Ἄρης

Arēs may derive from the Greek arē, meaning 'bane,' 'ruin,' or 'curse.' The etymology fits the Greek attitude: Ares was war as butchery, not strategy. Homer's Iliad calls him 'man-slaughtering Ares,' 'blood-stained Ares,' and — through Athena's mouth — the most hateful of all the gods. In Book 5, the mortal hero Diomedes wounds Ares with a spear (guided by Athena), and Ares screams 'like nine or ten thousand men' and flees to Olympus to complain to Zeus. Zeus tells him he is the most despised god on Olympus. Even his own father cannot stand him.

Ares had very few temples in Greece. The Spartans, who worshipped war, preferred Athena and Artemis. The Athenians did name a hill after him — the Areopagus (Areios Pagos, 'Hill of Ares') — but this was because Ares was supposedly tried there for murder after killing Poseidon's son Halirrhothius. The Areopagus became Athens's supreme court for homicide cases. The god of war gave his name to a court of law, which is either ironic or logical, depending on your view of justice.

The Romans changed everything. They identified Ares with Mars, their own war god — but Mars was a father figure. He was the father of Romulus and Remus, making him the ancestor of all Romans. Mars had a sacred field (the Campus Martius), a month (Martius, our March), and a planet visible to the naked eye. The word 'martial' comes from Mars. So does 'Martian.' The Greek god of chaotic slaughter became the Roman god of national identity.

The planet Mars has been known since antiquity — its red color made the Babylonians call it Nergal (god of war and plague), and the Romans followed suit. When NASA named its Mars rovers, they chose Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity, and Perseverance — all values Ares himself conspicuously lacked. The Greek war god gives us the Ares rocket program, the Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles (later renamed), and Ares appears as a character in video games and comics, usually as a villain. The Greeks would approve. They always thought he was the villain.