The Symbols of Ares, the Greek God of War & Courage

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Learn the god of war’s history, lore, symbols & sacred animals

Co-authored by Julia VanderHoeven and Glenn Carreau

Last Updated: February 11, 2026 Fact Checked

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Ares Symbols

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Who is Ares?

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Ares Myths

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Cult of Ares

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Who is Mars?

Do you want to learn more about Ares, the fearsome Greek god of war, as well as the symbols most commonly associated with him? Maybe you’re a Percy Jackson fan, or maybe you’re just curious—but either way, you’ve come to the right place. Ancient Greeks depicted Ares alongside other symbols of war and battle, including Ares’ weapons, armor, and sacred animals. In this article, we’ll do a deep dive into prominent symbols of Ares, as well as myths associated with the Greek god and his worship in ancient times!

Symbols Associated with Ares

An illustration showing the various symbols of Ares.

Ares is the Greek god of war, courage, and bloodlust on the battlefield. In ancient Greece, Ares was often depicted with symbols including a helmet, spear, sword, and shield. Additionally, Ares’ sacred animals included the boar, vulture, serpent, and dog.

Section 1 of 5:

Symbols of Ares in Greek Mythology

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HelmetTraditionally, Ares’ “symbols” are his instruments of war—namely, his equipment and weapons. As such, Ares was rarely depicted without a helmet on his head, sometimes known as the “Helmet of Ares.” Even when depicted at feasts or in other, more domestic settings, Ares is usually holding or wearing his helmet (or, if not his helmet, then one of his weapons).
- Ares’ helmets have a peak or crest on them, which sits above the forehead and usually extends backward.
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ShieldAlthough Aries carries a shield in many Greek depictions, the shield doesn’t really have any specific symbols relevant to the god himself. The shield typically does have emblems on it, but those emblems are usually generic. In other words, Ares doesn’t have a unique shield in Greek mythology; he is simply depicted carrying a standard, round Greek shield—called a hoplon or aspis.^{[1]
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- Greek shields had a “dish” shape and were made of wood, sometimes with a sheet of bronze covering the outside (or just around the rim, as decoration).
- In addition to a shield, Ares would sometimes wear armor—specifically, a tunic, breastplate, and greaves.
- However, this wasn’t universal; sometimes Ares would only have a tunic, and other times he’d wear nothing but a helmet and shield.
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Spear and swordIt’s no mystery why the Greek god of war would be depicted with a spear and sword. The main weapons used by Greek military personnel were spears (doru) and swords (namely, the shorter xiphos or the heavier, curved kopis). Thus, Ares himself was associated with those weapons and carried them in certain ancient artworks—although he doesn’t always have them.^{[2]
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- Greek doru spears were 2 to 3 meters (6.5-9.8 ft) long, with a bronze or iron spearhead. Mounted warriors used longer lances called xyston, and a lighter type of spear called the javelin was used for ranged combat.
- Swords were typically a warrior’s secondary weapons—to be unsheathed if their spear broke or they engaged in close-range combat. Hoplites on foot used a xiphos, while mounted hoplites held a kopis.
In some depictions, Ares rode on a war-chariot pulled by four immortal horses. So, even though horses themselves are more often associated with Poseidon (the Greek god of the sea), Ares’ chariot and horses remain symbols of his power on the battlefield. In myths, Ares would drive the chariot himself or allow his sons Phobos (fear and panic) and Deimos (terror and dread) to drive it.^{[3]
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Birds of preyAries is associated with several “sacred animals,” including the vulture. As a carrion bird that would eat corpses, the vulture was seen as a symbol of death—particularly in the wake of a bloody battle. However, that wasn’t the only bird sacred to Ares; he was also associated with certain types of owls (particularly eagle owls and barn owls) as well as woodpeckers.^{[4]
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- In one myth, Ares changes a family of giants into birds to save them from Zeus’s wrath. One brother (Oreios) is transformed into an eagle owl, and the other (Argios) turns into a vulture.
- The brothers’ mother, Polyphonte, becomes a smaller owl, and their servant changes into the shape of a woodpecker.
- In the myth, because the servant prays to the gods as she changes shape, the woodpecker became a good omen for a hunt or feast.
- The brothers’ hubris is what led Zeus to try to punish them, sending Hermes to do so; however, Ares was able to persuade Hermes to turn them into birds instead.
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Boar and dogsThe wild boar is considered a symbol of Ares’s fury and brutality, while the dog is sacred to Ares as a symbol of both ferocity and loyalty. Ares is sometimes depicted alongside a hound or wolf; additionally, in Sparta, dogs would sometimes be sacrificed to the god of war for victory in combat. As for the wild boar, one version of a myth depicts Ares using a boar (or transforming into one) for revenge.^{[5]
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- In the myth, Ares grows jealous of Adonis, who was the goddess Aphrodite’s mortal lover. Aphrodite was the goddess of love, lust, and beauty—and Ares’s lover (or wife).
- So, Ares sends a wild boar to attack Adonis. Mortally wounded, Adonis bleeds out in Aphrodite’s arms.
- In other versions of Adonis’s legend, the boar is sent by Artemis as punishment for killing her follower Hippolytus, or by Apollo as punishment for Aphrodite blinding his son (Erymanthus).
Snakes (and mythical dragon-serpents, or drakon) were considered sacred to Ares. It was believed that these serpents would guard Ares’ sacred sites and springs. In one myth, a giant serpent called the Ismenian dragon (drakon ismenios) guarded a sacred spring of Ares near Thebes. However, a Greek hero named Cadmus slew the dragon, and the goddess Athena helped him plant the dragon’s teeth, growing a crop of Spartoi warriors who later became lords of Thebes.^{[6]
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Section 2 of 5:

Who is Ares in Greek mythology?

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Ares is the ancient Greek god of war, courage, and battlelust. As such, Ares was seen as the embodiment of brutality in battle, physical strength and force, as well as more noble traits like valor and bravery. Ares was often characterized as being warlike, combative, and insatiable on the battlefield; consequently, the Greek people did not always revere him, and, in fact, some myths depict Ares being defeated or humiliated.^{[7]
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- The name “Ares” suggests roots in ancient Mycenae. However, Ares was likely a Thracian god originally (as reflected in his savagery and battlelust).
- Cities across Greece and Asia Minor made offerings to Ares for protection and victory in battle. However, Ares doesn’t have a terribly significant role in Greek mythology as a whole.

Section 3 of 5:

Myths About Ares in Greek Mythology

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The Twelve OlympiansAres’ parents were Zeus and Hera, the king and queen of the Greek pantheon, respectively. As a son of Zeus and Hera, Ares was considered one of the Twelve Olympians—the twelve major deities of the Greek pantheon. Where Ares’s sister, Athena, was a goddess associated with military leadership and the strategic side of war, Ares embodied the savagery and bloodlust of battle.^{[8]
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- The other Olympians (alongside Zeus, Hera, Ares, and Athena) are Poseidon, Demeter, Aphrodite, Artemis, Apollo, Hephaestus, Hermes, and either Hestia or Dionysus (variably).
- Ares’s birthplace was said to be Thrace, a province north of the Aegean Sea (encompassed in the modern day by parts of Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey).
- In ancient Greece, Thracians were seen as barbaric and warlike—hence why they were associated with Ares.
The Argonautica is the only Hellenistic epic to survive in its entirety, written by Apollonius Rhodius. As the poem goes, Jason—a Greek hero and the leader of the Argonauts—steals the Golden Fleece from a grove considered sacred to Ares. Furthermore, when the Argonauts reach the Island of Ares, they must defend themselves from the Ornithes Areioi (Birds of Ares), which rain down feather darts to defend a shrine to Ares.^{[9]
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The founding of ThebesAres is the father or creator of the Ismenian dragon (drakon ismenios) described above—a water-serpent that guarded Ares’ sacred spring. In the legend of Thebes’ founding, after the hero Cadmus slays the dragon and sows its teeth to grow the Spartoi, he pledged his service to Ares for eight years and married Harmonia (Ares’s daughter with Aphrodite) to appease the god of war.^{[10]
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- By appeasing Ares, Cadmus was able to found Thebes—and it grew into a fertile, prosperous city.
- In fact, the plain on which Thebes was built was sometimes called the “dancing-floor of Ares.”
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Imprisonment by giantsIn one myth, Ares was captured and bound in chains within a bronze urn by two giants named Otus and Ephialtes. He was imprisoned for thirteen months, until the giants’ stepmother Eriboea told Hermes (the herald of the gods and a protector of travelers and merchants) what had happened. Hermes rescued Ares, while Artemis (the goddess of hunting) tricked the giants into slaying each other.^{[11]
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- Ares was also said to have defeated a son of the monstrous half-snake creature named Echidna.
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Ares in Homer’s IliadIn the Illiad, Ares’s allegiances change in the war between the Achaeans (Greeks) and the Trojans. He originally vows to fight for the Greeks alongside Athena (his sister) and Hera (his mother). However, Aphrodite (his lover and a guardian of Troy) convinces Ares to fight for the Trojans instead. This leads to a great battle in which Athena manages to drive Ares away.^{[12]
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- In the myth, Zeus permits Athena to strike back against Ares. With Athena’s encouragement, the Greek hero Diomedes attacks Ares with a spear, and Athena causes the spear to strike true, wounding Ares.
- Ares is forced to flee to Mount Olympus, causing the Trojans to retreat. Later, Ares attempts to get revenge against Athena, but she stops him by hitting him with a boulder.
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Affairs and childrenAres famously has an adulterous affair with Aphrodite (who was married to the god Hephaestus at the time). When Hephaestus discovers this, he traps the pair in a golden net to humiliate them; later, once Aphrodite and Hephaestus officially split, she marries Ares, and their union produces the gods Eros (love and desire), Anteros (requited love), Phobos (panic), Deimos (terror), and Harmonia (harmony).^{[13]
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- Ares has multiple other romantic liaisons in various myths. One occurs with the goddess of dawn, Eos (and when Aphrodite learns of it, she curses Eos).
- Ares has a mortal son named Cynus of Macedonia; in some myths, he is killed by the Greek hero Heracles.
- Ares also has an affair with a woman named Teirene, and the two had a daughter named Thrassa. Thrassa’s daughter was named Polyphonte—the woman who gave birth to the giant brothers Agrius and Oreius mentioned above.

Section 4 of 5:

The Worship of Ares in Ancient Greece

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There weren’t many temples to Ares in ancient Greece. While Ares was one of the Twelve Olympians, he only had a few formal temples in Greece. Greek geographer Pausanias wrote about an altar to Ares located in the town of Olympia, as well as a temple to Ares that was moved into the Agora of Athens. Beyond that, a rocky outcrop called the Areopagus was associated with Ares due to a myth in which the god was tried for murder and later acquitted there.^{[14]
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- Ares was held in higher esteem in Sparta (even though he didn’t have a prominent cult there, nor has he been found depicted on any Spartan coins).
- Nonetheless, Spartans viewed Ares as an ideal for soldiers to aspire to: strong, powerful, and skilled in combat.^{[15]
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Certain statues of Ares were believed to bring victory in war. Pausanias also wrote about an old Spartan statue of Ares that depicted the god in chains. According to Pausanias, Spartans would ritually bind images of the gods in order to capture their essence or blessings; thus, the bound statue of Ares meant that the city of Sparta would forever carry the spirit of war and victory.^{[16]
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- Pausanias also described chained statues of Aphrodite and Artemis in Sparta.
- That Spartan statue wasn’t the only one to be bound in chains; in Pamphylia (south of Asia Minor), several cities had statues of Ares and hosted yearly rituals in which the statues were chained and offered sacrifice.
  - Those cities included Syedra, Lycia, and Cilicia—all cities that faced frequent danger from pirates.
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Warriors (especially Spartans) offered animal sacrifices to Ares. Different animals were offered depending on what was being prayed for. In Sparta, an ox would be sacrificed to Ares in thanks for a battle won through the use of strategy; meanwhile, a rooster would be sacrificed in thanks for a victory won through sheer force and onslaught. Ares normally received sacrifices after a battle, while his sister Athena normally received them before a battle.
- There have been vague claims about human sacrifices to Ares, but those claims might actually be myths; animal sacrifices were the normal practice.
On the island of Crete, this sanctuary was originally dedicated to Aphrodite alone; then, later, it was rebuilt as a sanctuary dedicated to both gods (since Ares and Aphrodite were connected in myths as lovers and spouses). At this sanctuary, Aphrodite was depicted as a protector alongside Ares—which is notable, as the concept of Ares and Aphrodite having a joint cult as warrior-protector gods is unique to Crete.^{[17]
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Ares was also worshipped in Thrace, Scythia, and Asia Minor. As we’ve already mentioned, Ares was associated with the Thracian people (and worshipped there). Meanwhile, the Scythians were an ancient nomadic people from the area around eastern Iran; they, too, worshipped Ares according to the historian Herodotus, and their cult’s symbol for Ares was an iron sword.^{[18]
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- It was said that Scythian worshippers of Ares ritually killed cattle, horses, and even war captives as sacrifices to Ares.
- Ares was also worshipped as a prophetic deity in areas of Asia Minor (which was unique to that region). In fact, Ares was recognized as a more respectable god there than he was on the Greek mainland!
- The city of Metropolis—located in modern-day western Turkey—built a temple to Ares, recognizing him as the city’s protector.

Section 5 of 5:

About Mars, the Roman God of War

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“Mars” was the counterpart of Ares in ancient Rome. Most of the ancient Greek gods have a Roman equivalent—and Ares’s counterpart is Mars, the Roman god of war as well as a guardian of agriculture. Mars was depicted as a son of Jupiter and Juno (Rome’s counterparts to Zeus and Hera, respectively). However, unlike Ares, Mars was given more reverence and dignity in Roman society, as he represented the use of war and military power to achieve peace.^{[19]
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- In Roman myth, Mars was also a lover of Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, and the Roman counterpart to Aphrodite.