Ares

Ares, son of Zeus and Hera, was one of the twelve Olympians. He stood for the physical valour and courage needed in war, and many Greeks felt ambivalent towards him. His sister Athena governed strategy.

He may have originated in Thrace. In myth he is often humiliated: Hephaestus trapped him in a net with Aphrodite, and in the Trojan War he took the Trojan side and lost. The Romans set Mars, a more dignified figure, beside him.