Ares was an Olympian god of war, violence, and destruction. He was not well received by the gods and mortals in the myths of Ares, nor by the ancient Greeks, with a few exceptions, such as the Spartans and the Amazons. He is often compared to his half-sister Athena, who is also, like Ares, associated with warlike activities.
However, while Athena is respected and appreciated for her warfare, strategy, courage, and wisdom, Ares is seen as the force of destruction, savage warfare, and bloodlust. No one really liked his activities because, wherever he went, he left traces of misfortune and aberration.
Despite his unpopularity, he was revered and honored in Crete and the Peloponnese, where Spartan military bases could be found, as well as in Pontus, the northern part of modern Turkey, where the Amazons lived.
According to the myths of Ares, he was most often depicted as a beardless young warrior without clothes, wearing only a helmet and perhaps holding a shield or spear in his hands. In other cases, he is depicted as a fully developed warrior, wearing armor and holding a shield in one hand and a sword or spear in the other.
Here we will show you six famous and interesting myths about Ares that you may not have known.
1. Ares falls in love with Aphrodite
The first of the myths about Ares begins with the god of war mocking the weapon of Eros ( the god of love). After the mockery, Eros told Ares that his weapon was heavy and that no one could lift it. In the myths of the god Ares, they say that he boasted of his strength as the god of war and asked to try it. Ares took the weapon (javelin), while Aphrodite smiled quietly.
Ares groaned in helplessness at not being able to lift it and said, “It’s too heavy. Ask for your reward, god Eros.” Eros asked him as compensation to throw one of his arrows at him and bound Ares and Aphrodite in love.
2. The deception of Aphrodite and Ares
The second myth of Ares tells of Aphrodite’s infidelity. Hephaestus had built a palace for his beautiful wife Aphrodite and a chamber with a special golden bed. Being the wife of the god of blacksmithing did not prevent Aphrodite from having a love affair with Ares, and they slept together in secret in Hephaestus’s marriage bed. Helios, the god who can see all events, both of mortals and immortals, told Hephaestus about this affair between Ares and Aphrodite.
In the myths of the god Ares, it is said that when Hephaestus discovered his wife’s affair, he became angry and made a magical net and planned to trap the couple in the act. He placed the invisible net on the bed and around it, even on the ceiling.
Then he pretended to go to the city of Lemnos, which he loved more than any other place on earth. Ares had seen the god of the forge leave and approached Hephaestus’ house, grieving for Aphrodite’s love. Aphrodite had just returned from Zeus’ palace and was sitting in the house when Ares entered. He took her by the hand and told her that Hephaestus was no longer there and had gone to Lemnos.
Then they went to the chamber of the golden bed and lay down. The web of magical chains enveloped them, and neither could lift their limbs nor move them at all. Ares and Aphrodite realized that there was no escape. Meanwhile, Helios was reporting everything to Hephaestus and was already on his way home, frustrated and angry.
Hephaestus also called all the gods to come and see this infidelity. Poseidon was just one of the gods, who begged and convinced Hephaestus to release Ares and Aphrodite from the trap, as they lay embracing each other on Hephaestus’ bed. Because of this adultery, Ares was banished from Olympus.
3. Ares defends his daughter, Alcippe
In the myths of the god Ares, there is one that speaks of his behavior that extended beyond his love life. One of the myths of Ares tells the story of one of the daughters of the god of war, whose name was Alcippe.
One day, a son of Poseidon named Halirrhothius met Alcippe and desired her deeply. It seems, however, that Alcippe did not return his feelings. Instead of moving on, Halirrhothius decided to rape Alcippe (or at least attempted to do so, according to legend or myth).
When Ares saw what had happened, he was enraged. He immediately came to his daughter’s defense, stopping the attack and brutally killing Halirrhothius. When Poseidon learned what had happened to Halirrhothius, he was furious and demanded a trial.
It was common for many of the gods to take advantage of women or force them into sexual relations, which probably made Ares’ aggression and defense of his daughter unusual. Poseidon demanded a trial for the murder of his son, which may be the first recorded murder trial in history.
The trial took place on a hill on Mount Olympus that is now called Aeropagus (Hill of Ares). All the other gods and goddesses came to judge Ares for his actions and ultimately found him “not guilty” of all charges. However, he was required to organize a sporting event in honor of Halirrhothius, an event that would later also become associated with Ares.
4. Ares and the Aloadae
When Ares was very young, he was still growing in power as a god and had already developed a taste for war. The myths of Ares say that he liked to stir up battles and cause mischief and violence. It was this thirst for aggression that made him disliked by the Aloadae.
The Aloadae were two giant brothers named Otus and Ephialtes. These two brothers were angry at Ares’ mischief because many of the battles he caused ruined their crops. They conspired to capture him and kept him locked in a bronze jar for a lunar year (thirteen months).
Many myths about Ares suggest that the brief reign of the god of war would have ended with this story if the stepmother of the two giants had not told Hermes what had happened to Ares.
However, knowing Ares’ fate was not enough to motivate the other gods and goddesses to come to his aid. Their swift action was probably also the result of the threats being made by Otus and Ephialtes.
They were threatening to storm Mount Olympus if they were not given the hand of Artemis (for Otus) and Hera (for Ephialtes) in marriage. Knowing that the two brothers would follow through with their plan to storm Mount Olympus if given enough time, a plan was devised to kill the two giants and free Ares.
5. Ares in the Trojan War
Unlike the other gods, Ares decided to go against Zeus in the Trojan War and sided with his lover, Aphrodite. The myths of Ares tell that he fought with terrifying rage to help the Trojans in their battle against the Achaeans.
At one point, his leadership of the Trojan army nearly defeated the Achaeans. Unfortunately, there were too many gods who sided with Zeus and helped the Achaeans defeat the Trojans. Even so, Ares did everything he could to fight for Aphrodite’s honor. When she was wounded on the battlefield, Ares lent her his war chariot so she could escape to safety and treat her wounds.
Ares also faced Athena in the Trojan War, only to be humiliated. He threw a spear at her chest with great power, but since she was wearing the Helmet of Death, she was able to deflect the spear and strike back with a powerful blow of her own, throwing a rock at Ares.
The rock struck Ares with tremendous force and made him scream so loudly that it could be heard even above all the chaos on the battlefield. Athena then spent a significant amount of time boasting about her superior talents in war and on the battlefield, embarrassing Ares.
Aphrodite tried to come to Ares’ aid, but she was also struck by Athena. Finally, the two retreated to Mount Olympus to have their wounds tended to. When Ares went to Zeus to tell him what had happened on the battlefield, Zeus told Ares that he was “the most hated of all the gods who hold Olympus.”
However, Zeus made sure that Ares was well cared for by instructing Paieon to tend to his son’s wounds.
6. Rescuing Thanatos
In the myths of Ares, Thanatos was the personification of death who was imprisoned by King Sisyphus. After the king had tricked death into handcuffing himself. Ares influenced Sisyphus’ fate. King Sisyphus held Thanatos captive for over a month before Ares, bored with life and the wars of the Greeks, decided to rescue him. He went before the king and threatened to behead him if he refused to release Thanatos and become a prisoner of Hades.
Sisyphus, fearing the wrath of Ares, released Thanatos and surrendered himself, but later Hades, on the advice of Persephone, released him from the underworld after Merope, one of Sisyphus’ wives, under his orders, threw his naked body into a public square. He convinced Persephone not to bury his body and to give him a proper funeral.
When he was released, he scolded his wife, but he had no plans to return to the underworld. As punishment for his deception, Zeus sent Sisyphus to Tartarus and made him roll a huge rock down a steep hill for eternity. Before he could reach the top, the massive stone would always roll back down, forcing him to start over again, repeatedly.
Although hidden from daylight and the living, Hades himself was not evil. He was, instead, the guardian of the laws of death. In the myths of Hades, he is the ruler of the dead, grim and sad in character, and severely just and unyielding in the performance of his duties.
He is the jailer of the souls of the dead, keeping the gates of the underworld closed and ensuring that dead mortals who entered his dark realm never escape. He only left the realm to kidnap Persephone as his bride; and none of his fellow gods visited him except Hermes, who ventured there when his duties demanded it.
He is a terrifying but not evil god, with few followers. There are reports of a handful of temples and sacred sites dedicated to him: there was an enclosure and a temple in Elis, which was open one day a year and even then only to the priest. A place associated with Hades is Pylos, the gateway to the setting sun. Here are four famous and interesting myths about Hades
1. Hades and Persephone
One of the myths of Hades tells the story of how Persephone did not willingly submit to Hades and was kidnapped by him while picking flowers in the fields of Nysa.
In protest of his act, Demeter cast a curse on the earth and there was a great famine; however, one by one, the gods begged her to lift it, lest humanity perish and cause the gods to be deprived of gifts and sacrifices. Demeter declared that the earth would remain barren until she saw her daughter again.
Zeus then calls his son, Hermes, and orders him to go down to the Underworld in the hope that he can convince Hades to allow Persephone to return to Earth, so that Demeter can see Persephone and bring the famine to an end. Hermes obeys and descends into Hades’ kingdom, where he finds Hades sitting on a couch, with Persephone sitting beside him.
In the myths of Hades, the king of the underworld agrees to Hermes’ request on one condition: if Persephone eats any food from the underworld, she will not be able to return to the surface with her mother.
After ruling on his decision, Hades prepares his chariot, but not before secretly giving Persephone a pomegranate seed to eat. Finally, Persephone was with her mother Demeter, who suspected that Persephone had eaten food while in the Underworld, so she questioned Persephone.
Persephone admitted that she had eaten the food of the dead, telling Demeter that Hades had given her a pomegranate seed and forced her to eat it. However, Zeus had previously proposed a compromise, which all parties agreed to: Persephone would spend six months of the year with her husband. It is during this time, when Persephone is in the Underworld with her husband, that winter falls upon the earth, “a look of sadness and mourning.”
2. Theseus and Pirithous
The second of the myths of Hades tells of Theseus and Pirithous. These characters vowed to kidnap and marry the daughters of Zeus. Theseus chose Helen, and together they kidnapped her and decided to keep her until she was old enough to marry.
Pyrithius chose Persephone. They left Helen in the care of Aethra, Theseus’ mother, and ventured into the Underworld. Hades knew of their plan to capture his wife, so he pretended to offer them hospitality and organize a banquet. As soon as the couple sat down, snakes wrapped themselves around their feet and held them there.
Theseus was eventually rescued by Heracles, but Pirithous was trapped as punishment for daring to seek the wife of a god on his own.
3. Heracles
Heracles’ final task was to capture Cerberus, according to the myths of Hercules. First, Heracles went to Eleusis to be initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries. He did this to absolve himself of the guilt of killing the centaurs and to learn how to enter and leave the underworld alive.
He found the entrance to the underworld at Taenarum. In the myths of Hades, it is said that Athena and Hermes helped him cross over and return from Hades. Heracles asked Hades to borrow his dog Cerberus. Hades agreed as long as Heracles did not harm Cerberus. When Heracles led the dog out of Hades, he passed through the Acherusia cave.
4. How Sisyphus Tricked Hades
In the myths of Hades, there is an interesting story about the intelligence of Sisyphus, who managed to escape his fate. Before descending into Hades, he ordered his wife Merope not to bury him, to give him a funeral banquet, to sacrifice Hades or Persephone, or to place a coin under his tongue (which was used to pay Charon, who transported the dead across the river). Across the River Styx to the underworld home of Hades.
Sisyphus thus arrived at the Palace of Hades as a poor, unburied man. Appealing to Queen Persephone, Sisyphus told her that he had no right to be there. As one of the unburied, who had no fare for Charon, he should have been abandoned on the other side of the River Styx.
Furthermore, Sisyphus argued, his wife’s neglect of funeral ceremonies and sacrifices could set a bad example for other widows in the future. In the myths of Hades, it is said that Sisyphus asked permission to return to the surface of the earth for only three days. This brief time would allow him to organize his funeral, punish his wife for neglecting her duties, and teach her to respect the lords of the underworld.
Persephone was moved by his pleas and allowed Sisyphus to go home. Sisyphus, of course, had no intention of returning to the world of darkness. He broke his promise to descend again in three days. In fact, he lived many more years until old age finally claimed him.
The Punishment of Sisyphus
For his offenses against Zeus and Hades, Sisyphus was condemned to eternal punishment in Tartarus, the lowest region of the underworld. The king of Corinth would forever roll a huge rock to the top of a steep hill. But his efforts were always in vain, for every time Sisyphus neared the top, the rock would roll back down. Sisyphus was thus forced to begin his labor anew.
