yeah there's some obvious problems with ares in the pjo series but i think some of them are actually on purpose. the greek gods are first and foremost the embodiment of their domain, i.e. poseidon isn't just god of the sea, he is the sea, or gaea isn't just goddess of the earth, she is the earth. ares isn't just god of war, he is war, and he lives in the us now. modern warfare in the us now is a lot different than ancient greece. it has nothing to do with glory. it's opportunistic. it's capitalist. it's gross and slimy and goes to the highest bidder, and it doesn't like to take responsibility. it takes and takes. if that's not ares in the og series, i don't know what is.
Exactly!! In Blessing In Disguise: Season 2 by denkiskaminari on AO3, there is a really nice little analysis of this behaviour, accompanied by a screeching Aphrodite and an even angrier Artemis, it is really nice!
The reason the Greek Pantheon has such inconsistent characterisation is because they personify natural, emotional and industrial phenomena and how the Greeks viewed those phenomena changed over time. Aphrodite appears with no warning, is wrathful to scorned lovers, jealous of those prettier than her, a gentle and caring mother, a sucker for a tragic love story, will make her ship happen with no regard for consequences. Why? Because she personifies Love, and all areas of it too, so romantic, sexual, familial and self. An emotion that just happens sometimes, can make you behave erratically but that also involves a lot of care. Similarly, Ares is specifically the personification of War and Bloodshed. And that Bloodshed element is important, because while he's not a Theoi Khthonioi (Underworld god) he is responsible for the deaths that occur in war. And modern understandings of war determine that excessive bloodshed is cruel and that any and all fatalities are tragic, but the military doesn't seem to care that much. He personifies the things that leave soldiers and families traumatised but not the trauma itself. So of course a modern interpretation of Ares will involve a cruel and wrathful god, because that's our modern understanding of war.
There are plenty of war gods (can't remember what their proper name is, like Theoi Nomioi/Rustic Gods, Theoi Khthonioi/Underworld Gods, Theoi Georgikoi/Agrarian Gods etc., I think it's the Theoi Polemoi, but I could be wrong) but Ares and Athene (Athena) are the main two, and Athene (Athena) is generally represented in a more positive light because she personifies strategy, which implies that perhaps she's avoiding excessive bloodshed. There are other war gods that are arguably worse than Ares, including Enyo (his wife) since she represents the downfall of cities caused by war. She embodies the violence and destruction caused by war and nothing else. A modern understanding would blame her for any and all levelling of cities during wars, with Ares being responsible for the casualties caused by it. Essentially, Hiroshima and Nagisaki would be their domain, while the creation of the atomic bomb would be Athene (Athena).
The way all of these war gods interact with each other is difficult to describe, but because Athene (Athena) is usually more associated with general wisdom and craftsmanship (weaving specifically) she gets less flack for our modern understanding of war compared to Ares, who is the act of violence, since it's not her only domain. Generally the fact that people ignore Enyo's role in all of this is because she's not very well-known, to the point that people forget Ares even has a wife. War is just generally very difficult to personify in the modern age since we think of it as cruel and tragic, so to embody the God of Bloodshed as anything but cruel and vaguely sadistic feels like a dismissal of that.
It is unfortunate that Ares ends up being put into the sexist category, since his wife, Enyo, is fairly equal to him in the devastation they cause (and often depicted as more sadistic in Greek sources since casualties are bound to happen but the total destruction of cities has long lasting effects on the nations resources) and Ares is responsible in part for creating the Amazons (which aren't all women BTW, Hippolytos is the easiest example of a male Amazon, but they are mostly women). That's honestly the real issue I take with modern Ares, because he embodies bloodshed and bloodlust, and it feels weird to say he can't possibly like women. Like, he literally does not care who is doing the violence, he's just happy the violence is happening. It honestly feels more sexist to say the God of Bloodlust would never like women because that implies that women are incapable of anger or violence. Although, I don't remember if that's something that really occurs in PJO. Ares doesn't appear often enough to really have his opinions on women be memorable.
I could go on about the complexities of personifying war in the modern era, but I feel like I've hijacked this post enough.
