The son of Zeus and Hera, Ares belonged to the second generation of Olympians and was numbered among the twelve main deities. He was the god of war, identified with the Italic Mars and represented wearing armor, a helmet and bearing a shield, spear, and sword. He usually fought alone, but sometimes on a chariot drawn by four fiery horses and accompanied by his sons Deimos (Fear) and Phobos (Fright); the sisters Eris (Discord) and Enyo, a lover of massacres and destroyer of cities whom the Romans called Bellona, also fought alongside him.
Ares never favored one side or another in battle and, as the whim took him, fought first against one and then against the other. For him it was sufficient to provoke slaughter and plunder, to see blood flow and hear the sound of clashing arms. For this reason and the contempt that he showed for the law, Ares was disliked by the other gods, including his parents. However, he was much appreciated by Hades, who was happy to receive those who fell in battle. Aphrodite also nursed a strong passion for him that roused the ire of Hephaestus. The goddess of love bore him (in addition to the already mentioned Phobos and Deimos) Harmonia, (The Unifier), Eros and Anteros (Love and Love returned, respectively). The Amazons were also considered to be his offspring.
The majority of the myths that feature Ares are tales of war or armed challenges and duels, but the god did not always emerge the victor. Diomedes, with the help of Athena, defeated him beneath the walls of Troy, and the gigantic Aloadae twins succeeded in capturing him and holding him prisoner for thirteen months in a bronze vessel, until Hermes came to free him. Poseidon even brought a suit against him for willful murder, though he was acquitted.
The various myths reveal two aspects of Ares: on the one hand, he was seen as greedy for war and destruction and, on the other as the young athlete and lover of Aphrodite. This apparent duplicity can be traced back to an original unity, if we remember that in the setting where the god's ult first developed, before moving from Asia Minor to the archaic and classical Greek world. Ares was probably conceived as the tutelary deity of female fertility. This may be the source of the tradition of warlike rites sacred to the god, which were in reality ritual combats linked with initiation and fertility. When the cult of Ares reached the Greek world through Thrace, his characteristics underwent a change over the course of time, until they assumed the apparently twofold connotations attributed to the god in the classical era.