The night sky, a canvas of distant suns and silent worlds, holds a particular wanderer that has captivated human attention for millennia: the planet Mars. Its most striking feature, a persistent, baleful red glow, set it apart from the glittering diamonds of other stars and the softer lights of other planets. This fiery complexion, visible even to the unaided eye, became an irresistible prompt for the human imagination, weaving a narrative thread that would forever link this celestial body to concepts of conflict, aggression, and the divine patrons of warfare.
Long before telescopes peeled back the layers of Martian geology, revealing iron oxide dust as the source of its crimson hue, ancient observers saw something more elemental, more visceral. They saw blood, fire, and the untamed fury of battle. It was almost inevitable, then, that this readily identifiable planet would become the celestial counterpart to some of humanity’s most formidable and feared deities.
The Greek God of Carnage: Ares
In the vibrant, often tumultuous pantheon of ancient Greece, the embodiment of brutal warfare, bloodlust, and the sheer chaos of battle was Ares. Unlike Athena, his half-sister, who represented strategic warfare and wisdom in conflict, Ares reveled in the savage, untamed aspects of combat. He was the din of clashing shields, the screams of the dying, and the insatiable thirst for destruction. Son of Zeus, king of the gods, and Hera, his queen, Ares was paradoxically one of the Olympians yet often an outsider, disliked even by his own parents for his aggressive and quarrelsome nature.
A Deity of Bloodlust
Ares was not a figure of heroic valor in the way some modern interpretations might suggest. He was often depicted as impulsive, destructive, and sometimes even cowardly when faced with true opposition or cunning. His attributes were fittingly martial: the spear, the helmet, a shield, and a war chariot drawn by fire-breathing steeds. His constant companions were his terrifying children, Phobos (Fear) and Deimos (Terror), who often accompanied him into battle, spreading panic among mortals. Eris (Strife) and Enyo (a goddess of war, sometimes described as his sister or companion) were also frequently in his retinue, underscoring his association with the most horrifying aspects of conflict.
The Greeks, while acknowledging his power and the reality of war, generally did not hold Ares in high esteem. Temples dedicated to him were few and far between, and he was more a figure to be appeased or acknowledged in times of strife than one to be actively worshipped with affection or reverence. His cult was more prominent in rugged, warlike regions like Thrace, considered a wilder, more barbaric land by the more sophisticated city-states of southern Greece.
Ares in Myth
Ares features in several notable myths, often not in a flattering light. His most famous liaison was with Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, who was unhappily married to Hephaestus, the lame god of craftsmanship. Their affair was a scandal on Mount Olympus, famously exposed when Hephaestus crafted an unbreakable, invisible net to trap the lovers in bed, subsequently inviting the other gods to witness their shame. This story highlights Ares’ passionate nature but also his susceptibility to being outwitted.
During the Trojan War, Ares, influenced by Aphrodite, sided with the Trojans. He fought with characteristic ferocity but was ultimately wounded by the mortal hero Diomedes, guided by Athena. His bellow of pain upon being speared was said to be as loud as ten thousand men, and he fled back to Olympus to be healed, a scene that further emphasized his brute force over tactical prowess or resilience against divine-backed mortals. He was also once captured and imprisoned in a bronze jar for thirteen months by the Aloadae, two giants, until he was eventually rescued by Hermes. Such tales paint a picture of a deity more defined by raw aggression than by honor or strategic brilliance.
Rome’s Revered Protector: Mars
When the Romans adopted and adapted the Greek pantheon, Ares found his counterpart in Mars. However, the Roman Mars evolved into a figure far more significant and revered than his Greek precursor. While still intrinsically linked to warfare, Mars was imbued with a dignity, gravitas, and protective quality that Ares largely lacked. He was not just a god of slaughter but a guardian of Rome, a symbol of its military might, and, crucially, a divine ancestor.
From Fields to Battlefields
Initially, Mars may have been an agricultural deity, a protector of cattle, fields, and boundaries, and a chthonic god associated with fertility and warding off disease from crops and livestock. The Roman writer Cato the Elder includes a prayer to Mars Silvanus in his work “De Agri Cultura” to protect a cattle-fold. This agrarian aspect never entirely vanished, but as Rome grew from a small city-state into a vast military empire, Mars’s martial characteristics became paramount. He became the god who led Roman legions to victory, who embodied Roman valor, and whose favor was essential for the state’s survival and expansion.
Mars was considered the father of Romulus and Remus, the mythical founders of Rome, through his union with the Vestal Virgin Rhea Silvia. This lineage made him a direct ancestor of the Roman people, lending him a patriarchal and protective role. He was second only to Jupiter in the Archaic Triad (along with Quirinus), highlighting his supreme importance in early Roman religion.
Mars in Roman Life
The Campus Martius (“Field of Mars”) in Rome was originally an area outside the sacred boundary of the city (the pomerium) where soldiers trained and armies assembled. Temples and altars to Mars were prominent, and numerous festivals were held in his honor, particularly in March (Martius, “month of Mars”) and October, the traditional beginning and end of the campaigning season. These included the Feriae Marti (March 1st), the second Equirria (March 14th), the Agonium Martiale (March 17th), the Quinquatrus (March 19th, later associated more with Minerva), and the Tubilustrium (March 23rd and May 23rd), a purification of trumpets used in military and religious ceremonies. The Salii, a priesthood of Mars, performed ritual war dances in full armor, parading sacred shields (ancilia) through the city.
The Romans held Mars in significantly higher esteem than the Greeks did Ares. For Rome, Mars was not merely a god of destructive war, but a divine progenitor, a guardian of the state, and a symbol of Roman power and virtue. His festivals were major events, underscoring his central role in Roman society and its military endeavors. This reverence is a key distinction in understanding his place in their pantheon.
Before battle, Roman generals would often invoke Mars, and spoils of war were frequently dedicated to him. His image, stern and bearded, often clad in armor, became a ubiquitous symbol of Roman military identity.
The Crimson Thread: Planet and Pantheon
The visual distinctiveness of the planet Mars provided an undeniable and potent symbol for these war gods. The reddish hue, reminiscent of spilled blood on the battlefield or the glow of distant fires in a sacked city, offered a direct, almost primal, connection. When the Romans, heavily influenced by Greek culture, began to systematically name celestial bodies after their deities, the “fiery star” was the obvious candidate for Mars. This was not a casual association; it was a deeply resonant one, reflecting the perceived character of the planet in the character of the god.
This connection was not unique to Greco-Roman culture, though they cemented it in the Western tradition. The Babylonians, for instance, named the red planet Nergal, after their god of war, death, and pestilence. Ancient Egyptians referred to it as “Horus the Red” (Hor Dshr). These independent associations across different cultures underscore how the planet’s appearance universally suggested themes of danger, conflict, or intense power.
The symbolism of red itself is powerful. It is a color of extremes: passion, love, anger, danger, and vitality. In the context of a celestial body named for a war god, it amplified the deity’s attributes, making the planet a constant, visible reminder in the night sky of the forces Mars and Ares represented.
Echoes Through Time
The legacy of this ancient association between the Red Planet and the gods of war is remarkably persistent. The name “Mars” for the planet is now universal. The adjective “martial,” meaning pertaining to war or the military, is derived directly from Mars’s name. Think of “martial arts” or “court-martial.” The month of March, as mentioned, still bears his name, a relic of the Roman calendar.
Even in our modern, scientific age, the shadow of the war god looms over our perception of his namesake planet. Science fiction literature and film have often depicted Mars as a world of ancient, warlike civilizations or a future battlefield. The exploration of Mars, while driven by scientific curiosity, sometimes carries subtle undertones of this ancient persona. The names of Martian rovers and missions do not always directly evoke war, but the planet itself remains “the Red Planet,” its color an indelible link to its fiery, mythological past.
Phobos and Deimos, the moons of Mars discovered in 1877 by Asaph Hall, were fittingly named after the mythological sons and attendants of Ares/Mars – Fear and Terror. This choice demonstrates the enduring power of the ancient myths, reaching across centuries to touch even new astronomical discoveries.
Thus, every time we look up and spot that distinct reddish point of light, we are not just seeing a rocky planet covered in iron oxide. We are also glimpsing a reflection of ancient human attempts to understand the cosmos and their place within it, personifying powerful forces and painting them onto the grand canvas of the night sky. Mars, the planet, and Mars/Ares, the gods, remain inextricably linked, a fiery testament to the enduring power of myth and the human imagination to find meaning in the stars.
