Being the god of manly courage, bloodlust, civil order, and warlike frenzy, Ares shouldn’t be considered a very powerful god. Even though he is the god over these things, he is no more powerful than the others. In fact he is actually weaker than the others due to his shear blood lust and blind rage allowing him to be easily overcome. Ares should not be considered anything other than the loser he is because he can never win a battle, is constantly getting in trouble, and has a very quick temper and enjoys bloodshed.
Being the god of bloodlust, Ares is always getting into fights and getting involved in wars. However, he can never win any of his battles or win the wars he sides on, mostly due to his half-sister Athena. Here is an example of how Athena is able to defeat Ares, when she hits him in the head with a rock. “During the Trojan War Ares fought on the side of the Trojans against the Greeks, as a show of support for his lover Aphrodite who had set the war in motion. He charged at Athena who was taunting him about it and she calmly reached down and picked up a rock and smashed him over the head with it, stopping his advance.”(Ares: Greek God of War.) Obviously Ares can’t even hold his own against his sister, when he is the god of war and should be able to defeat many people. However, he continuously fails to be able to do so. Even as a child Ares couldn’t help but be man-handled. “The young Ares had been abducted by two playmates, the giant Aloadai twins, who had caught him and locked him in a bronze jar. Ares stayed captive in the bronze jar, almost losing his mind in captivity, until Hermes was able to release Ares from the jar.”(Ares: Greek God of War.) Ares was trapped in a bronze jar for thirteen months; during this tim...
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...ly Ares should not be considered anything but a loser because he cannot win any battles, he is a trouble-maker, and he has too much blind rage.
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The Greek army’s greatest warrior during the Trojan War, Achilles was born of the goddess Thetis and the mortal Peleus. (Murnaghan, 1997, p.xxv)“Strong, swift and godlike” as Lombardo translating Homer puts it (1997, p.5), his presence on the battlefield reverberated fear through his enemies. Being a general in the Achaean army, his original rationale as to engage...
He fought just on instinct and his own rage and personal fury he had, and fought primarily for the sake of fighting. However, on the opposite spectrum was Athena the Goddess of Wisdom and Warfare. Her warfare was the tactical warfare that calculated each move carefully with strategic strikes in order to get the job done. (the god and goddess 1) I his personal life, he was associated with Aphrodite at a young age. According to Homer, the two were married but Aphrodite was already married to Hepheastus. To show affection with Aphrodite, he fought on the side of the Trojans against the Greeks. This choice did not work out for Ares and lost the Trojan War.
...Achilles enraged? His rage is a personal choice. He decides to confront Agamemnon. He decides to withdraw from the war. He decides to join the war after Patroclus' death. However, the gods do their parts in making sure that his destiny is carried out. Thetis has new armor made for him and encourages him to fight. Apollo taunts him. Athena intervenes, first to make sure he does not kill Agamemnon and then later to make sure that he does kill Hector. Zeus weighs his fate. Rage is the spawn of many emotions. Injustice, jealousy, un-holiness, revenge, and heartbreak are emotions that sparked Achilles' rage. Homer's tale, the Iliad, shows how Achilles' rage is his destiny.
Because she is a Goddess of War, her male Greek counterpart is Ares, who is a God of War. Athena, being the Goddess of the City of Athens, protected the civilized life of Athens. Because she had compassion and generosity for others, she was often praised. The Parthenon served as her temple because she served as Athens guardian. Panathenaea is celebrated every year and it is Athena's most important festival. Along with Hesita and Artemis, Athena is a Virgin Goddess. Her siblings are Artemis, Aphrodite, Ares, Apollo, Dionysus, Hermes, Heracles, Hephasteus and Perseus. Athena's nicknames include Hippeia (which means “of the horses”), Hygieia (which means “healer”) and Tritogeneia (which means “third born”). Plato oftened viewed Athena as the Egyptian diety Neith, a war goddess. If a man spies on her naked, she will punish them. It is believed that Athena does have a dark side that is Medusa. She can be intimidating at times, very critical and judgemental when it comes to the weakness of others. Athena is sensitive and and because she doesn't show love or affection, her only wound is her heart. She is more masucline than feminine, but she is beautiful in her own way. When she was a child she always was reading a book, she was curious to seek new information and was always a daddy's girl.As an adult she her own priorites were more important than others, was a devoted and trusted friend and was very rational. Historic people
Agamemnon survived the ten year long Trojan War, even as other great warriors such as Achilleus fell. Tales of the war are widespread and it is described by both its veterans and non-participants in glorified terms. Agamemnon is often singled out for leadership and accomplishments. Demodokos sings of the “famous actions/ of men on that venture” and “that lord of men, Agamemnon” while performing for Odysseus on Alkinoos.(VIII, 73-74, 77). Agamemnon stands out as one of “the leaders of the bronze- armored Achaians” who fought at Troy and is recognized as a major hero of the war (IV,496).
Ares possessed crucial powers that influenced Greek mythology, and was often symbolized in everyday Ancient Greek life. Ares was the god of war, violence, destruction, rage and manliness. His powers made him one of the most powerful Greek gods in mythology. He was believed to be in charge of when are where wars would happen. He was thought to watch over the battlefield during combat and direct the troops strategy. This differs from Athena, the goddess of war strategy, who controlled how the troops actually fought (“Theoi Project”). This means that Ares was assumed to be in control of the outcomes during major wars. With the ability to control lives and wars, Ares was worshipped as the god of war by the Ancient Greeks. Additionally, Ares had a few objects that represented him and his personality. Ares was symbolized in Ancient Greeks by a spear, battle armor and the scrappy, bloodthirsty vulture. Many Ancient Greeks felt that a spear symbolized him because of its relation to battle and death. Both things that Ares was known for (“Theoi Project”). They believed that the battle armor did not only represent his thirst for conflict, but also his cowardliness. Although Ares was the god of war and manliness and was immortal, he
Zeus is more than a god, he is a guardian. He protects those in need, and smites those who are evil. Zeus is almighty and powerful, but most of his victories are because he outsmarts his enemy and is always one step ahead. Zeus is not perfect. He can be tricked and fooled. Just like a human he is lustful and emotional. But that just makes him one step closer to being human.
Claybourne, Anna. "Achilles." Gods, Goddesses, and Mythology. Marshall Cavendish Digital, 04 Jan 2012. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. http://marshallcavendishdigital.com/articledisplay/41/8483/89264.
Athena was the goddess of war and wisdom. Daughter of Zeus and Metis, but born from only Zeus. Gaea the Earth goddess told Zeus that his child would u...
All these factors go hand in hand to solidify warfare in Ancient Greece as not only a constant in their society, but nearly a staple. Without the influence of war, ancient Greece would not be near as significant in history. Spartans and Athenians alike relied on war not only for defence, but identity. Warfare in ancient Greece wasn’t only a common occurrence, but a heavy influence for their identity and ways of life, even
As the reader goes through the many books in the Iliad, he or she may notice the battle of immortal versus immortal on Mount Olympus. The gods are introduced in this book as major characters that have taken a side on either Team Trojans or Team Achaeans. Aphrodite, Apollo, and Ares are the main gods on Team Trojans, while Hera and Athena fight for Team Achaeans. Zeus is supposedly neutral, but in book one Thetis approaches Zeus saying, “honor my son Achilles!-doomed to live the shortest life of any man on earth […] grant the Trojans victory […] till the Achaean armies pay my dea...
When Achilles was a boy, the seer Calchas prophesied that the city of Troy could not be taken without his help. Thetis knew that, if her son went to Troy, he would die an early death, so she sent him to the court of Lycomedes, in Scyros; there he was hidden, disguised as a young girl. During his stay he had an affair with Lycomedes' daughter, Deidameia, and she had a son, Pyrrhus (or Neoptolemus), by him. Achilles' disguise was finally penetrated by Odysseus, who placed arms and armor amidst a display of women's finery and seized upon Achilles when he was the only "maiden" to be fascinated by the swords and shields. Achilles then went willingly with Odysseus to Troy, leading a host of his father's Myrmidons and accompanied by his tutor Phoenix and his close friend Patroclus. At Troy, Achilles distinguished himself as an undefeatable warrior. Among his other exploits, he captured twenty-three towns in Trojan territory, including the town of Lyrnessos, where he took the woman Briseis as a war-prize. Later on Agamemnon, the leader of the Greeks, was forced by an oracle of Apollo to give up his own war-prize, the woman Chryseis, and took Briseis away from Achilles as compensation for his loss. This action sparked the central plot of the Iliad, for Achilles became enraged and refused to fight for the Greeks any further. The war went badly, and the Greeks offered handsome reparations to their greatest warrior; Achilles still refused to fight in person, but he agreed to allow his friend Patroclus to fight in his place, wearing his armor.
The human need for conflict is a constant factor in everyday life and has been demonstrated throughout our readings of the Romans and the Greeks. As seen in Herodotus’ The History, tales of battles and wars are described in epic proportions and are a constant theme throughout his writings. Herodotus plays into the aspect of fighting, as well as the cultural belief of Greece that war was a necessary part of society and should be valued by the citizens. By heightening the actions of soldiers in battle, war is encouraged as a way of life because it is emphasized as a way of being remembered and praised for committing honorable deeds and protecting Greece. Herodotus incorporates numerous acts of valor like those seen in The Battle of Thermopylae in his writings in order to provide the ultimate connection between Greek behavior and warfare as a representation of what it meant to practice good citizenship. Herodotus incorporates the Role of the Gods, male behavior, and describing the Persians in The History in his attempt to portray the historic event of the 300’s last stand against the Persians in a way that Greeks would look up to and hopefully want to follow.
“Nine days the arrows of god swept through the army.” (Homer, The Iliad, 1.61) The Iliad written by Homer portrayed the war between the Achaeans and the Trojans. In addition to the mortals fighting each other gods also intervened in the war between the two sides, the gods in The Iliad played very significant roles in the battles; they brought divine powers on to the mortal sides of the war, Greek gods embody many human characteristics, there are many themes in The Iliad that construct the interventions of the gods, lust, jealousy, revenge, anger, pride, and favoritism are some of the reasons why the gods of Olympus got involved in the Trojan War. The gods of Olympus used humans as their puppets while the gods engaged themselves in conflict against each other.