Ares and Aphrodite Ares, in Greek religion and mythology, is he the Olympian god of war. He is usually said to be the son of Zeus and Hera, but in some legends he and Eris, his twin sister, were born when Hera touched a flower. A fierce warrior, he loved battle and often took part in conflicts between mortals. Ares was one of the most exalted of the Olympian gods, but became quickly the most hated among the gods. Ares was strong but he was also argumentative, impulsive, bloodthirsty and destructive. In conflicts he chose sides randomly and sometimes even changed sides in the middle of the war. He simply took pleasure in the bloodshed, slaughter and the wanton destruction of war. Ares and Aphrodite in Love Ares during inspection of his troops Ares was one of the twelve great Olympian gods, and the greek God of war. He was relatively little worshipped by the Greeks. While Athena presided over the disciplined and rational use of war to protect the community, Ares stood for the blood-lust and mindless frenzy of battle, delighting in the blood and slaughter and relishing all the tumult, confurion and horror of war. His sons "Phobos the terror" and "Deimos the fear" often accompanied him to the battlefield and sometimes so did "Eris the strife" and the war-goddess Enyo. Not surprisingly Ares was an unpopular God, both on Earth and on Olympus. In the Iliad Zeus says to him: "To me you are the most hateful of all the Gods who live on Olympus, for always strife is dear to your heart, and wars, and battles." Three of the many Lovers of Ares: Eos, Cyrene, Eris Ares never married and had many male and female lovers who bore him dozens of children, both mortals and immortals. The most notable of these many mistresses was the goddess of love Aphrodite. Aphrodite bore Ares four children, Eros the god of love, the warrior twins Phobo and Deimos and a daughter Harmonia, who married the mortal Cadmus at a wedding attended by all the gods. The Romans, who glorified war and battle, liked Mars (Roman for Ares) much better than the Greeks liked Ares. He was never to them the mean, whining deity of the Iliad, but a magnificent and invincible warrior. The heroes of the Aeneid rejoiced when they saw that they were to fall "on Mars’ field of renown," they "rush on to glorious death" and find it "sweet to die in battle." The Romans also worshipped Mars and Bellona together, in the same temples and their altars were the only ones they ever polluted by human sacrifices. Athena was invincible in battle, and her side always won. Ares usually had no favorites in battle - he just preferred one side to be routed with great slaughter. Ares was often wounded or even taken prisoner. In one myth, Athena totally defeated him in battle, and he fell with his body covering seven acres. Also, during the Trojan War, Ares sided with the Trojans, taking under his protection the hero Hector. The Achaean Diomedes wounded him, and he again fell to the ground with a thundering crash. Ares was also once captured by the Giants Otos and Ephialtes, and imprisoned in a huge brass vase for thirteen months, where he weakened and almost died. Ares' accouterments and totemic animals also do not suggest strong links to the war-gods. We would expect that at a minimum, he had a sword and was mounted on a horse. Instead, we find that his sacred animals were the dog and the vulture, with the former sacrificed to him. His main sigils were his spear and torch. However, Ares was also always found with a sword, and Herodotus wrote that an upright sword symbolized him. His constant companion was the dark Eris. She is wearing the blue dress on the left side of the picture above, standing besides Ares and Athena during a meeting with Agamemnon. The fierce god Ares was often inflamed with lust for battle. Indeed, it is fair to say that Ares was obsessed with war, almost to the exclusion of anything else. The God did, however, have an eye for the female form, and his appetite for Aphrodite, the alluring goddess of love and beauty, at times almost rivaled his desire to do battle. This is clearly to see in the very first picture of this web-site. In consequence his conquests on the battlefield are nearly as legendary as his victories with the ladies, such as the lovely Eos the Goddes of the Dawn and his sister the dark jealous Eris.