The popular idea that Mars was populated by intelligent Martians exploded in the late 19th century. Ares, in Greek religion, god of war or, more properly, the spirit of battle. I will try all the drugs in the wide world, and I will explore the seas and the depths of Tartarus.[1]. Mars controlled war and the passions that fueled it. From her position in the heavens, she oversaw all things that required forethought and calculation. This was when a great horse race was held in the Campus Martius of Rome. Numerous educational institutions recommend us, including Oxford University. In the earliest Roman calendar, March was the first month, and the god would have been born with the new year. AsMars Gradivus, or Marching Mars, the deity was revered for his a presence on the battlefield. Mars was feted at all military occasions and victory celebrations. He waited patiently, and plotted his revenge. In the Capitoline Triad of Jupiter, Mars, and Quirinus, however, Mars and Quirinus were two separate deities, though not perhaps in origin. The word Mrs (genitive Mrtis),[10] which in Old Latin and poetic usage also appears as Mvors (Mvortis),[11] is cognate with Oscan Mmers (Mmertos). In the section of his farming book that offers recipes and medical preparations, Cato describes a votum to promote the health of cattle: Make an offering to Mars Silvanus in the forest (in silva) during the daytime for each head of cattle: 3 pounds of meal, 4 pounds of bacon, 4 pounds of meat, and 3 pints of wine. In this painting from the 17th century, Swedish artist David Klcker Ehrenstrahl depicts Mars and Minerva in a lover's quarrel. In Babylonian astronomy, the planet was named after Nergal, their deity of fire, war, and destruction, most likely due to the planet's reddish appearance. Fresco of a Statue of Mars, PompeiiCarole Raddato (CC BY-NC-SA). Venus, Mars, and Cupid (c. 1630) by Peter Paul Rubens. Along with her sister Nephthys, Isis acted as a divine mourner, and her maternal care was often depicted as extending to the dead in the underworld. There once was a mission to Mars Mars children through these affairs were many. Bearing his trademark shield and spear, Mars is outfitted in his plumed helm, military cloak, and gorgon head cuirass. "[99], The poet Statius addresses him as "the most implacable of the gods,"[100] but Valerius Maximus concludes his history by invoking Mars Gradivus as "author and support of the name 'Roman'":[101] Gradivus is asked along with Capitoline Jupiter and Vesta, as the keeper of Rome's perpetual flame to "guard, preserve, and protect" the state of Rome, the peace, and the princeps (the emperor Tiberius at the time). Accessed on November 1, 2019.https://www.theoi.com/Text/OvidFasti1.html. Mars was also the source of the name March, which in Latin was known asMartius. Unlike many gods, she cant be tied to a specific town, and there are no certain mentions of her in the earliest Egyptian literature. The character and dignity of Mars differed in fundamental ways from that of his Greek counterpart, who is often treated with contempt and revulsion in Greek literature. The 4th-century Latin historian Ammianus Marcellinus treats Mars as one of several classical Roman deities who remained "cultic realities" up to his own time.