Ares: God of War

 

Psychotic: adjective

 

 

1.       Psychiatry. Characterized by or afflicted with psychosis.

Synonyms: (in nontechnical usage) insane, psychopathic, lunatic, mentally ill; mad, disturbed, deranged, demented, non compos mentis.

(loosely) mentally unstable.

 

4. Intensely upset, anxious, or angry; crazy:

Synonyms: crazed, furious, enraged, wrathful, irate, incensed, infuriated; livid, pissed off.

 

Yes, that about sums up Ares, God of War. He is known for being extremely destructive, chaotic, aggressive and, well, really just a jerk to most. Ares is one of the Twelve Olympians, and the son of Zeus and Hera. As Ares is the god of War, he is typically known to represent the physical, violent, brutal, and untamed parts of war. Basically, he is the chaotic and devastating side of war. He is the exact opposite of his sister, though very similar in their divine field. Athena is the Goddess of war, but she resides over the military strategy and the intellectual, well calculated portion of war. They seem to be two alter egos of one.

 

The Greeks were surprisingly quite ambivalent toward Ares, though he was the symbol of the crude and violent portions of war. Ares was described as "overwhelming, insatiable in battle, destructive, and man-slaughtering.” As you can imagine, Ares tends to be in competition with his sister. For example, during the Trojan War, Ares was on the losing side of the war while Athena, is said to have hailed victorious once she sided with the Greeks.

 

        Ares was not exactly a major component in Greek mythology. In the legends and tales of the gods, he wasn’t an active character in many stories so he was somewhat limited. Though, when he was included, he was usually being defeated or humiliated.

 

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 Olympos.
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."

Illiad/Odyssey

The above poem was written by Homer, one of the greatest Greek epic poets. It is supposed to show Zeus’ recurring disappointment in his son. This specific poem is Zeus’ reaction to Ares when he returns wounded and complaining from the battlefield at Troy.

        It’s quite clear that Ares had a poor relationship with his father, and maybe, that poor relationship played a role in Ares’ aggressive and cruel personality. While Ares was the “disappointment” and looked down upon by Zeus, his sister Athena was intellectual and always reigned victorious, and her father’s favorite.

        While Ares is disregarded in Greek mythology, he was an entirely different story in Spartan mythology. He was as a resilient, strong, and intelligent soldier whose skills were unrivaled. People actually offered him human sacrifices.

Though, he is often romantically associated with Aphrodite, he was not with her as she was married. He had many consorts and children, much like all other Gods.

Consorts	Children
1. Aphrodite	1. Phobos
	2. Deimos
	3. Harmonia
	4. Adrestia (or Adrasteia (nymph) or Adrasteia (goddess))
	5. Eros (part of the Erotes)
	6. Anteros (part of the Erotes)
	7. Himeros (part of the Erotes)
	8. Pothos (part of the Erotes)
2. Aerope	1. Aeropus
3. Aglauros	1. Alcippe
4. Althaea	1. Meleager (possibly)
5. Anchiroe	1. Sithon (possibly)
6. Astyoche, daughter of Actor	1. Ascalaphus
	2. Ialmenus
7. Atalanta	1. Parthenopaeus (possibly)
8. Caldene, daughter of Pisidus	1. Solymus (possibly)
9. Calliope (Muse)	1.Mygdon
	2. Edonus (possibly)
	3. Biston (possibly)
	4. Odomantus (possibly)
10. Callirrhoe, daughter of Nestus	1. Biston (possibly)
	2. Odomantus (possibly)
	3. Edonus (possibly)
11. Critobule	1. Pangaeus[39]
12. Cyrene[40]	1. Diomedes of Thrace
	2. Crestone[41]
13. Demonice	1. Euenus
	2. Thestius
	3. Molus
	4. Pylus
14. Dormothea	1. Stymphelus[42]
15. Dotis / Chryse	1. Phlegyas
16. Eos
17. Erinys of Telphusa (unnamed)	1. Dragon of Thebes (slain by Cadmus)
18. Harmonia	1. The Amazons
19. Leodoce (?)[43]
20. Otrera	1. Hippolyta
	2. Antiope
	3. Melanippe
	4. Penthesilea
21. Parnassa / Aegina	1. Sinope (possibly)[44]
22. Phylonome	1. Lycastus
	2. Parrhasius
23. Protogeneia	1. Oxylus
24. Pyrene / Pelopia	1. Cycnus
25. Sete, sister of Rhesus	1. Bithys, eponym of the Bithyae, a Thracian tribe[45]
26. Sterope (Pleiad) / Harpinna, daughter of Asopus / Eurythoe the Danaid	1. Oenomaus
27. Persephone (wooed her unsuccessfully)
28. Tanagra, daughter of Asopus
29. Tereine, daughter of Strymon	1. Thrassa (mother of Polyphonte)
30. Theogone	1. Tmolus[46]
31. Triteia	1. Melanippus
32. mothers unknown	1. Alcon of Thrace[47]
	2. Chalyps, eponym of the Chalybes[48]
	3. Cheimarrhoos, possible father of Triptolemus by Polyhymnia[49]
	4. Dryas
	5. Hyperbius
	6. Lycus of Libya[50]
	7. Nisos (possibly)
	8. Portheus (Porthaon)
	9. Tereus

I personally do not believe Ares seems as bad as he has been perceived to be. He honestly sounds much like a rebellious and neglected teen; many siblings, often overshadowed by his sister, unable to be with the girl he wants. Ares reminds me of a troubled teen from a young adult book.