Illo Friday: Heroes

Heroes and Deities: The Ambiguous Twists

Ares, the god of war. The month of March was named after his Roman name, Mars. Although known to be aggressive and sanguinary, love over-ruled him thru Aphrodite (the goddess of love, beauty and affection, wife of Hephaestus and daughter of Zeus), with whom he had an illicit affair which produced three children: Phobus (phobia), Deimus (fear) and Harmonia (married to Cadmus, who slayed the dragon which was sacred to Ares, but after 8 years of penance, he married Harmonia. And gave her as a wedding gift, a necklace fashioned by Hephaestus, together with a jeweled robe, which had the power of stirring up strife to whoever possessed it. Harmonia and Cadmus were turned into serpents.)

In Later legends, Eros (the god of love) was said to be the son of Aphrodite- by various fathers: Ares, Zeus (god of the sky, the supreme diety) or Hermes (god of luck and weath, sleep and dream, and conductor of the souls of the dead to Hades - god of the underworld, brother of Zeus). Some literature suggest Eros and Aphrodite as lovers. Aphrodite's greatest rival is Persephone (goddess of the dead and ferility of the earth, queen of the underworld, daughter of Zeus nad Demeter, wife of Hades), where being bound to return to Hades, fell inlove with Adonis who was also inlove with Aphrodite.

As the All-Father, the Greeks had to make Zeus polygamous or promiscuous and chose the latter as being less offensive to their mores. By his sister and wife Hera, he sired Hebe, Eileithyia, Hephaestus and Ares.

And like poetry, their stories are open to more than one interpretation.

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note: I wasn't planning of drawing them all, given the limited time and resources, and all the literature i wanted to read, who else would i fancy but Ares, the god of war, the ruler of passion, the avenger, the hero.

*Velvet Venus now surrounds herself with the Green Mist.