Ares - God of War

Ares, the greek god of war, son of Hera and Zeus, became one of the most exalted of the Olympian gods. But he quickly became the most hated among the gods. All the gods hated him except:

• Eris, the goddess of discord, who sppreciated the way he took her work to a new level.
• Hades recognised he was good for business in the Underworld, though he didn't like him either.
• Aphrodite loved him.

Ares was brave and strong but he was also argumentative, impulsive, bloodthirsty and destructive. In conflicts, he chose sides randomly and sometimes even changed sides in the middle of the war. He simply took pleasure in the bloodshed, slaughter and wanton destruction of war.

Ironically, he was not a skillful warrior:

• Level headed, disciplined Athena beat him twice
• Otus and Ephialtes, the giant sons of Poseidon, defeated him. They humiliated him by trapping him inside a bronze jar for more than a year before Hermes managed to release him.
• Heracles knocked him off his feet four times in a single battle and ultimately forced him to flee from the battlefield.
• Dimmedes stabbed him with a spear and sent him running from the battlefield outside Troy

Ares never married, but he had dozens of children with both mortals and immortals. The most notable of these many mistresses was the goddess of love: Aphrodite.