Mars (mythology)

Mars, at the gate of Paris of the city of Lille.

In Roman mythology, Mars, in Latin Mārs, had many attributes, he was the god of war, male virility, violence, passion, sexuality, bravery, pattern of Roman warriors, of horror and victory in wars, perfection and beauty. He was the son of Jupiter in the form of a flower and Juno. He was depicted as an armored warrior with a crested helmet, and he was preeminent among the military gods of the Roman army. The wolf and the woodpecker were the symbols of him. He was the husband of Bellona and lover of Venus, with whom he had two children: Fuga and Timor, respectively Deimos and Phobos for the Greeks.

Under the influence of Greek culture, Mars was identified with the Greek Ares, whose myths were reinterpreted in Roman literature and art under the name Mars. However, Mars is not simply a Romanized Ares, but a purely Italic deity, patron of many cities, such as Alba Longa and tribes such as the Sabines and Etruscans, and it is believed that the name Mars, without Indo-European derivations, it comes from the Etruscan Maris before the rise of Rome. The character and dignity of Mars differed in significant ways from that of his Greek counterpart, who is often treated with contempt and revulsion in Greek literature. Unlike Ares, who was seen primarily as a destructive and destabilizing force, Mars represented military might as a way to ensure peace, and was a father (pater) of the Roman people.

The altar of Mars on the Campus Martius, the area of Rome named in his honour, had supposedly been dedicated by Numa, the peace-loving, semi-legendary second king of Rome. In republican times it was a center of electoral activities. Augustus shifted the focus of the cult of Mars to the interior of the pomerium (Rome's ritual border) and built a temple to Mars Ultor as a central religious feature of his new forum. mythical of Rome, Mars was the father of Romulus and Remus after raping Rhea Silvia. His love affair with Venus symbolically reconciled two traditions about the founding of Rome: Venus was the divine mother of the hero Aeneas, celebrated as the Trojan refugee who "founded" Rome several generations before Romulus erected the city's walls.

Most festivals in honor of Mars were held in March, the month that was named in his honor (in Latin, martius), and in October, which began the season of military campaigns and the harvest season was ending. Mars gave its name to the fourth planet of the solar system: Mars, to the second day of the week (or third according to some religions, calendars or regions such as in the United States), Tuesday, and to the third month of the year: March.

Origin

The word Mārs (genitive Mārtis), which in Old Latin and poetic usage also appears as Māvors (Māvortis), is cognate to Osca Māmers (Māmertos). The oldest surviving Latin form, Mamart -, is probably of foreign origin. It has been explained to derive from Maris, the name of an Etruscan God-child, although there is no universal agreement on this. Scholars differ on whether the two gods are related, and if so how. The Latin adjectives for Mars' name are martius and martialis, from which the English martial (as in martial arts or martial law) and personal names such as Marcus, Mark and Martin.

Birth

Mars and CupidThe work of the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen.

Juno fled from Olympus in envy of the birth of the goddess of wisdom, and entered a temple consecrated to Flora, goddess of flowers and gardens. There this goddess advised Juno to pick a flower that was found in the fields of Oleno. Juno, she went towards those fields, and she saw the flower that she had indicated Flora, it was the most beautiful flower that she had ever seen; which was actually Jupiter in the form of a flower. Picking her up in her lap, the god of war, Mars, was born.

Description

Originally, Mars was the patron god of the Italic peoples, who were both warriors and farmers, and this is reflected in his bivalent nature, like other Roman gods. He was a warrior god, who protected his people against his enemies. He was also a chthonic god associated with the earth, with the physical and spiritual protection of crops.

Mars had the following virtues:

• Intrepidity.
• Blind temerity.
• Value and daring.
• Viril force.
• The warrior inspiration.
• The god who led to victory to the umbros, Sabinos, Latins and Romans.

He was considered the father of Romulus and one of the three tutelary divinities of Rome along with Jupiter and Quirinus. As domains of Mars the mysterious forests in which the woodpecker lived were considered. Several animals were consecrated to Mars, such as the farmer ox, the war horse, the herds of rams, and the pigs that were immolated to him. Therefore in Rome, Mars had several functions:

• War god, war god.
• God of the culture and labor of the field.
• God of spring, and virile power.
• Protector of life in the fields.

Worship

Unlike his Greek counterpart, Mars enjoyed immense popularity, and was the most worshiped deity in Rome, second only to Jupiter. Being the father of Romulus, he was considered the father of all Romans.

Their priests were the Salians (salii), headed by the Flamen Martialis. These priests, armed with the legendary shields and spears that Mars gave to Numa Pompilius, performed an archaic and primitive war dance; consisting of strong jumps and stomping on the ground, while hymns to Mars and Quirino are sung. The salios were chosen among the patrician families and the most famous of the salios was Scipio the African.

Temples

Until the time of Augustus, there were only two temples in Rome dedicated to Mars, that of the Field of Mars, originally a simple sacrificial altar, and that of Mars Gradivus. Both temples were located outside the pomerium, the sacred heart of the city, where no citizen could bear arms. This had a symbolic meaning: keep the war at arm's length, but be prepared for it.

In imperial times, the temples of Mars in Rome were as follows:

• The temple of Rome, which shared with Jupiter and Quirino, which referred to the descendants of the Roman people of Mars, the father of Rhomulus and Remo. Quirino was an aspect of Mars that later acquired a separate personality as a god of armed peace, and in times of the Roman Republic he identified with Rhomulus. The Romans called themselves children of Mars.
• The temple Mars Ultor (Marte the Avenger) located at the Augusto Forum.
• The temple Mars Gradivus, Mars, the one who precedes the army in battlelocated outside the Capena Gate of Rome, the place where the army was concentrated before leaving for the beginning of a war.
• The Campus Martius, Campo de Mars, in principle outside the Servian walls and the pomerium, where foreign ambassadors were traditionally received and the temples of the imported gods were erected. In Sila's time the centurite elections, the elections were held there, and soldiers and athletes were prepared. He later joined the city and was being occupied by other types of buildings, such as the Pompeyo Theatre or the Ara Pacis.

Festivities

The Feriae Martis was held on March 1 and the Armilustrium on October 19. Every five years a suovetaurilia was held, in which a pig, a sheep and a bull were sacrificed in his honor. On February 27 and March 14, the Equirria horse races took place. On March 23, the Tubilustrium was celebrated, in which weapons and war trumpets were purified.

On October 15, a chariot race was held on the Champ de Mars, where one of the horses of the winning chariot was sacrificed to the god.

Venus and Mars. Sandro Botticelli (c. 1483)

Epithets

Like other Roman and Hellenic gods, Mars was also venerated by the conquered barbarian peoples, naming him as their gods, which results in a multitude of epithets. The following are the names by which he was known in Rome:

• Mars Augustus: Augusto.

• Mars Campestris: Pattern of the Mars Field.

• Mars Gradivus: Powerful.

• Marmor: Shield.

• Marspiter: Father.

• Mars Quirinus: Father of the Romans.

• Mars Sylvanus: Protector of forests.

• Mars Ultor: Avenger.

• Mars Victor: Victorious.

Iconography

Medieval representation of Mars, sitting in a rainbow with a sword and a sceptre, incites men to war.

Statue of Mars naked, carrying her attributes warriors in a mural painting of Pompeya.

The God Mars is a painting by Diego Velázquez, preserved at the Museo del Prado.

His earliest representations are quite uniform, with attributes assimilated to his Greek counterpart of the god Ares, a man armed with a helmet and spear mainly, and sometimes shield and sword. Sometimes he is naked, other times in warrior clothing, and even with a cape over his shoulders, normally young and shaven, but other times he is depicted as mature and bearded and with some frequency he carries a baton in his hand.

On her chest, when she wears an aegis, is the head of Medusa. He is sometimes seen riding a cart pulled by light dogs, other times sitting like a bum but in a warlike attitude. But his epithet gravidus means "charged, full, strong and fertile", indicating the earlier attributes of him associated with fertility and agriculture.

The ancient Sabines assimilated him to their own god of war, Quirinus (from the Latin quiris, "spear"), a name that gives rise to the word quirites, term used to designate Roman citizens.

He is also represented in the form of a wolf.

On the Altar of Peace of Augustus (Ara Pacis), built in the last years of the 1st century B.C. C., Mars is represented as a mature man with a "classicist" face, short curly beard and mustache. His helmet is of the feathered Neo-Attic type. He wears a military cloak (paludamentum ) and a breastplate adorned with a gorgoneion. Although the relief is slightly damaged in this place, he appears to be holding a spear with laurel wreaths, a symbol of a peace won through military victory. In this way, Mars is presented as the worthy ancestor of the Roman people. The panel of the Ara Pacis in which he appears faced the Field of Mars, thus recalling that Mars was the god whose altar Numa established there, that is, the most ancient god of civic and military institutions. roman.

Spear of Mars

The spear is the instrument of Mars in the same way that Jupiter wields lightning, Neptune wields the trident, or Saturn wields the scythe or sickle. Relics or fetishes called the Spears of Mars were kept in the Regia, the former residence of the kings of Rome. In Republic times, whenever the state went to war, the high priest of the cult of Mars ( Flamen Martialis) shook their spears, saying Mars vigil! (Wake up, Mars!); if the spears were moved after being left in place, this was interpreted as a bad omen, and many sacrifices were made to appease the god. When Mars is represented as the bearer of peace, his spear is crowned with laurel or another type of vegetation, as in the Ara Pacis or in an Emilian coin.