Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin of the name. Walter Burkert notes that 'Ares is apparently an ancient abstract noun meaning throng of battle, war.' R. The etymology of the name Ares is traditionally connected with the Greek word ἀρή ( arē), the Ionic form of the Doric ἀρά ( ara), 'bane, ruin, curse, imprecation'. 5.8.1 List of offspring and their mothers.During the Hellenization of Latin literature, the myths of Ares were reinterpreted by Roman writers under the name of Mars, and in later Western art and literature, the mythology of the two figures became virtually indistinguishable. Most famously, when the craftsman-god Hephaestus discovers his wife Aphrodite is having an affair with Ares, he traps the lovers in a net and exposes them to the ridicule of the other gods.Īres' nearest counterpart in Roman religion is Mars, who was given a more important and dignified place in ancient Roman religion as ancestral protector of the Roman people and state. The Trojans lose, while Ares' sister Athena helps the Greeks to victory. In the Trojan War, Aphrodite, protector of Troy, persuades Ares to take the Trojan's side. When he does appear, he is often humiliated. Though there are many literary allusions to Ares' love affairs and children, he has a limited role in Greek mythology. The later belief that ancient Spartans had offered human sacrifice to Ares may owe more to mythical prehistory, misunderstandings, and reputation than to reality. Still further away from Greece, the Scythians were said to ritually kill one in a hundred prisoners of war as an offering to their equivalent of Ares. In parts of Asia Minor, he was an oracular deity. Some cities in Greece and several in Asia Minor held annual festivals to bind and detain him as their protector. An association with Ares endows places, objects, and other deities with a savage, dangerous, or militarized quality.Īlthough Ares' name shows his origins as Mycenaean, his reputation for savagery was thought by some to reflect his likely origins as a Thracian deity. He embodies the physical valor necessary for success in war but can also personify sheer brutality and bloodlust, in contrast to his sister, the armored Athena, whose martial functions include military strategy and generalship. He is one of the Twelve Olympians, and the son of Zeus and Hera. A collection of small amulets were included below his chin, intended to protect Djed-djehuty-iuef-ankh’s mummy in the underworld.Ares ( / ˈ ɛər iː z/ Ancient Greek: Ἄρης, Árēs ) is the Greek god of war, bloodlust, and courage. Examining his body using CAT scans revealed that Djed-djehuty-iuef-ankh’s internal organs, including his heart, have been removed and replaced with a homogenous material, perhaps sawdust, before the mummy was wrapped in multiple layers of linen bandages.

Complex funeral preparations and rites were thought to be needed to ensure this happened safely. When ancient Egyptians like Djed-djehuty-iuef-ankh died they believed that they would undertake a journey to the afterlife. The innermost coffin holds Dejed-djehuty-iuef-ankh’s mummy, which is covered with a network of faience beads. Inside the rectangular coffin are two anthropoid (mummy-shaped) coffins, each with a human head wearing a striped wig, a beaded collar and a beard. Painted wooden figures of falcons representing the sky-god Horus sit on the posts of the outer coffin, which represent the supports that were believed to hold up the sky above the earth. A painted statuette of a jackal representing the god Wepwawet, who guarded the dead and led them to the Afterlife, sits at the foot of the outer coffin lid. The outermost rectangular coffin has a vaulted lid, symbolic of the sky. This spectacular nest of three coffins containing his mummy was found in 1895, together with that of his mother, buried within the grounds of the temple at Deir el-Bahri. Djed-djehuty-iuef-ankh (whose name means ‘The god Thoth says “May he live”’) was a member of a family of priests from the city of Thebes, where he served the warlike god Montu.

Warlike god