous myth is his affair with Aphrodite, wife of the smith-god Hephaestus. Hephaestus forged an invisible net, trapped the lovers in bed, and summoned the other gods to mock them. For all his ferocity, Ares is often humbled in myth — wounded by the hero Diomedes at Troy (he fled to Olympus bellowing), bested by Athena, and once imprisoned in a bronze jar for thirteen months by two giants.
Yet he was not without honor. He fathered many children, including the Amazons in some traditions, and gave his name to the Areopagus, the hill in Athens where he was tried for murder by the gods — the mythic origin of Athens's homicide court.
War as bloodshed and chaos. Distrusted, mocked, often defeated. The terror of the battlefield.
War as strategy and discipline. Honored above Ares; bests him whenever they clash.
A revered father-god of Rome, second only to Jupiter — a far nobler figure than his Greek model.
Common Questions
Why did the Greeks dislike Ares?
Ares personified the senseless, destructive side of war — bloodlust and slaughter rather than honor or strategy. The Greeks prized the disciplined warfare of Athena, so they portrayed Ares as violent, cowardly when wounded, and even hated by his own father Zeus.
What is the difference between Ares and Mars?
They share the war domain, but the cultures valued them oppositely. The Greeks scorned Ares as a destructive brute. The Romans honored Mars as a dignified patron and father of Romulus, ranking him just below Jupiter. The planet and the month March take his Roman name.
