love love love when you talk about greek mythology, you have such unique POVs!!!! the one thing i've never been able to figure out is during my reading sessions is why Ares' entire family hates him 😭😭😭 he doesn't even seem like that much of a dick compared to Apollo e.g.???
aww thank you friend! happy to talk about some more mythology with you!
You're correct! Ares is surprisingly complex, given the fact people know him only as 'that guy who does war a lot'.
For one, despite his violent nature, he's only violent in battle - he never commits sexual violence in any of the sources we have, which is a feat for a Pantheon god. He's also a fiercely protective father; when his daughter Alcippe was raped by Halirrhothius (Poseidon’s son), Ares killed the man in retaliation. This led to the first-ever trial for murder on the Areopagus in Athens — and he was acquitted. It’s brutal, but within mythic logic, that’s one of the few times Ares acts out of justice rather than bloodlust.
As to why he's the black sheep of the family and why Zeus in particular treats his firstborn boy like a doormat - in order to understand it, you gotta recontextualize the gods in your mind not as people, or even as characters, but as concepts.
The greek pantheon is big on virtue in any and all its forms. So Zeus adores Athena, because conceptually, she represents the virtuous side of the war - strategy, leadership, proving oneself worthy of hearth and home and wife in battle, while Ares represents all the ugly parts - violence, wrath, bloodshed, aggression. In some texts, Zeus forced himself on Hera, and the result of that violent union was indeed the god of violence, so Hera can't look at him as anything other than a result of rape and Zeus' """""virtue""""" won't allow him to love a child so fucking aggressive.
So asking why everybody hates Ares is akin to asking why Hera punishes Zeus' victims of the week instead of her philandering rapist of a husband - sure, he's more powerful than her theoretically, (they're siblings so who knows) but also, she can't punish him - he's a god - a concept - you can't punish a concept, you can only punihs people - us.
The gods of mycenaean greece are the baba yaga under your bed - if you step out of your marriage, Hera will punish you, because marriage and family are her domain and you disrespected her domain. Doesn't really matter you were forced, that's just not how that worked.
Huh. Kinda reminds me of another religion blaming victims of rape for inviting the sin into their life by tempting men or threatening punishment of eternal fire for stepping out of your marriage. I forgot the name, but I'm sure it'll come to me.
