War and the Warrior: Functions of Ares in Literature and Cult

299 Pages·2014·1.81 MB·English

by  Alexander Millington

War and the Warrior: Functions of Ares in
Literature and Cult

Alexander T. Millington

UCL

Dissertation submitted for the degree of PhD in History

2013

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I, Alexander Millington, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own.
Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been
indicated in the thesis.

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Abstract

This dissertation presents a new interpretative synthesis of the sources relating to the
cults, identities, and functions of the god Ares, focusing on the Archaic and Classic
periods. An apparent dichotomy is identified: in many respects, the evidence suggests
that Ares must have been a very important god throughout much of the Greek world
throughout the Archaic and Classic periods (and beyond), but in other respects the
evidence suggests that he was not. I argue that this dichotomy does not derive from
changes in the popularity, relevance, or nature of the god, as has been proposed.
Instead, I argue that the elements of Ares’ cults and representations which suggest that
Ares was unpopular or unimportant derive from those which made him important and
continually relevant. I argue that because Ares was identified with war, attitudes
towards the god directly reflect Greek attitudes towards war. War’s importance as an
element of Greek life, and the god’s power as a causal force with it, led to deep respect
for Ares, reflected by widespread cult, and a place among the great Olympians. But
the wild, destructive, and unpredictable nature of war, which Ares represented, meant
that he was not a regular recipient of large-scale celebratory cult. Instead, war itself
was conceived of as a form of cult for Ares, which he took pleasure in, despite the fact
that it was not initiated on his behalf. Ares was associated with all aspects of war, and
represented as a warrior archetype. I argue that the cluster of ideas and associations
that Ares represented was a powerful tool which many Greek poets and artists were
attracted to use in order to articulate and explore a series of interconnected ideas
relating to war, violence, the nature of the warrior, and the role of the warrior within
society.

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Contents
Acknowledgements – 7
1. Introduction - 8
1.1. Ares: a great god on the fringes? – 8
1.2. Theory and Method – 10
1.3. Thesis Outline – 17
2. Ares in the Iliad – 21
2.1.i. Introduction – 21
2.1.ii. Methodological Note – 24
2.2.i. Of Gods and Men: Divine Protectors and Layers of Causality – 26
2.2.ii. The Complex Nature of Zeus – 32
2.3.i. Warrior, War, and War’s God – 35
2.3.ii. Rebuked and Defeated – 56
2.4. Conclusions – 72
3. Ares in Early Hexameter Traditions beyond the Iliad – 75
3.1. Introduction – 75
3.2. Ares as War in the Odyssey – 75
3.3. The Dangers of a Preoccupation with Ares – 77
3.4. Herakles and Athena defeat Ares in the sanctuary of Apollo – 80
3.5. Conclusions – 88
4. Ares and Aphrodite – 90
4.1. Introduction – 90
4.2. Ares as Warrior in the Odyssey: The Song of Ares and Aphrodite – 90
4.3. The Song of Ares and Aphrodite: Parallels and Contrasts – 97
4.4. Ares and Aphrodite in Cult – 99
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4.5. Conclusions – 106
5. Ares in Melic Poetry of the Classical and Archaic Periods – 108
5.1. Introduction – 108
5.2. Ares as Motive Force – 109
5.3. The Nature of Ares – 113
5.4. Ares in Lyric Praise-Poetry: Pindar and Bacchylides – 119
5.5. Conclusions: Ares as War and Warrior in Melic Poetry – 132
6. Ares at Athens – 136
6.1. Introduction – 136
6.2. Rereading the Iliad in Classical Athens – 138
6.3. The Persian Archer and the Greek Fleet – Ares at Salamis – 142
6.4.i. Stasis – 148
6.4.ii. The Impious Judge – 153
6.4.iii. The Wild God – 156
6.4.iv. Internal Wildness – 162
6.4.v. Taming Ares – 164
6.5. Ares and Athena at Athens – 169
6.4.vi. Ares and Erra: Civic Concerns Across the Aegean – 177
6.6. Refractions of Aeschylus: Sophocles’ Ares – 186
6.7. Ares in Focus: Euripides and his Phoenicians - 200
6.8. Aristophanes – 211
6.9. Conclusions – 212
7. Dancing for Ares – 214
7.1. Introduction – 214
7.2. Celebration, worship, and peace: the ideology of music and dance-214
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7.3. Dance and war: forms of movement – 218
7.4. War as anti-cult – 222
7.5. Analogies between war and cult – 224
7.6. Dancing for Ares: Conclusions – 230
8. Ares and Hades – 231
9. Literature Review: 1848-2012 – 234
9.1. H.D. Müller and the Nineteenth-Century Encyclopaedias – 234
9.2. “Der Rächer”, “Schädiger” – From Kretschmer to Burkert – 243
9.3. Ares after Burkert – 255
9.4. Conclusions – 257
10. Conclusion – 259
Bibliography – 266

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Acknowledgements

Andrew Roberts and Jen Hicks read almost the entire thesis between them, and
improved every page they read. So has Hans van Wees, who has supervised the
writing of this thesis with calm patience rivalled only by the incisiveness of his
criticism, which has saved me from many missteps. Ellie Mackin, Jess Baxter-Lloyd,
Chris Farrell, Naomi Carless, Leah Broad, Laura Proffitt, and Tom Coward have all
acted as tolerant sounding-boards, thoughtful test readers, and sources of
bibliographic gems over the last four years. Riet van Bremen first pointed out to me
that there appears to be a dearth of recent scholarship on Ares, and convinced me
that the god would remain interesting for four years. She was right. Ian Rutherford
suggested that I think about the connections between Ares and Iyarri, before inviting
me first to talk, and then to write about them, which provided a series of major
confidence-boosts at a critical juncture. The late Simon Price taught me that material
evidence has a voice of its own, which I am beginning to learn to listen for. Amélie
Kuhrt showed me that Greece lay on the periphery of a vast cultural milieu. Daniel
Schwemer, Mark Weeden, Andrew George, Luis Siddall, Marie-Christine Ludwig,
Martin Worthington, and David Hawkins invited me to audit a series of courses in
Near Eastern languages, and displayed remarkable generosity in offering to guide my
first faltering steps into the world of cuneiform. Karen Radner held up a large stop-
sign at the edge of a precipice. Rob Gray thought it would be fun to spend our
evenings learning Greek, and James Bradby agreed with him. Daria Popescu enabled
a jaunt to Paris, where Morgan Guiraud makes la Bibliothèque des Sciences
religieuses France’s answer to the ICS. My parents have supported me throughout,
far beyond the call of duty. All of the staff at the Joint Library of the Hellenic &
Roman Societies, combined with the incomparable London postgraduate Classics
community, have made the Institute of Classical Studies a wonderful place to spend
the last five years. Throughout, my friends both within and outside the discipline
have kept me sane. Many thanks to all of you.

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War and the Warrior: Functions of Ares in Literature and Cult1

(1)

Introduction

(1.1) Ares: a great god on the fringes?

A striking dichotomy, which can at first sight resemble a paradox, lies at the
heart of the corpus of extant sources relating to the Greek god Ares. Ares’ cults were
ancient2 and ubiquitous,3 and he was often called upon as a witness to treaty oaths.4
Repeatedly described as one of the twelve great Olympians,5 Ares pervades Archaic
and Classical poetry,6 and was depicted by many sculptors and painters.7 And yet
only one city is currently thought to have called upon Ares as its primary civic

1 Abbreviations follow the Oxford Classical Dictionary (= Hornblower & Spawforth (2003)).
2 Ares appears as a recipient of cult in a Linear B text from Knossos, and appears to feature in many
Mycenaean theophoric names. Cf. Ventris & Chadwick (1956) 125 & 307 (no.201); Aura Jorro
(1985) 96–98; Ilievsky (1999) 306-307; Rougemont (2005) 332; García Ramón (2011) 231;
Gallavotti 1957: 229; Pötscher 1959: 11–15; Gérard-Rousseau 1968: 38; Gulizio 2001: 33; Gonzales
2004: 353–355; Millington (2013) 544-545.
3 In his Laws (833b), Plato assumes that all Greek cities will have a sanctuary of Ares somewhere
within their territory when he suggests that standard training for heavy infantry in any Greek state
should include running in full armour to the nearest shrine of Ares and back (I here adopt a reading
justified by England (1921) 335, contra that implied by Brisson & Pradeau (2006) 317). The extant
evidence for cults of Ares is surveyed by Gonzales (2004). The majority of cult-sites of Ares may,
however, have consisted of small shrines and altars, perhaps in rural areas, in addition to sacred
groves. Sites of this nature are less likely to be found by archaeologists. They were, moreover, less
likely to attract the attention of Pausanias and Strabo, with the exception of those instances where the
god bore an unusual epithet, or where an interesting aetiological tale had developed by the second
century A.D. As Snodgrass (1987: 76-77) remarks, Pausanias rarely ventured far from the cities and
roads (for further discussion of Pausanias’ selectivity, cf. Habicht (1985) 22-24, and Alcock (1996)
245-248). Cf. also Farnell (1909) 396.
4 Brulé (2005).
5 Rutherford (2010) 46.
6 See below, passim.
7 Beck (1984); Bruneau (1984).
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patron and protector, and even there the god’s primacy is not entirely certain.8
Attestations of monumental temples to Ares are few, and late,9 and no major public
festivals are attested before the Imperial period. In myth, Ares is often an adversary,
and never the hero, or the hero’s primary protector. In literature, Ares is rarely a
recipient of prayer or sacrifice. In treaty oaths, Ares appears only in partnership with
a protective goddess.10 When the gods are depicted in groups by sculptors or
painters, Ares is invariably placed on the fringes of the group, on the far right of each
image.11 In many respects, therefore, the evidence suggests that Ares must have been
a very important god throughout much of the Greek world throughout the Archaic
and Classic periods (and beyond), but in other respects the evidence suggests that he
was not. The primary aim of this thesis is to explore the causes and significance of
this dichotomy.
A full synthesis of the sources relating to Ares’ cults, identities, and roles in
life, art, and literature has never been attempted. As I show in the extended review of
the scholarly literature on Ares with which I conclude this thesis, the current
scholarly consensus still relies heavily on the concise studies presented by H.W.
Stoll in the first volume of Roscher’s Lexikon, published in 1886,12 and by L.R.
Farnell in the fifth volume of his Cults of the Greek States, published in 1909.13 At
the core of this consensus lies the idea that Ares represented a savage (either foreign
or antiquated) conception of war, which was rejected both by Homer, and by the

8 Ares appears on the coins of Metropolis in Ionia, founded in the third century B.C., and received cult
in a monumental temple there. See Millington (2013) 555-557 for further discussion and
bibliography.
9 On the temple at Athens described by Pausanias, see §6.5, below. On the temple of Mars at
Halicarnassus described by Vitruvius, see Millington (2013) 557. I exclude the joint temples of Ares
and Aphrodite (on which, see §4.4, below).
10 See §4.4 & §6.5, below.
11 Bruneau (1984) 491.
12 Stoll (1886).
13 Farnell (1909).
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Classical Greeks. This rejection is said to have been expressed through Zeus’ rebuke
of, and Athena’s victories over Ares in the Iliad, and to have been reflected by Ares’
low-key presence in Classical cult. Archaic and Classical evidence suggesting that
Ares was an important god is said to represent survivals from a period of savage,
non-Greek influence, or from the Greeks’ own more primitive prehistory. This
position, as I show throughout this thesis, is unsatisfactory not only because it relies
on what I will argue is a flawed reading of the Iliad, but also because no admissible
evidence underpins these speculations regarding the god’s origins.
In this dissertation, I therefore present a new interpretative synthesis,
focusing on the Archaic and Classic periods. In constructing this synthesis, I build
upon the groundwork laid down in a series of recent surveys of sections of the
corpus of sources for Ares’ cult and identities. These include Maria Luz Prieto’s
formal analysis of Ares and his epithets in the Iliad and the Odyssey, Matthew
Gonzales’ as yet unpublished catalogue of the sources for cults and sanctuaries of
Ares and Enyalios, and Irmgard Beck’s survey of representations of Ares in vase-
painting and sculpture.14 These works are, however, primarily descriptive in nature,
and fail to move beyond the interpretative paradigms presented by Stoll.

(1.2) Theory and Method

This is a study of Ares, that is to say, of a single named god. That I believe
such a study to be both feasible and worthwhile implies several underlying
assumptions. Before I proceed to outline the central arguments of this thesis, I will

14 Prieto (1996); Gonzales (2004); Beck (1984). The need for a catalogue like that presented by
Gonzales has been expressed by Pritchett (1979) 159n.13. On the limitations of these works, see §9.3,
below.
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