Stories and Myths
Stories play a massive role in understanding the characters of
Greek Mythology, Ares features in a limited number of stories, this restricts the knowledge we have of him, these stories include The Binding of Hera, which resulted in Ares having an affair with Aphrodite after being forced to marry Hephaestus, Heracles, Ares' half-brother who he frequently conflicted with, the first Olympic Games where he challenged Apollo to a boxing match and The Iliad, the story of the Fall of Troy. All stories show Ares' competitive nature and willingness for a fight. Stories such as Heracles and the Iliad also show his vengeful side. Despite Ares' ambitious, merciless bloodthirsty-ness, he does not always win, and will concede defeat, although he was known as the "Father of Victory", this is shown when Ares challenged Apollo to a boxing match, and
lost.
Greek Mythology, Ares features in a limited number of stories, this restricts the knowledge we have of him, these stories include The Binding of Hera, which resulted in Ares having an affair with Aphrodite after being forced to marry Hephaestus, Heracles, Ares' half-brother who he frequently conflicted with, the first Olympic Games where he challenged Apollo to a boxing match and The Iliad, the story of the Fall of Troy. All stories show Ares' competitive nature and willingness for a fight. Stories such as Heracles and the Iliad also show his vengeful side. Despite Ares' ambitious, merciless bloodthirsty-ness, he does not always win, and will concede defeat, although he was known as the "Father of Victory", this is shown when Ares challenged Apollo to a boxing match, and
lost.
Although disliked among the Olympians, Ares came to the rescue of Hades, although for his own reasons, when he was captured by Sisyphus no one was able to die, and move on to the Underworld, this meant the sick and old would
suffer and the people could not sacrifice animals to eat, the world was in chaos, because no one could die Ares was annoyed and wasn't finding his battles fulfilling like they were before, because his opponents weren't dying. Ares rescued Hades from the chains restraining him, and handed Sisyphus to Thanatos, the personification of death. This story shows that Ares is willing to help the other gods.
suffer and the people could not sacrifice animals to eat, the world was in chaos, because no one could die Ares was annoyed and wasn't finding his battles fulfilling like they were before, because his opponents weren't dying. Ares rescued Hades from the chains restraining him, and handed Sisyphus to Thanatos, the personification of death. This story shows that Ares is willing to help the other gods.
Other stories reflect on how the gods thought of Ares, for example, two giants, named Otos and Ephialtes captured Ares and chained in abronze cauldron for 13 months. Zues, Ares' father, did not attempt to rescue or find Ares, instead it wasn't until Eeriboia, the Giants' step-mother found Ares locked away, and told Hermes, who eventually rescued Ares. This story showed that Ares was not invincible, and still had vulnerable defences, and that the other Olympians, such as Zues, thought little of what happened to him.