Greek and Roman Mythology 101: Instructor's Notes

*Eldest child of Kronos and Rhea, but last to be 'reborn' after Kronos is made to spew the gods up.

*Guardian of the hearth and its sacred fire. All homes, from the smallest and poorest, to the richest estate, had a hearth area where food was prepared, over which Hestia presided.

*By extension then she was often invoked as patroness of general household activities, and was seen to guard the home and family.

*She was invoked first at festivals before other gods, although she had fewer public shrines or temples like other gods. Each home's hearth was a miniature shrine.

*Poseidon and Apollo both wanted to marry her, but she preferred to remain a virgin goddess.

Ephesus
*AD 92/3 Claudia Trophime writes as the chief priestess of the cult of Hestia, called the prytanis, and that Hestia literally presides over the gods' hearth, ensuring they themselves have enough to eat and drink, in addition to providing and preserving fire for mortals to cook.

Claudia Trophime
*Says that Hestia not only preserves the flame brought down from heaven, but literally keeps and holds it within herself.

Ares

*Greeks were ambivalent in their feelings and attitudes concerning Ares. They praised warlike qualities, but detested the mindlessness of his bloodlust. In the Iliad and Odyssey, Athena's cunning and intelligent skills and coolheadedness in battle are treated with favor and admiration, whereas Ares' actions are treated with scorn or ridicule.

*In battle he had ups and downs. Once he was bound by the giant twins Otus and Ephialtes, stuffed into a bronze jar, and left for 13 months before being rescued by Hermes, who was tipped off when the boys' stepmother found out about the prank. Herakles knocked him down 4 times in battle at Pylus, and Zeus had to intervene later when Herakles killed Ares' son Cycnus.

*Diomedes of Argos (not the Bistonian), urged on by Athena, wounded Ares so that he yelled out. Ares fled to Olympus and complained to Zeus, who told him to suck it up, because all of the other gods hated him.

*Athena flattened Ares with a huge stone. When Aphrodite came to help Ares, Athena decked her.

*During the War with the Giants, Ares slew the giant Mimas.

*Only son of Zeus and Hera, he never officially married, although he had a number of children with both goddesses and mortals.
*Demonice: mother of Evenus, Thestius, Pylus, and Molis by Ares.

*Aetolia: mother of Dryas by Ares; Dryas later sailed with the Argonauts.

*Meleager: was said by some to have been fathered by Ares, not the mortal Oeneus.

*Astyoche: mother of Ialmenus and Ascalaphus, who later sailed with the Argonauts and also led the Minyans from Orchomenus to Troy.

*Phlegyas: A child of Ares by either Dotis or Chryse, and a king of Orchomenus.

*Cyrene: mother of Diomedes of Thrace by Ares.

*Cycnus: A child of Ares by either Pyrene or Pelopia.

*Otrere: mother of Penthesileia, the queen of the Amazons who fought at Troy.

*Tereus: A son of Ares, from Thrace.

*The Eleians claimed their king Oenomaus was Ares' son by a Pleiad, and that Oxylus was also Ares' son.

*Agraulus: mother of Alcippe by Ares. Later Poseidon's son Halirrhothius raped Agraulus, and Ares, in a rage, killed Halirrhothius. Ares then had to submit to a trial for the murder, the first for gods and men, and was acquitted by Zeus for his actions. The hill in Athens upon which the Acropolis was built was called the Areopagus, after this story.

*Eos: had an affair with Ares that produced no children. This affair with Eos occurred whilst Ares was carrying on an affair with the married Aphrodite, who cursed Eos that she would remain perpetually in love.

*Aphrodite: Ares' lover while she was married to Hephaestus. She was the mother of Eros (according to just a few authors, others listed Eros' birth before the birth of any of the gods), Deimos (Fear), Phobus (Panic), and Harmonia. Deimos and Phobos drove Ares' chariot in battle and fought alongside him. Harmonia lived in Samothrace, and married Cadmus, the first king of Thebes (in Greece, not Egypt). Ares is said to be living in Thrace at the time that the story is told of him and Aphrodite meeting in her marriage bed each day when Hephaestus leaves. Hephaestus is tipped off, and forges invisible, unbreakable chains that he hangs from the posts of the bed to trap the lovers. When he pretends to leave one day, they are caught and all of the gods are invited to see and laugh. Hephaestus must be persuaded to release Ares after promises of gifts are given.

*Aerope: mother of Aeropus by Ares. Aerope died in childbirth, but Ares saved his son by suckling the baby at the dead mother's chest. Perhaps because of this story and others not recorded, Ares has some connections to fertility, and at Tegea was worshiped as Aphneius (Bountiful).

*His major sites of worship were mostly outside of Greece. Thrace, Scythia, Colchis, and Dia, where the Amazons were said to live, were sacred to him.

1. Tripp, Edward. The Meridian Handbook of Classical Mythology. New York: New American Library, 1970.
2. Lefkowitz, Mary R. and Maureen B. Fant. Women's Life in Greece and Rome. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992.