Mars (mythology)
In ancient Roman religion and mythology, Mars is the god of war and also an agricultural guardian, a combination characteristic of early Rome. He is the son of Jupiter and Juno, and was pre-eminent among the Roman army's military gods. Most of his festivals were held in March, the month named for him, and in October, the months which traditionally began and ended the season for both military campaigning and farming.
Under the influence of Greek culture, Mars was identified with the Greek god Ares, whose myths were reinterpreted in Roman literature and art under the name of Mars. The character and dignity of Mars differs in fundamental ways from that of his Greek counterpart, who is often treated with contempt and revulsion in Greek literature. Mars's altar in the Campus Martius, the area of Rome that took its name from him, was supposed to have been dedicated by Numa, the peace-loving semi-legendary second king of Rome; in Republican times it was a focus of electoral activities. Augustus shifted the focus of Mars's cult to within the pomerium, and built a temple to Mars Ultor as a key religious feature of his new forum.
Unlike Ares, who was viewed primarily as a destructive and destabilizing force, Mars represented military power as a way to secure peace, and was a father of the Roman people. In Rome's mythic genealogy and founding, Mars fathered Romulus and Remus through his rape of Rhea Silvia. The wolf was the sacred animal of Mars, with the she-wolf nursing the two founders as children. His love affair with Venus symbolically reconciled two different traditions of Rome's founding; Venus was the divine mother of the hero Aeneas, credited by Vergil as an earlier founder of Rome.
Name
The word Mārs, which in Old Latin and poetic usage also appears as Māvors, is cognate with Oscan Māmers. In older literature, the god Mars was equated with the Vedic storm deities known as the Maruts, both of which were traditionally unified under a reconstructed Proto-Indo-European term māwort-. However, this etymology is now rejected in more modern Indo-Europeanist scholarship. The oldest recorded Latin form, Mamart-, is likely of foreign origin. It has been explained as deriving from Maris, the name of an Etruscan child-god, though this is not universally agreed upon. Scholars have varying views on whether the two gods are related, and if so how.Latin adjectives from the name of Mars are wikt:Mārtius and wikt:martialis, from which derive English "martial" and personal names such as "Marcus", "Mark" and "Martin".Mars may ultimately be a thematic reflex of the Proto-Indo-European god Perkwunos, having originally been a thunderer character.
Birth
Like Ares who was the son of Zeus and Hera, Mars is usually considered to be the son of Jupiter and Juno. In Ovid's version of Mars's origin, he was the son of Juno alone. Jupiter had usurped the role of mother when he gave birth to Minerva directly from his forehead without a female partner. Juno sought the advice of the goddess Flora on how in turn to produce a child without male intervention. Flora obtained a magic flower and tested it on a heifer who became fecund at once. Flora ritually plucked a flower, using her thumb, touched Juno's belly, and impregnated her. Juno withdrew to Thrace and the shore of Marmara for the birth.Ovid tells this story in the Fasti, his long-form poetic work on the Roman calendar. It may explain why the Matronalia, a festival celebrated by married women in honor of Juno as a goddess of childbirth, occurred on the first day of Mars's month, which is also marked on a calendar from late antiquity as the birthday of Mars. In the earliest Roman calendar, March was the first month, and the god would have been born with the new year. Ovid is the only source for the story. He may be presenting a literary myth of his own invention, or an otherwise unknown archaic Italic tradition; either way, in choosing to include the story, he emphasizes that Mars was connected to plant life and was not alienated from female nurture.
Consort
The consort of Mars was Nerio or Neriene, meaning "Valor". She represents the vital force ', power ' and majesty of Mars. Her name was regarded as Sabine in origin and is equivalent to Latin virtus, "manly virtue". In the early 3rd century BCE, the comic playwright Plautus has a reference to Mars greeting Nerio, his wife. A source from late antiquity says that Mars and Neriene were celebrated together at a festival held on March 23. In the later Roman Empire, Neriene came to be identified with Minerva.Nerio probably originates as a divine personification of Mars's power, as such abstractions in Latin are generally feminine. Her name appears with that of Mars in an archaic prayer invoking a series of abstract qualities, each paired with the name of a deity. The influence of Greek mythology and its anthropomorphic gods may have caused Roman writers to treat these pairs as "marriages."
Venus and Mars
The union of Venus and Mars held greater appeal for poets and philosophers, and the couple were a frequent subject of art. In Greek myth, the adultery of Ares and Aphrodite had been exposed to ridicule when her husband Hephaestus caught them in the act by means of a magical snare. Although not originally part of the Roman tradition, in 217 BCE Venus and Mars were presented as a complementary pair in the lectisternium, a public banquet at which images of twelve major gods of the Roman state were presented on couches as if present and participating.Scenes of Venus and Mars in Roman art often ignore the adulterous implications of their union, and take pleasure in the good-looking couple attended by Cupid or multiple Loves . Some scenes may imply marriage, and the relationship was romanticized in funerary or domestic art in which husbands and wives had themselves portrayed as the passionate divine couple. The uniting of deities representing Love and War lent itself to allegory, especially since the lovers were the parents of Concordia. The Renaissance philosopher Marsilio Ficino notes that "only Venus dominates Mars, and he never dominates her". In ancient Roman and Renaissance art, Mars is often shown disarmed and relaxed, or even sleeping, but the extramarital nature of their affair can also suggest that this peace is impermanent.
Essential nature
War
as a kind of life force ' or virtue ' is an essential characteristic of Mars. During the Middle Republican period, the consul Marcus Claudius Marcellus vowed to construct a temple to Honos and Virtus, though it was only completed posthumously by his son, who also left an inscription commemorating the god Mars. In the earliest Roman writings, the term "virtus" applied to battlefield courage: Artotrogus, a character in the play The Braggart Soldier by the 3rd-century BCE author Plautus, addresses the boastful soldier Pyrgopolynices, stating "Mars wouldn’t dare to call himself such a warrior or compare his exploits to yours". Furthermore, during the prologue to the Plautine play Casina, the speaker exclaims "be victorious through true bravery". Later in Roman history, the concept of "virtus" expanded to incorporate the idea of wisdom, possibly due to the influence of the Greek association between military prowess and intelligence, a Hellenic cultural concept embodied by the deity Athena. The transformation of the idea of "virtus" itself altered the underlying character of Mars, who developed into a god of generalship alongside warrior skill. According to the classicist John Serrati, Mars—as the personification of virtus—exemplified ideal Roman masculinity. By the 3rd-century CE, Mars was primarily worshipped by Roman military legions.Various festivals associated with Mars, such as the Tubilustrium and Armilustrium, were themselves connected with lustration, a type of Roman religious practice intended to ward off evil. The lustral connotations of Mars may imply that he fulfilled a type of protector or guardian in Roman mythology. The conceptualization of Mars as a protector deity may have facilitated his associations with war. According to the 4th-century author Servius the Grammarian, during wartime, a spear was shaken in the Regia and Mars was called upon to watch over the Roman people with the words "Mars vigila." As a war god, Mars was associated a series of festivals occurring around March at the beginning of the beginning of the Roman campaigning season, such a ritualistic dance of the Salian priests, and ceremonies belonging to the month of October, such as the October Horse or the Armilustrium, all of which were connected with the end of the campaign season. Chronologically, the rituals associated with the beginning and end of the campaigning season were also concurrent with the ideal time frame for agriculture, which perhaps relates to the dual characterization of Mars as a rustic and warlike divinity. However, by the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE, Roman soldiers no longer departed for campaign during particular months of the year but instead remained permanently stationed at various forts and military installations throughout the empire. Consequently, the original connection between the military and farming season became irrelevant.
Agriculture
As an agricultural guardian, Mars directs his energies toward creating conditions that allow crops to grow, which may include warding off hostile forces of nature. The agricultural role of Mars may be inseparable from his warrior nature, as the leaping of his armed priests the Salii was meant to expedite the growth of crops. Within the Carmen Arvale, an archaic Latin text, the god Mars is invoked by the Arval Brotherhood specifically to protect and defend the suppliants from ill. This same order of priests is otherwise associated with ensuring high agricultural output through the performance of religious rituals. Cato similarly describes a lustratio in which Mars is invoked to guard the suppliant and their crops from a variety of misfortunes, such as poor weather. These actions are ultimately conducive to a successful harvest, though they are not necessarily incongruent with his characterization as a type of protector god. Later in Roman history, the goddess Ceres became more closely associated with the lustration ritual and agriculture, whereas—perhaps due to the influence of the Greek deity Ares—the role of Mars as a war god assumed greater prominence.The classicist Andrew Kilgour argues that it is perhaps befitting for a male deity in Roman culture to assume a more intrinsically belligerent role within the sphere of agriculture, whereas the responsibility of facilitating the growth of crops falls upon goddesses such as Dea Dia. However, the archaeologist Robert Turcan suggests the Mars may embody a productive role within the prayer and therefore may exemplify the supposed three primary functions of Proto-Indo-European society: Religious, Martial, and Productive. The bellicose aspect of Mars is possibly reflected by his ability to fend off disaster, yet still the text actively calls upon the deity to ensure a more abundant harvest, perhaps attesting to productive responsibilities. The possible connection between Mars and the priestly or religious aspect of Proto-Indo-European culture may be continued by the ceremony of the October Horse, a ritualistic animal sacrifice that is perhaps related to the Vedic aśvamedha ritual. In other Indo-European mythologies, war gods may simultaneously serve as agrarian deities, such as the Slavic god Svetovit.