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Ares Facts & Worksheets

Ares is one of the 12 Olympians described as red hot and burning with rage.

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Ares is one of the 12 Olympians described as red hot and burning with rage.

See the fact file below for more information on the Ares or alternatively, you can download our 24-page Ares worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

ORIGINS

  • Ares’ father is Zeus, from whom he got strength and his mother is Hera, where his vindictiveness and thirst for violence came from.
  • His siblings were Hebe (goddess of youth or prime of life) and Eileithyia (goddess of childbirth and labor pains).
  • His half siblings were Athena, Apollo, Dionysus, Hermes, Heracles, Helen of Troy, and Hephaestus.
  • Ares was hated by the gods since his childhood because of his uncanny thirst for blood and violence. Even his own father, Zeus, ignored him.
  • Compared to his sister, goddess Athena, Ares was said to have lacked war strategy or wisdom.
  • It was common for him to let his lust for cruelty get the better of him and winning was not significant; all that he wanted was to see men fight and kill each other.
  • Being the god of war, Ares always left a trail of war destruction wherever he was present.
  • His appearance differs from author to author. In one, Ares was depicted as a warrior wielding a spear and a shield.
  • In some descriptions, he wore metal armor and a shining helmet while riding a fierce-looking chariot.

AFFAIRS AND OFFSPRINGS

  • Greek myths say Ares never got married. However, he was famous for having an affair with Aphrodite, the Goddess of love.
  • This irked Aphrodite’s husband, Hephaestus. He placed an unbreakable golden net around Aphrodite’s bed. It was meant that when Ares and Aphrodite got together, the net activated and bound them in a very compromising position.
  • When caught, they were humiliated and were temporarily kicked out of Mount Olympus. This was even though their affair was never a secret among the Olympians.
  • Ares had three children with Aphrodite named Deimos (Fear), Phobos (Terror), and Harmonia (Harmony).
  • The four main Erotes – Eros, Anteros, Himeros, and Pothos – were his other children with Aphrodite.
  • She and Ares also bore Adrestia, who was responsible for keeping the balance between love and hate.
  • Besides his divine offsprings, Ares also has many mortal children including Remus and Romulus, the founders of Rome.
  • His other children include rulers such as Ascalaphus (Orchomenos), Diomedes (Bistonia), Hippolyte (Queen of Amazons), Ialmenus (Orchomenos), Nisus (Megara), Oenomaus (Pisa), and others.
  • Ares and the Erinys Telphousia have a monstrous dragon-serpent offspring Drakon Ismenian, which guarded the Ismenian Spring of Thebes.

ARES’ BATTLES

  • Despite his title as the god of war, Ares did not win all his battles. In fact, many of his skirmishes ended with humiliating defeats.
  • This was obviously due to his lack of planning or any strategic approach to battle.
  • Ares attended the battlefield driving armies in the clash of war. He was usually accompanied by Eris (Strife and Hatred), Deimos (Terror), and Phobos (Fear).
  • He was heavily involved in the Trojan war. According to Homer’s Iliad, Ares and his sister Athena had direct confrontations.
  • The Greeks relied on their patron goddess, Athena’s wisdom and strategy. On the other hand, the Trojans relied on Ares – the god of brute force, but very low on strategy.

CULT AND RITUAL

  • Due to his violent nature, Ares was hardly worshiped in Ancient Greece. He was considered hideous and unwise – the most hated of all gods.
  • When it came to issues of war, the citizens preferred Athena- the goddess of wisdom and strategic warfare.
  • However, in Sparta and Thrace, Ares was absolutely revered. He was born in Thrace, hence the devotion.
  • In Sparta, warriors always marched into battles praying to Ares. They sought his help to defeat their enemies on the battlefield.
  • Other places with several cult sites and temples revering Ares include Erythrae, Megalopolis, Tegae, and Troezon.

PORTRAYAL & SYMBOLISM

  • Ares’ main attributes were his peaked warrior’s helm, shield, a spear, and a sheathed sword.
  • However, he was usually dressed as a standard Greek warrior with a short tunic, breastplate, helm, and greaves, making it quite difficult to identify him from other statues.
  • He drives a four-horse chariot (breathing fire) and is accompanied by dogs or vultures. Sometimes, his sons Deimos and Phobos are beside him in some arts.

POPULAR CULTURE

  • NASA’s transport ship is named Ares, replacing the Space Shuttle, an extension of NASA’s uses of Saturn for manned rockets.
  • In video games, Ares is the main antagonist, and final boss battle in the game God of War. Ares is also the final boss in Spartan: Total Warrior.
  • Ares was a regular character in the television series Xena: Warrior Princess.
  • Ares was a major antagonist in Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, and became a supporting character in the rest of the series.
  • He was the primary antagonist/villain of the Wrath of the Titans, sequel of Clash of the Titans.

Ares Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about the Ares across 24 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Ares worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about Ares who is one of the 12 Olympians described as red hot and burning with rage.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • War Gods
  • The War God
  • Favour or Wrath
  • Modern War God
  • Tools of War
  • War Heroes
  • Speaking Greek
  • Word War
  • Metonymy
  • Reflection

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Link will appear as Ares Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com - KidsKonnect, March 16, 2020

Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

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