Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Ares.
The gallery
The Ludovisi Ares
Roman copy, restored by Bernini, 2nd century AD
A Roman marble statue of Ares seated at rest, his weapons set aside and a small Eros playing at his feet — the god of war momentarily disarmed by love. Restored by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in 1622, it is displayed in the Palazzo Altemps, Rome.
Venus and Mars
Sandro Botticelli, c. 1485
A Renaissance panel painting showing Mars sunk in deep sleep while a watchful Venus reclines opposite and infant satyrs make sport with his lance and armor. An allegory of love disarming war, it hangs in the National Gallery, London.
The Consequences of War
Peter Paul Rubens, 1637–1638
A Baroque oil painting in which Mars is dragged toward destruction by the Fury Alecto while Venus vainly tries to hold him back. Painted during the Thirty Years' War as an allegory of a Europe ravaged by conflict, it is held in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence.
On screen
Wonder Woman
Patty Jenkins
Jenkins' origin film makes Ares the war behind the War — the god of conflict as the secret architect of the twentieth century's slaughter, and Diana's true opponent.
Xena: Warrior Princess
Kevin Smith's Ares is the series' recurring dark flirtation: the god of war as leather-clad tempter, ally and adversary across six seasons of syndicated myth.
Immortals
Tarsem Singh
Tarsem's bronze-and-blood Olympus puts Ares in the melee against the Titans — war incarnate in a fight staged like a living frieze.
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys
Kevin Smith's Ares crosses over from Xena into the Renaissance Pictures Hercules cycle — the god of war as recurring half-brother, tempter and antagonist across the shared Olympus.
Blood of Zeus
Netflix's adult myth cycle keeps Ares among the Olympians at war — the god of conflict as a brutal player in the gods' civil bloodletting.
In music & on stage
The Planets — Mars, the Bringer of War
Gustav Holst
Holst's opening movement makes the Roman Mars — Ares under another name — a colossal war-machine in 5/4: the planetary suite's most famous face of battle.
The Loves of Mars and Venus
John Weaver
Weaver's Drury Lane ballet stages Mars' affair with Venus and Vulcan's revenge — the war god caught in the forge-net, danced as England's first modern narrative ballet.
EPIC: The Musical
Jorge Rivera-Herrans
Rivera-Herrans' Odyssey concept album puts Ares in the 'God Games' gauntlet — the war god as one of Athena's divine opponents in a sung Olympus tribunal.
In play
God of War
Santa Monica Studio
The game that named a franchise: Kratos begins as Ares' pawn and ends as his killer, seizing the title God of War from the Olympian who forged him.
Hades
Supergiant Games
Ares' boons are doom and blade — the god of war as a red-mist build, urging Zagreus to keep the blood flowing.
Hades II
Supergiant Games
Ares returns among the Olympian boon-givers — still the god of blade and bloodshed, now arming Melinoë's war on Chronos.
Ares (DC Comics)
DC Comics
Wonder Woman's Olympian nemesis across decades of comics — Ares as the immortal war-monger whose schemes keep Diana's lasso busy.
Percy Jackson & the Olympians
Rick Riordan
Riordan's demigod saga makes Ares a leather-jacketed bully god — father of Clarisse, adversary of Percy, and the war god as American roadside menace.