Page:Greek and Roman Mythology.djvu/102

 88 GREEK AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY a god of death dwelling in the depths of the earth, like the Zeus of the lower world (Hades-Pluto), and there- fore also closely related to the earth's fruitfulness. Per- haps, however, he was a real heavenly Zeus in Thrace, and when imported into Greece was reduced to son- ship, retaining the warlike attributes of his father as his own special characteristic. At any rate, as might have been expected from the character of his early worshipers, he was developed into a wildly raging war god, and it was exclusively as such that he found entrance into Greece. Out of his ancient epithet, Enyalios, which seems to have referred to the wild war cry, was developed the idea that he had as a companion a destroying war goddess, Enyo (Lat. Bellona). There were also associated with him Deimos (' terror 7 ), and Phobos ('fright'), Eris the goddess of f strife ' (Lat. Discordia), and the Keres, who were repre- sented as dark-visaged women in bloody robes. The Keres were believed to cause death in battle, and are probably to be regarded as having been originally souls of the dead. Ares, however, represented only rude, violent warfare, so that he was constantly forced to give way before Athena and whoever chanced to be her proteges (e.g. Diomedes, in the Fifth Book of the Iliad). 117. In Greece Ares was looked upon as the son of Zeus and Hera, and in Thebes, the most important seat of his worship, Aphrodite was called his wife. The epic poets, however, harmonized two myths by making Aph- rodite the wife of Hephaestus and at the same time the mistress of Ares. In Athens, where he was honored upon the *Apeio? ?rayos (Mars's Hill) as god of the atone-