1) Ares was not very liked by his family and fellow Olympians: His father, Zeus, is said to have made some harsh remarks about his son, calling out his blood and battle lust as disgusting.
2) Worship of Ares seems very general and no large cult following really stands out: Ares can be difficult to identify in Classical art. Whether he was left out intentionally or for lack of distinctive physical attributes, is debated. Ares was called upon in times when the nation needed defending, but not generally at any other time.
3) He had a great love affair with the Goddess of Love herself, Aphrodite: They had at least five confirmed children together. Even after Aphrodite was wed to Hephaistos, the two continued their love affair.
Now, let's look at things from a modern approach:
Ares, as a male god of war, was definitely needed in Ancient Culture. We're talking about a time period when human migration was happening on a large scale. New lands were beginning discovered and people were fighting constantly. War may not have been a well liked event, but it was necessary.
At this time in history, only men were really allowed to fight in wars. You have legends of the female warriors training in Sparta and the Amazon women, but your average Ancient Greek woman stayed at home and tended to the house and community while the men went off and fought.
Between Ares and Athena, Athena is definitely held to a higher level and is more liked than Ares. Athena embodies the thought, strategy, and planning of war. Ares embodies the rage, blood lust and pounding adrenaline of the fight. Athena looks at the bigger picture; Ares goes in for the kill, blinded by excitement. Athena can be related to the General, Ares the Soldier. While Athena was given a seat in the main temple in Athens, the Acropolis, Ares was in some ways, pushed aside. But no matter how you view it, war would not happen with out the soldiers.
It's easy to classify Ares as the God of War and leave it at that. But Ares is so much more.
Ares is also the embodiment of masculine energy, power and strength. He is the Man's Man, the great symbol of what men should look like. Unlike Apollon who is also credited for being viewed as divine male, Ares is rarely ever pictured as a youth, and never androgynous. Almost always Ares is described as being an adult male, bearded, and muscular. There are the odd times he is pictured in his youth, with spear and shield, but this is taken as a young Ares, and not as an aspect of himself.
Then, there is also the important fact of his love affair with Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, Lust, and Sex. What would it take to capture the heart of the Love Goddess? What would Ares look like today? The jokes of women always wanting the bad boys are endless.
There is something alluring and tantalizing about the thought of the tall, dark, and handsome man who will pick you up off your feet, throw you over his shoulder, and ravish you in bed...
A physically strong man with a tender heart. A deep, penetrating gaze...
Who is this God who brought the Love Goddess on her knees?
I've been working with Aphrodite for a while now, and the deeper our relationship grows, the more I find myself being pulled towards Ares. Many modern magical practitioners tend to view Ares with fear and avoid him. They focus only on the aspect of war and battle. No one wants more stress in their lives, and they seem to think that working with Ares will do just that.
As much as Ares delights in these sorts of things, he can also teach us to acknowledge our stressors and stand up and fight them, instead of trying to "love and light" them away, as is the popular New Age notion. Ares doesn't sit back and wish things to get better; He putts on his battle gear, goes out and makes things better.
I encourage everyone to explore all these different aspects of Ares. Whether you evoke or invoke the God, meditate, trance, or study him, try to look beyond the brutal aspects of this war god and see how he connects with you.
Hail Ares!
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