Mars
Roman · deity · pre urban · deity
Roman war-god, but the registry treats Mars as substantively distinct from Greek Ares despite ancient identification. Pre-urban agricultural protector (Cato 141, Carmen Arvale) carrying war-functions; central to Roman civic religion through the Salii, the ancilia, the March/October ritual frame; begetter of Romulus and Remus on Rhea Silvia (Liv. 1.4); honored where Ares was hated. The Italic features (woodpecker, ancilia, horse-tail to the Regia) have no Greek equivalent. Per Beard/North/Price, Religions of Rome (1998); Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Römer (1912); Dumézil, Archaic Roman Religion (1970); Scheid, Introduction to Roman Religion (2003).
Children
Domains
- war civic
- agricultural protection
- fatherhood of Rome
- march calendar
Powers
- Fathers Romulus and Remus upon Rhea Silvia
- Rouses men to war and martial fury
Epithets
- Gradivus
- Ultor
- Silvanus
- Quirinus
- Mars Pater
Relations
- lover: Rhea Silvia
- interpretatio: Ares
- interpretatio: Bared-Sword War-God (Sarmatian Ares)
- sibling: Bellona
Sources
- Cato Agr. 141; Liv. 1.4, 1.20; Ov. Fast. 3 entire; Verg. Aen. 1.276, 8.630-634
- Ov. Fast. 5.229-260 (Mars born of Juno alone via the flower of Olenus, without Jupiter); Hes. Theog. 921-922 cited via interpretatio as son of Iuppiter and Iuno
- Liv. 1.20 (Numa institutes Salii and ancilia); Cato Agr. 141 (Mars Silvanus farm prayer); Ov. Fast. 3 (Martius rituals)
- Varro LL 5.73; Liv. 1.20