March – a Month of War – Ares the Greek Vs Mars the Roman

 

 

Here’s food for thought, if the Romans, had kept the names of their gods Greek, the month of March, named after the Roman god Mars, would maybe now be called Ares, as he was formerly known as when he was still a Greek!

 

 

As I tell you about the god Mars and the month of March, I will try to make sense for you, as I go along, of what was Greek, what was Roman, what was shared or borrowed and what was pinched, when it comes to ancient Greek culture versus Roman culture, I’ll start you off with a brief account of how the ancient Greeks influenced Roman culture.

 

Veni, vidi, vici

 

Veni, vidi, vici – ‘I came; I saw; I conquered’, a Latin phrase attributed to Julius Caesar (who used the phrase in a letter to the Roman Senate around 47 BC about his quick victory in his short war against Pharnaces II of Pontus at the Battle of Zela).

The ancient Greeks were defeated by the Romans in 146 BC, after the Battle of Corinth and remained under Roman rule until 324 AD.

This Roman victory over ancient Greece, you could say, was a ‘double whammy’, not only did they gain power, they gained a culture, in fact, you could take this a step further, which I will, and say, ‘Roman culture was mostly copied from , or at least, influenced by the Greeks’.

 

 

Horace, Ancient Roman poet stated, ‘Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit ‘(“Captive Greece captured her rude conqueror”).

Roman culture was greatly influenced by the Greeks, who became an example to be followed; the Greek language became the chosen language for the elite, educated Romans, who embraced Greek literature and philosophy.

The Romans, as the Etruscans before them had done, way back in about 700BC, renamed the Greek gods, a process known as syncretism , placed them in a Pantheon (Greek word) and claimed them as their own, if they desired the highest levels of education, they attended Greek philosophy schools, in fact, Greek texts were translated into Latin, by Marcus Tulius Cicero, to help things along.

 

 

Julius Caesar and his general, Mark Antony, called upon Spartan soldiers to assist the them in their battles, even the very structure of the Roman legion was the Spartan phalanx, under a different name, they admired Alexander the Great, Caesar, it is said, felt much shame, that Alexander had achieved so much more than him, by a younger age.

Roman architecture mirrors the ancient Greek style (Greek architecture refers to the architecture of the Greek-speaking people, who inhabited the Greek mainland), which influenced the  Romans  in many ways, so much so, that Roman architecture borrows and incorporates many Greek elements into its own.

 

 

Although the Greeks inspired the Romans, there are differences, such as the materials they used, both constructed their buildings from marble or limestone, but, the Romans perfected the use of concrete allowing them to create more free-flowing buildings.

 

Mars and the month of March

 

 

The Romans named the month of March  (Anthesterion – Aνθεστηριών, the eighth month of the ancient Greek Attic calendar), Martius, after Mars (Ares), the God of war, which became the first month, the New Year, of the Roman calendar, as this is the month the god Mars was said to have been born.

 In the ancient Roman calendar, which the Romans attributed to Romulus, March was celebrated twice a year, once in March and again in October.

The ten-month year began with the month of ‘Mars’, in the spring, as he was associated with the agricultural year and the cycle of life and death.

 Tuesday is also named after Ares (Mars), after the Germanic god Tiu or Tyr who identified with Ares. The ancient Greeks called Tuesday ‘Hemera Areos’ meaning the Day of Ares.

 

March festivities of Ancient Rome

 

 

February 27: Equirria, involving chariot or horse races.

March 1: Mars’ dies natalis (birthday), a feria, also sacred to his mother Juno (Hera).

March 14: a second Equirria, again with chariot races.

March 14 or 15: Mamuralia, a New Year festival when a figure called Mamuriu Veturius (perhaps the ‘old Mars’ of the old year) is driven out.

March 17: an Agonalia or Agonium Martiale, an obscure type of observance held at other times for various gods.

March 23: Tubilustrium, a purification of the deploying army.

October 15: the ritual of the October Horse, with a chariot race and Rome’s only known horse sacrifice.

October 19: Armilustrium (purification of arms).

 

 

In Ancient Rome the month of March was the traditional start of the campaign season, and the Tubilustrium, a ceremony to prepare the Roman army for war and a tribute to the Roman God Mars and Nerine, a Sabine goddess, was held on March 23, the last day of the Quinquatria , (a festival dedicated to the Goddess Minerva – Athena, celebrated from the 19-23 of March).

The ceremony was held in Rome, in the Hall of the Shoemakers (atrium sutorium) and involved the sacrifice of a lamb; citizens who did not attend, or who had forgotten what day it was, were reminded of the occasion, when they spotted the Salii, the leaping priests of Mars, twelve youths, dressed as archaic warriors, who, each year in March paraded around the city, dancing and singing.

 

 

 Horse races, in honour of the god Mars, were held in February and March, at the Campus Martius (Field of Mars), sacred to Mars,  outside the walls of Rome, where the Roman army trained, one of the winning horses from the races was sacrificed in honor of Mars to ensure his continued protection.

 

The Ides of March

 

The Ides of March was a day in the Roman calendar that corresponds to 15 March, when numerous religious rituals were performed; it was also traditionally the deadline for Romans to settle their debts.

The ides of March is most well known for being the turning point of Roman history, when, on the fifteenth of March, 44 BC, Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of senators, including Brutus, in Rome.

 

 

Originally the Ides were determined by the full moon, using the lunar Roman calendar, the Ides of March would have been the first full moon of the New Year.

The Festival of Mamuraliais, (connected to Mamurius Veturius, the craftsman who made the ritual shields (ancilia) that hung in the temple of Mars), is thought to have been a New Year festival, held on the Ides of March, when old men, dressed as a pharmakos in animal skins, were beaten and driven from the city, a sort of find a scapegoat affair.

 The Festival of Mamuraliais may have been a follow up to the Greek pharmakos, a ritual performed  in late June or early May, during times of plague or famine, when each Greek town would select its ugliest or most deformed  inhabitant, known as the pharmakos, who would be fed with the gourmet delights of the day, before being beaten black and blue, chased through the town, and, depending on the town, either be cast out of the city, or be stoned to death, burned, or thrown off a cliff.

 

March festivities of ancient Greece – Anthesteria

 

 

The Anthesteria was one of the four Athenian festivals in honor of Dionysus, Greek god of wine, held each year in the eighth month of the ancient Greek calendar, Anthesterion, around the beginning of modern day March.

The three days of the feast were called Pithoigia, the jar opening, Choës, the pouring, a day of much drinking and merriment and Chytroi, the day of pots, the festival of the dead, when special food was cooked and offered to offered to Hermes, in his role as Hermes Chthonios of the underworld, and to the souls of the dead, who were about to begin their journey to Hades.

The festival was a celebration of death, rebirth and new beginnings and more importantly, the maturing of the wine made and stored the year before, when the jars were now opened, and wine offered to Dionysus.

Everyone joined in these celebrations; even slaves were allowed to participate.

 

Mars the Roman God of War

 

 

Ares is the Greek god of war, whose name derives from the Greek word, ἀρή, which translates to ‘bane’ or ‘ruin’, once he was adopted by the Romans, after they conquered the Greeks in 146BC, he came to be known under his Latin name, Mars and represented military power as a way to secure peace, and was a father of the Roman people.

Inspired by Greek culture, myths about the Greek god Ares, were reinterpreted in Roman literature and art under the name of Mars.

Mother: Hera, said to have given birth to Mars, after she was touched by a magic plant

Consorts: Nerine, a Sabine goddess and others such as Rhea Silvia, Venus and Bellona.

Children: Romulus, Remus and Cupid (Eros).

 

Ares the Greek god of war

 

 

In Greek Mythology the main Greek gods, including Ares, were referred to as the Twelve Olympians and lived on the summit of Mount Olympus.

Described as cruel, troublemaker, Ares (Mars), the god of war and champion of the gods, a strong warrior, never without his weapons, was not a much loved god.

 In Homer’s epic the Iliad, Zeus tells Ares, ‘You are to me the most hateful of the gods, for dear to you always are strife and wars and battles’.

Ares was the son of Zeus, king of Greek gods and Hera, mother of Greek gods.

Aries was famous for his torrid love affair with Aphrodite (Venus).

Children: Eros, (Cupid) god of love, Himerus, Anteros, Phobos, Deimos, Harmonia, and Adrestia.

 

 

In Greek mythology, Aries fought a War against the Gigantes (a race of serpent-footed giants), killing the gigante, Mimas, was rescued by Hermes when captured by the Aloadai giants, killed the giant Echidnades, helped the Trojan army against the Greeks in the Trojan wars and killed the son of Poseidon, Halirrhothius, for which, Poseidon summoned Ares to appear before the tribunal of the Olympic gods, which was held upon a hill in Athens, Ares was acquitted.

 

 

This event gave rise to the name Areopagus ( Hill of Ares), which afterward became famous as the site of a court of justice.

 

Mars and other Roman gods by any other name would still smell so Greek!

 

Hera, (Juno), Ares’ mother, and patron goddess of Rome, is said to have given birth to Ares (Mars), protector of the Roman Army, after she was touched by a magic plant, so, not only was he the god of war, but also a god of spring, growth, fertility and the protector of cattle, and is why the Romans honored him with festivals in March, a time of the year when new growth begins in the fields and military campaigns resume after a winter break.

Mars was second only to Jupiter (Zeus, king of the Greek gods), in the Roman pantheon, (in Greek, temple of  ‘all the gods’, pan all and theos god),  which consisted of twelve gods, copying the Greek gods of Olympus, six gods and six goddesses, called the Dii Consentes.

 

 

The Roman gods, all adopted from the ancient Greeks, were Jupiter (Zeus), the ruler, Neptune (Poseidon), Mars (Aries), Apollo, Vulcan (Hephaestus) and Mercury (Hermes).

 The goddesses were Juno (Hera), Minerva (Athena), Venus (Aphrodite), Diana (Artemis), Vesta (Hestia) and Ceres (Demeter).

 

Mars and Romulus and Remus

 

In Roman mythology, Mars was more widely worshipped than any of the other Roman gods, most likely as he was said to be the father of Romulus and Remus, the twins who were the founders of Rome, and the Romans called themselves the sons of Mars.

The mother of Romulus and Remus, thought to be Rhea Silvia, daughter of King Numitor, was forced by her father’s brother, Amulius, when he seized the throne, to become a Vestal Virgin, as he wanted to make sure she had no children who would have a claim to the throne.

His plans were foiled when Rhea Silvia was raped by Mars and gave birth to Romulus and Remus.

 

 

Mars guardian of Rome

 

The Roman Army prayed to Mars before going to battle and  believed it was Mars who decided who would be the victors, not only were  battles associated with the God Mars, he was also said to protect cities from invading armies and help soldiers crush rebellion.

 

 

Ultimately, Mars became not only the protector of Rome, but the guardian and avenger of Emperor Caesar himself.

Eventually, the Roman equivalent of, Ares; Mars, was given many of the characteristics of his Greek counterpart, although, as was usual with the Roman view of the gods, they had fewer human qualities.

 

Roman symbols of the god Mars

 

A sacred shield, a Spear, a Burning Torch, Vulture, Dog, Woodpecker, eagle and owl

 

The spear of Mars

 

Mars, decked out in bronze armor (which for many years, Roman priests continued to wear to perform ritual war dances during the March festivals of Mars), wields his spear, as Neptune (Poseidon) wield his trident, Jupiter (Zeus) his lightning bolt, and Saturn (Cronus), his scythe.

 

 

A relic, “he Spear of Mars”, kept in the sacrarium at the Regia, the former residence of the Kings of Rome, is said to have trembled or vibrated at the slightest hint of war, or danger, alerting the Romans to be on their guard.

The spear is reported to have vibrated before the assassination of Julius Caesar.

When Mars is depicted as a bringer of peace, rather than war, his spear is shown wreathed with laurel leaves.

 

The Shield of Mars

 

 

The Ancile, the sacred shield, was the most recognizable symbol of Mars, believed to have fallen from heaven, during the rule of Pompilius, “The divine shield” is supposed to have fallen from the sky on the first of March; the first day of the month Martius, named after the god Mars.

 As long as the shield remained within the city, Rome would be safe; eleven copies were made of the shield, to confuse any one plotting to steal the precious shield.

The number of ancilia corresponds to the twelve months in the reformed calendar attributed to Numa, and the Mamuralia is thought to have originally been a New Year festival.

 

The burning torch, a vulture, dog, woodpecker, eagle and owl

 

The wolf and the woodpecker, creatures which had played a part in the saving of Romulus and Remus, were sacred to Mars.

 

 Picus

 

 

Picus, a Roman god who took the form of a woodpecker, was Mars’ companion, in Greek mythology, the son of Saturn (Cronus), in Roman, the son of Mars, and was the founder of the first Latin settlement, Laurentum, which was a few miles outside Rome, it’s said he got his name as he frequently used a woodpecker as a tool for predicting the future.

A much sought- after handsome god, the witch Circe, from Homer’s The Odyssey, set her sights on Picus and attempted to seduce him with her charms and potions, when he rejected her advances, Circe turned Picus into a woodpecker.

The Romans claim the transformation of Picus into a woodpecker, was due to to his skills at interpreting bird omens.

 

Greek symbols of the god Ares

 

A sacred shield, a Spear, a Burning Torch, Vulture, Dog, Woodpecker, eagle and owl, were the symbols of Ares.

The birds of Ares (Ornithes Areioi), were a flock of feather-dart-dropping birds that guarded the Amazons’ shrine of the god on an island in the Black Sea.

Vultures, who feed on the flesh of the dead on battlefields, were regarded as Ares’ sacred birds.

 

The Four Horses of Mars

 

Mars rode a chariot drawn by fire-breathing horses, all with Greek names: Aithon (Red fire), Phlogios (Flame), Konabos (Tumult) and Phobos (fear).

 

 

The Four Horses of Ares

 

The Hippoi Areio (Horses of Ares) were four immortal horses named Aithon (Red Fire), Phlogios (Flame), Konabos (Tumult) and Phobos (fear) which drew the chariot of the god Ares.

 

Ares and Aphrodite:

Venus and Mars

 

 

In Greek myth and ancient art, the adultery of Ares (Mars) and Aphrodite (Venus) had been exposed when her husband, Hephaestus (Vulcan), caught them in the act by means of a magical net, this was more or less ignored by the Romans, who, later years, presented  scenes of Venus and Mars, as happy, loving couple, in the lectisternium, a public banquet at which images of twelve major gods of the Roman state were presented on couches as if actually present and participating in the festivities.

 

 

In Roman art, scenes of Venus (Aphrodite) and Mars, tend to forget the forbidden affair between the two and concentrate on the lovers being attended to by Cupid (Eros).

 

 

Some scenes even suggest marriage and the custom was for husbands and wives to have themselves portrayed as the passionate divine couple.

Mars was often shown disarmed and relaxed, or even sleeping, the Renaissance philosopher, Marsilio Ficino, states that ‘only Venus dominates Mars, and he never dominates her’.

 

Aphrodite and Ares (Venus and Mars)

 

 

 The Sun-god, Helios, caught Ares and Aphrodite, red-handed, secretly up to no good, and informed Aphrodite’s husband, Hephaestus (Vulcan), of what he has witnessed.

 Hephaestus, in order to catch the couple out, made a nearly invisible net with which to trap them.

 When the time was right, the trap was set, catching Ares and Aphrodite in the act, so to speak.

Hephaestus, to add insult to injury, invited the Olympian gods and goddesses to view the unfortunate pair.

The goddesses, sticking by their friend, refused, the gods had no such qualms,.

On their release from Hephaestus, Ares returned home to Thrace with his tail between his legs, and Aphrodite fled to Paphos, Cyprus.