War page
ancient polytheism:
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War Deities
Underworld Deities
Ares, Greek god of war, was a vicious and bloodstained murderer, but, unlike in the cases of the Norse and Egyptian war deities, he was also fiercely cowardly. He was hated by both of his parents, Hera and Zeus, which could be attributed to his cowardly yet savage personality.As an abandoned child who was hated by both of his parents, Ares was made to be a coward and act fearful. But at the same time, the abandonment that made him such a coward also made him violent and angry; thus, he became the god of war. Perhaps at the root of this personality dispute is the Greeks' desire for peace.
It is likely that the Greeks, being a highly developed and sophisticated intellectual people, portrayed their god of war was a fearful god to give the impression that warring is a sign of cowardice--weakness of the mind being covered up by brute force. It was easy for the Greeks to give their god of war a low position because war was a relatively unimportant feature of Greek life, as the cities of Greece generally worked well together with few major conflicts that could actually be considered "wars." Unlike the Norse and Egyptian religions, the Greek religion placed its war deity in a very low standing, making him a coward--even his representative bird was the vulture, indicative of a scavenger's spirit. Ares was also associated with the dog, scavenging about for scraps, trying to look strong regardless of his evident cowardice.
Greek
Egyptian
Norse