Mars
Also known as: Mars Gradivus, Mars Ultor
Mythological Narrative
God of war and guardian of Rome. More prominent in Roman religion than his Greek counterpart Ares, Mars was also a god of agriculture and fertility. Father of Romulus and Remus, legendary founders of Rome.
Scholarly Commentary & Evolution
## Mars, father of the city
Mars is a war god, and he is also something Ares almost never is: an ancestor. With the Vestal **Rhea Silvia** he fathered Romulus and Remus, which makes him divine grandfather of the Roman people. The Campus Martius, the army's field, carried his name. So did the month of March, when campaigning weather returned and the Salii danced with the sacred shields.
### Agriculture and arms
Before he is only a soldier, Mars is a god of the land's edge: fields that must be defended, spring that must be opened. Cato's farmer prayed to him to keep disease, disaster, and barrenness off the property. The October Horse, sacrificed after the year's last races, belongs to this older Mars as much as to the legionary one.
### Not a lesser Ares
Greek Ares is chaotic and often disliked. Roman Mars is honorable, ancestral, and politically useful. Augustus's Temple of Mars Ultor in the Forum Augustum made him the avenger of Caesar and the sponsor of recovered standards, a civic weapon rather than a personification of bloodlust.
Cross-Pantheon Parallels & Archetypes
Classical Art & Museum Artifacts
High-resolution museum artifacts, classical sculptures, pottery reliefs, and bronze idols preserving authentic historical representations of Mars.
Mars
Academic Discussion & Critique
Exchange peer-reviewed hypotheses, comparative Indo-European etymologies, and archaeological field interpretations regarding Mars.
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