Mars
Also known as: Ares / dread Mars · Family: Olympians · Role: god of war · First appears: BOOK II
🌐 Also appears in: Greek Mythology — A Family Orrery (as Ares) · The Odyssey (as Mars) · The Aeneid (as Mars) · The Metamorphoses of Ovid (as Mars) · Greek Tragedy — The Same Myth, Three Voices (as Ares)
In Book II, Ascalaphus and Ialmenus are named as sons of Mars. In Book IV, Strife is described as his sister and friend. Book V identifies Jove and Juno as his parents, and Venus as his sister. In close combat, Diomed wounds Mars in the stomach; on Olympus, Paeeon heals him, and Mercury steals him away when he is nearly worn out by bondage.
In Book VI, Mars kills his son Isander while Isander is fighting the Solymi. In Book XIII, Panic is named as his son. In Book XX, as the gods choose sides and enter the war between Trojans and Achaeans, Mars joins the battle; in Book XXI, Minerva strikes him down.
Relationship record
Life events
- Diomed wounds Mars in the stomach during close combat.(BOOK V)
- With: Diomed
- “Diomed then threw, and Pallas Minerva drove the spear into the pit of Mars’s stomach where his under-girdle went round him. There Diomed wounded him, tearing his fair flesh and then drawing his spear out again.”
- Paeeon heals Mars’s wound on Olympus.(BOOK V · 📍 Olympus)
- With: Paeeon
- “He then bade Paeeon heal him, whereon Paeeon spread pain-killing herbs upon his wound and cured him, for he was not of mortal mould.”
- Mars kills Isander while he is fighting the Solymi.(BOOK VI · 📍 Solymi)
- With: Isander
- “Mars, insatiate of battle, killed his son Isander while he was fighting the Solymi”
- The gods choose sides and enter the conflict between Trojans and Achaeans.(BOOK XX)
- Minerva strikes Mars down in the gods’ battle.(BOOK XXI)
- With: Minerva
- “With this she struck Mars on the neck, and brought him down.”
BOOK II
- child: Ascalaphus “Ascalaphus and Ialmenus, sons of Mars, led the people that dwelt in Aspledon and Orchomenus the realm of Minyas.”
- child: Ialmenus “Ascalaphus and Ialmenus, sons of Mars, led the people that dwelt in Aspledon and Orchomenus the realm of Minyas.”
BOOK IV
- siblings with Strife “These were inspired of Mars, but the others by Minerva—and with them came Panic, Rout, and Strife whose fury never tires, sister and friend of murderous Mars,”
- friends with Strife “These were inspired of Mars, but the others by Minerva—and with them came Panic, Rout, and Strife whose fury never tires, sister and friend of murderous Mars,”
BOOK V
- parent: Jove “you are my own offspring, and it was by me that your mother conceived you”
- parent: Juno “You have the intolerable and stubborn spirit of your mother Juno”
- enemies with Diomed “There Diomed wounded him, tearing his fair flesh and then drawing his spear out again.”
- with Paeeon (interaction) “Paeeon spread pain-killing herbs upon his wound and cured him”
- siblings with Venus “Dear brother,” she cried, “save me, and give me your horses to take me to Olympus”
- siblings with Juno “You have the intolerable and stubborn spirit of your mother Juno”
- guardian: Mercury “Mercury, who stole him away when he was already well-nigh worn out by the severity of his bondage.”
- enemies with Minerva “Pallas Minerva drove the spear into the pit of Mars’s stomach”
- with Jove (interaction) “Do not come whining here, Sir Facing-both-ways. I hate you worst of all the gods in Olympus”
- with Hebe (interaction) “Then Hebe washed him, and clothed him in goodly raiment”
BOOK VI
- with Isander (Mars killed Isander.) “Mars, insatiate of battle, killed his son Isander while he was fighting the Solymi”
BOOK VII
- with Areithous (interaction) “The godlike hero Ereuthalion stood forward as their champion, with the armour of King Areithous upon his shoulders”
BOOK XIII
- child: Ascalaphus “Deiphobus aimed a spear at him as he was retreating slowly from the field, for his bitterness against him was as fierce as ever, but again he missed him, and hit Ascalaphus, the son of Mars”
- child: Panic “his son Panic so strong and dauntless goes with him”
BOOK XV
- child: Ascalaphus “Mars, I take it, has had a taste of them already, for his son Ascalaphus has fallen in battle—the man whom of all others he loved most dearly and whose father he owns himself to be.”
BOOK XX
- enemies with Minerva (Minerva faces Mars.) “Minerva took hers against the god of war”
BOOK XXI
- enemies with Minerva “She drew back and with her strong hand seized a stone that was lying on the plain—great and rugged and black—which men of old had set for the boundary of a field. With this she struck Mars on the neck, and brought him down.”
- enemies with Diomed “Have you forgotten how you set Diomed son of Tydeus on to wound me, and yourself took visible spear and drove it into me to the hurt of my fair body?”
- with Venus (interaction) “Jove’s daughter Venus took Mars by the hand and led him away groaning all the time”
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Extracted from the original text of The Iliad. Made with Rho MD.