Old soldiers tell us that sometimes in the thick of a battle men fight
as though possessed by a spirit of fury. The excitement of the conflict
seems to arouse an impulse of bloodthirstiness in them, and for the
moment they seem to exult in the carnage. In the ancient methods of
warfare, when a battle was literally a hand-to-hand conflict, this
spirit of brutality was of course even more marked. In the wars among
the early Greeks men fell upon one another with the violence of wild
animals.
The Greeks with their ready gift for personification conceived of this
spirit of warfare as a supernatural being acting on human lives. He was
called Ares, the god whose special delight was to incite the fierce
passions of men.
It was natural that the Greeks should refer his influence chiefly to
their enemies. On their own part they preferred to think that their
armies were inspired by the prudent spirit of self-defense embodied in
Athena. This explains why in the Iliad Ares was on the side of the
Trojans, while Athena aided the Greeks. Thus Ares and Athena were
brought into direct rivalry, the spirit of violence against the spirit
of strategy.
An instance is related when Athena makes an appeal to her enemy, the
translation running in these words, the Roman name Mars being used for
Ares.
"Mars, Mars, thou slayer of men, thou steeped in blood,
Destroyer of walled cities! should we not
Leave both the Greeks and Trojans to contend,
And Jove to crown with glory whom he will,
While we retire, lest we provoke his wrath?"[21]
[21] Iliad, Book v., lines 33-37.
As a matter of fact, however, both deities continued to aid their
favorites. Mars was forced to yield before the skill and prudence of
Athena. Guided by the goddess the Greek hero Diomed wounds and drives
him from the battle.[22]
[22] Iliad, Book v., lines 1068-1075.
In spite of his violent nature Mars was a handsome god, "stately, swift,
unwearied, puissant." Though war was his chief delight he was quite
susceptible to the tender passion. Venus was the object of his devotion,
and the goddess of love returned the war god's admiration. It was she
who soothed his wounded vanity when Athena mocked him in the presence of
the gods and struck him to earth with a stone.[23]
[23] Iliad, Book xxi., lines 500 _et seq._
[Illustration: D. Anderson, Photo. John Andrew & Son, Sc.