Ares is Misunderstood
Ares is the god of war, specifically, the god of bloodlust. Ares is the personification of pure battle frenzy, of the wild ecstasy that comes only from slaughtering one’s enemies and becoming drenched with their blood. Ares is known for rushing into combat, screaming, and doesn’t really care who wins or loses as long as there’s a lot of bloodshed. Ares is certainly ruthless, and of the Olympians, he comes the closest to being “evil.” He was rarely worshipped in comparison to the other Olympians, and he is often a laughingstock in mythology (like when he was trapped in a bronze jar for a year because no one bothered to rescue him). In the Iliad, when Ares is wounded in battle and complains to Zeus about Athena, Zeus outright tells Ares that he hates him.
However, interpreting Ares as evil is very unfair to him. War is an ugly thing, but it was a fact of life in Ancient Greece, and any ubiquitous aspect of life is going to have a god to go with it. Ares, like all gods, has hidden complexity. For one thing, his treatment of women is better than that of almost any other major deity. As far as I know, there isn’t a single myth in which he so much as attempts to rape a woman, divine or mortal. (Even Dionysus has such a myth, so that’s saying a lot.) His love affair with Aphrodite is held up in literature and artwork as a perfect example of reciprocal love (represented by their son, Anteros), despite the fact that it’s adulterous. One of Ares’ epithets, Gunaikothoinas, means “feasted by women.” This refers to a time when women turned the tide of a war and literally celebrated Ares with a feast, but… you do the math. The Amazons, known for being powerful and badass warrior-women, were daughters of Ares (which is why it’s ironic that he’s the villain in Wonder Woman). Ares can even dance:
The Paphian [Aphrodite] also, [Harmonia’s] lovely mother, decorated her daughter’s newbuilt bower for Cadmos, while she sang of the god-ordained marriage; her father [Ares] danced with joy for his girl, bare and stript of his armour, a tame Ares! and laid his right arm unweaponed about Aphrodite, while he sounded the spirit of the Loves on his wedding-trumpet answering the panpipes: he had shaken off from his helmet head the plumes of horsehair so familiar in the battlefield, and wreathed bloodless garlands about his hair, weaving a merry song for Love.
— Nonnus, Dionysiaca
This image challenges the notion of Ares as a savage god of destruction and carnage. That’s absolutely what he is on the battlefield — and he’s usually on the battlefield — but when he’s off the battlefield, he becomes surprisingly peaceful, kind, even gentle.
In real life, people prayed to Ares for courage and strength in battle, but more often they prayed for peace. The Homeric Hymn to Ares entreats Ares to restrain the devotee’s violent passions, so that there will be peace instead of strife:
Shed down a kindly ray from above upon my life,
And strength of war, that I may be able to drive away bitter cowardice from my head
And crush down the deceitful impulses of my soul.
Restrain also the keen fury of my heart
Which provokes me to tread the ways of blood-curdling strife.
Rather, O blessed one, give you me boldness to abide within the harmless laws of peace,
Avoiding strife and hatred and the violent fiends of death.— Homeric Hymn to Ares
It is my personal interpretation that Ares hates the state of modern war, because it is almost completely impersonal. Shooting at a distance means that you don’t even see the faces of those you kill. There is no warm gush of blood on your hands, no ecstasy of battle. There is no communion with the slain soldier, no true acknowledgement of the taking of an individual human life. And that’s without even mentioning things like bombs and drone strikes. Whatever spirituality there was in war, is now gone.
The same goes for the rest of the Olympians. Though all of them have done things that can be considered “evil,” all of them have just as many layers of complexity. They are fickle because they represent different aspects of the natural world and of human culture. Ancient Greeks interpreted them as being mainly benevolent, and willing to help and support humanity if they were properly respected. (Values Dissonance also comes into play — there are many things that are considered evil now that wouldn’t have been in Ancient Greece, like slavery and misogyny.) All gods have dark aspects, but these are essential to their natures. No god can really be branded as “evil.”
