Experiences with Mars

[Geroth]

I've been having a keen interest in some of the Roman deities, in particular Mars. Has anybody had any experience with him and what his personality is like?

[Agonistes]

I've been having a keen interest in some of the Roman deities, in particular Mars. Has anybody had any experience with him and what his personality is like?

I can't help you much with Mars, but his Greek counterpart Ares, I can account for. He's a bit of a arrogant warrior, very hardheaded and difficult to approach. He will seek out any means to start war or to satiate his blood lust. And his sister, Eris, doesn't help his reputation very much. Both are very chaotic.

In Greece the worship of Ares was slim to none, but at Sparta Ares was very common and human sacrifices to Ares was done often.

I do not speak for Ares, but merely getting information from various stories. I hope I helped a bit.

[iulla]

I've been having a keen interest in some of the Roman deities, in particular Mars. Has anybody had any experience with him and what his personality is like?

I really don't have any interactions with Mars, the exceptions being giving offerings on his festival days, but he is one of the 12 chief gods of my pantheon. So I might be able to give some insight...

It's true that he was equated with Ares, but that came after the Romans came into contact with the Greeks, and even then he was seen as a separate deity. Mars is more...er, I don't want to say respectable, so maybe calm? In any case, Mars' worship was widespread and popular - so popular that, for example, the emperor Augustus built a temple to Mars Ultor (Mars the Avenger). He was also really popular in Gaul.

He's not only a god of war, but a god of agriculture as well (this is because the military campaigning seasons were centered around the planting and harvest). He is more associated with war as a means of peace, and he is a protector of civilians and soldiers alike (hence another epithet, Quirinus, which basically means "of the people").

[RandallS]

It's true that he was equated with Ares, but that came after the Romans came into contact with the Greeks, and even then he was seen as a separate deity. Mars is more...er, I don't want to say respectable, so maybe calm? In any case, Mars' worship was widespread and popular - so popular that, for example, the emperor Augustus built a temple to Mars Ultor (Mars the Avenger). He was also really popular in Gaul.

Ares was a deity of destructive war -- war that scorched the Earth and left total destruction in its wake. Mars, on the other hand, was a deity of more "civilized" war (I guess you could call it). Ares had little cultic worship in ancient Greece (except when war was coming your way). Mars, on the other hand, had active worship in Rome.

[iulla]

Mars, on the other hand, was a deity of more "civilized" war (I guess you could call it).

Ah, that's the word I was looking for! Thanks for the clearer response hahaha.

[SunflowerP]

He's not only a god of war, but a god of agriculture as well (this is because the military campaigning seasons were centered around the planting and harvest). He is more associated with war as a means of peace, and he is a protector of civilians and soldiers alike (hence another epithet, Quirinus, which basically means "of the people").

Purely speculative, but I've always thought the "war and agriculture" combo might have also been connected to "if you have fields, you sometimes have to fight to protect your fields."

In my own interactions with Mars (specifically under the epithet Sylvanus, so I see lots of the land-and-agriculture side), I think of him as carrying a sword that can be turned into a ploughshare - and back again. Definitely not a "scorched earth" kind of guy.

Sunflower