Blessing:
The world can be a hard and cruel place: Ares helps us to get through it. His blessings are strength, courage, fortitude, cunning, and the passion to fight for the things that we think are important. He helps us to shed what is not efficient, to become hard in order to meet life's adversity. He is a tough master, but when things start falling apart around you, that's precisely the person you want on your side.
Epithets:
Areopagite (of the Aeropagus), Aphneius (Bountiful), Enualios (Companion of Enyo), Gynaikothoinas (One Whom the Women Feast), Theritas
Symbols:
spear, sword, shield, helmet
Animal(s):
wolf, horse, boar
Sacrifices: frankincense, opoponax, pepper, oak, nettle, cactus, absinthe, rue, ruby, dogs, humans
Primary Cult Center(s):
Thrace, Tegea, Sparta
Festivals:
none
Ways to honor:
Practice martial arts. Respect veterans, and what they've gone through. Stand up for the principles you believe in. Find constructive ways of handling adversity. Study military history.
For more information:
Aeschlyus' Eumenides 685-690
Apollodorus' Library 1.4.4, 1.7.7, 1.8.2, 1.9.16, 2.5.8-9, 3.4.1-2, 3.5.5, 3.9.2, 3.14.8
Apollonius Rhodius' Argonautica 2.404-406, 2.989-992, 2.1169-1176, 3.409-413, 3.1227
Euripides' Elektra 1258-1262
Hesiod's Theogony 921-923, 934-937
Hesiod's Shield of Herakles and Telegony
Homer's Iliad
Homer's Odyssey 8.266-366
Homeric Hymn to Ares 8
Hyginus' Fabulae 159
Nonnus' Dionysiaca 302-304
Ovid's Metamorphoses 15.862-863
Pausanias' Description of Greece 5.7.10, 5.22.6, 8.44.7-8, 8.48.4-5, 9.36.1, 9.37.7
Copyright 2002 Sannion
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Posted with permission