res was one of the sons of Zeus and Hera. So belligerent was he, and so violent with his temper – inherited from his mother – his parents detested him, and by his fellow gods, especially by Zeus and Athene, who hated hated him for his blood lust. For a war god, Ares made a surprisingly poor showing in the contests in which he participated. When Diomedes, the son of Tydeus wounded him before Troy, his cry of pain, as loud as ten thousand warriors, made both the Trojans and the Greeks tremble. In the battle of the gods, Athene, who had helped Diomedes, caught him in the neck with a huge rock, his stunned body, falling over seven hundred feet. Heracles, who had killed his son, Cycnus, conquered Ares in single combat. Otus and Ephialtes, usually known as the Aloadae, after their father, Aloeus, overcame him and kept him in a bronze jar for a year and a month. These brothers were young men remarkable in size, strength and daring. At the age of nine, they declared war on the Olympian gods and almost succeeded in their attempt to storm Olympus, by piling Mount Ossa on top of Olympus, then Mount Pelion on top of Ossa, if Apollo had not killed them first.

By trickery, Ares killed the beautiful youth, and beloved of Aphrodite. Jealous of Adonis and aware of his passion for hunting, Ares transformed himself in to a boar and had Adonis hunt for him. Turning quickly he ran upon Adonis and killed him. Ares loved and was loved, more or less, by Aphrodite. Once, when he was with Aphrodite, Hephaestus caught him. Ares had places the youth, Alectryon as a guard and, vexed at the boy’s neglect of his task, changed him into a cock.

By Aphrodite he was the father of	Eros Harmonia Anteros	The god of love and of the suffering caused by the pangs of love The wife of Cadmus The God of slighted love
By Eris, his sister, the goddess of discord, he was the father of	Deimos Phobos	The God of fear The God of terror
By Pelopia, Ares was the father of	Cycnus1	Whom Heracles killed and was transformed into a swan
By Pyrene, he was the father of another son named	Cycnus2	Whom Heracles also killed and was transformed into a swan