Why in the World....

[coffeebeancloud]

.... DOES EVERYONE HATE ARES?

On Olympus he can be a sore looser and a bit narcissistic, but why do mortals these days hate him? I'm in some godly roleplays, and each time all the gods hate the god of bloodshed war. I find that Athena and some mortals should really be the ones that hate Ares..

So why does everyone hate him?  

[Peleandra]

I don't hate him! I like him a lot. I think he's amusing. I don't like APOLLO.

 

[Dionysus or Bacchus]

Pfff . . . only Apollo likes Apollo.  

[coffeebeancloud]

Ex) Cassandra

Doesn't Artemis like Apollo a bit?  

[Peleandra]

I would assume that Artemis likes Apollo, but since I don't know her I couldn't say for sure. She's kind of a b***h, too, anyway.

 

[coffeebeancloud]

The apple doesn't fall to far from the tree. Cough, Zeus, Cough.

But back to the topic, why is the most hated Olympian, anyways?  

[charaxxfallen]

...because of all the blood? And he probably thinks he is better than the rest of them : narrowly avoids being hit with a spear : Or just talks about war alot!  

[Peleandra]

I think it's because he's the god of WAR. As in, violent, blood-shedding, depressing things. I mean, America is currently in a war, most people don't like it... Well, most people don't like wars at all. But maybe Ares' personality comes across as too stuck-up, or because people seem to think that all the gods hate him and therefore hate him too. I don't know. But if those are the reasons for disliking him, then why do people really like Hades and Thanatos and Eris, but not Ares? If anything, Ares should be a favorite of videogame-loving teenage boys.

 

[coffeebeancloud]

Well, Hades rules over the dead. Which isn't creepy at all for our gothic modern world.

But Athena is also the goddess of war, too. She cursed Medusa into the beast, and cursed Arachne.  

[Peleandra]

Yup, and Athena is also really mean now and then. But people like her, too. Thanatos is the god of death, and so Goths and metal bands love him. Hekate, witchcraft, also popular... And Eris, discord... And Nemesis, revenge...

I dunno, there are so many favorite gods that are as bad as Ares,
if not worse, so I can't imagine why he is disliked. I think he's pretty cool, myself.

 

[Akherontis]

Well, a couple of large misassumptions here. Ares isn't the god of war. Athena is the goddess of war. Ares is specifically the god of bloodlust, barbarism, carnage and the ravages of war, and his sister Enyo is the goddess of the horrors of war. The Greeks themselves hated Ares, as did most of the Greek gods, because he was a murderous, cowardly monster. Contrary to popular belief, the Spartans didn't worship Ares, they despised him too, because their sophisticated military tactics reflected the influence of Athena, whereas Ares preferred barbaric combat. And Zeus admitted in the Iliad that if Ares wasn't his own son, he would have done away with Ares himself, long ago.

Ares' saving grace were the Romans, who identified him with their own war deity Mars, and thus completely changed his role and personality. Note that Mars isn't Ares under a different name, as most of the influences for Mars comes from the Romans' much closer neighbours, the Etruscans, and not the Greeks.

But I like Ares as a character specifically BECAUSE he is such a flawed deity. It makes for interesting conflict among the gods.  

[coffeebeancloud]

Thanks for clearing things up, Akh.(Not gonna type up your whole username))

I do like Ares, too, cause his myths are interesting  

[Akherontis]

I love the fact that Sparta had a statue of Ares in chains just east of the city, signifying that they wanted the spirit of manliness, courage and war to reside within the Lakedaimonians, but that they didn't trust him either and kept him at arm's length. They did propitate him before battle, but only as a necessity.  

[Javier Cross]

I thought Ares was said to be a God of Courage[whose particular sphere overlaps with either Athena or Hercules, though!] as well as slaughter.

If Ares was supposed to be driven off by gifted mortal fighters, soldiers, and warriors, then wouldn't it be a given for him to make them work for it?

Why do i generally suspected that he might not be a coward after all, if he killed a child of Poseidon who was a rapist who tried to rape his daughter, a demi-goddess of war?  

[Akherontis]

Javier Cross

I thought Ares was said to be a God of Courage[whose particular sphere overlaps with either Athena or Hercules, though!] as well as slaughter.

If Ares was supposed to be driven off by gifted mortal fighters, soldiers, and warriors, then wouldn't it be a given for him to make them work for it?

Why do i generally suspected that he might not be a coward after all, if he killed a child of Poseidon who was a rapist who tried to rape his daughter, a demi-goddess of war?

He was...capricious, one might say. On one hand, he was indeed the god of courage, manliness, machismo and reckless audacity. But he was also the god of cowardliness, retreat, and war crimes, especially noticeable by the fact that his sister-consort is Horror and his sons are Terror and Dread.