Ares is one of the twelve Olympian gods from Greek mythology. He is also the son of Zeus and Hera, who are the King and Queen of the gods.
Ares is actually one of the only children of Zeus who is also his son with Hera, which could perhaps put him in a decent position to make the argument for inheriting the throne of the gods. However, in at least some mythology, it seems like Dionysus is the more favored heir while Ares does not really have an inheritance mentioned.
What Is Ares The God Of?
Ares is the god of war! Specifically, Ares is the god of the brutality and savagery of war. Ares, along with his sons Phobos and Deimos, can be found in war joining in on the battle and spreading chaos.
Ares has even been known to be joined by Eris in this endeavor. Eris is the goddess of chaos and she likes war as well, so she will also ride with Ares and his sons as has been seen in the Trojan War.
During the Trojan War, Ares fought on the side of the Trojans and aided them against the Greeks. Unfortunately for them, this was not enough to stop them from losing the war and being destroyed as other gods aided the Greeks to victory.
Ares also participated in a war in India when Dionysus invaded India. Ares and his sons joined the Indians, but not because they supported them.
The real reason why Ares joined their side is to make the war fun, he fought against Dionysus to escalate the conflict. This shows Ares’s dedication to war by keeping a war going and making a war bloody.
Are Ares And Athena Twins?
While Athena is also a deity related to war, she and Ares are not twins. They are just siblings, half-siblings specifically.
Athena was born to Zeus and Metis, Zeus’s first wife. She was born from Zeus’s forehead as a result of him eating Metis to prevent her from fulfilling a prophecy involving her birthing a son that would overthrow him.
Ares, as was mentioned previously, is the son of Zeus but his mother is Hera, not Metis. Hera is Zeus’s sister, but also his wife who becomes the Queen of the Gods. Zeus has had several wives.
Athena’s relation to war is different from Ares’s relation to war. Athena is a war goddess but she is related to strategy and triumph.
Athena is seen as a more noble war goddess than Ares because of their different relations to war. Ares is also related to the Thracians and their style of fighting, which leads the Greeks to look negatively at him in some ways. Regardless, Ares is still an Olympian and at least respected as much as that affords (which is a lot).
Who Is The Consort Of Ares?
Ares has had children with multiple people, although he never had an official consort. The lover he had the most often in mythology is Aphrodite.
Aphrodite was not actually married to Ares. Aphrodite’s husband was Hephaestus, but she did not actually want to be married to him or have his kids and this is why she often had affairs with others behind his back.
Are Ares And Aphrodite Related?
Yes, but the manner depends on which source. Different sources give different parentage and origin for Aphrodite.
Homer would say that Aphrodite and Ares are half-siblings. This is because Homer lists Aphrodite as the daughter of Zeus and Dione, meaning that she and Ares would have the same father.
Hesiod would say that Aphrodite is Ares’s great-great-aunt. This is because Hesiod lists Aphrodite as produced from Uranus, who is Ares’s great-grandfather.
Why are there different origins for her? This mainly has to do with differences among the Greek peoples in the Greek Dark Ages and Archaic period.
However, being related has never stopped deities from having children in Greek mythology. Most deities, if not all, are related to each other in some way whether near or far.
The relationships among deities can be difficult to understand from our perspective. But it is important to understand that they are functionally different beings than us, they are not humans and their expression of love and other emotions works differently and manifests itself in certainly different ways.
For Ares and Aphrodite, that love is definitely very real and present. Regardless of how anyone else, among men or deities, sees it.