An Aresian Abecedary.

A is for Ares highly disrespected Greek god, dissed by Homer, wounded twice by Athena, and given few if any temples. But the chicks dug him.

B is for Battle which is all that he liked. The gorier the better, but when things turned against him he tended to take flight.

C is for Cycnus son of Ares by Pyrene. He tried to take out Heracles along the river Echedorus and got killed for his effort. At the time Cycnus was bulding a temple to Ares made from the bones of travelers.

D is for Diomedes another son of Ares this time by Cyrene, from pop he got a job as king of the Bistonians in Thrace, along with a brace of man-eating mares which he kept well fed. Until Heracles during one of his labors ended both the mares and their master.

E is for Eris who these days has a much nicer rep at least according to Wilson and Shea, however Homer (of Greece not Springfield) had few kind things to say. Painting her more as the Windy O'Williams to Ares' Sid Vicious.

F is for fear his favorite emotion, at least when experienced by others.

G is for Goddesses, many of whom seemed to have had a weakness for Ares. At least that seemed to be the case with Aphrodite, Eris, Eos, Enyo and Keres. I guess that bad boy thing worked with some women back then too. Though Athena, to say the least, was not impressed.

H is for Harmonia daughter of Ares and Aphrodite. She was the mother of the Amazons making Ares their granddad, never worked that one into that TV show did they?

I is for Ialmenus, son of Ares and the mortal Astyoche. One of the Argonauts, one of the Achaean leaders, one of the solders in the Wooden Horse, one of the suitors of Helen and one of the sons of Ares who was not killed by Heracles.

J is for Jason who hired Ialmenus, but has problems of his own finding that fleece and later having his kids served to him in a stew, no doubt even then a good resume and a famous father helped.

K is for Keres grim goddesses of death, who loved to haunt battlefields and drag the dead to the underworld. As such they they found Ares a great guy to hang out with.

L is for Licymnius son of Ares who was killed when he ran in between Tlepolemus and a slave he was beating... Not to help, he was just going somewhere in a hurry.

M is for Menalaus the king of Sparta from whom Paris stole away Helen which lead to the Trojan war which Ares supported enthusiastically... and got his tail beat by Athena while at.

N is for Nike goddess of victory and the daughter of Ares, at least according to one of the three versions of her birth.

O is for Oenomaus son of Ares by one of ether two different women or a river god's daughter. Known for nailing his daughter's suitors heads to his house. And you thought you father in law was a hard case.

P is for Phobos son of Ares and Aphrodite and the personification of fear.

Q is for quake, which is what one tends to do when overcome with fear, which might be the result of meeting Ares' sons Phobos and Deimos. The effect of which would be swift, which was also the last name of the Englishman who predicted that the planet Mars would have two moons that would be named for the above.

R is for the red planet Mars, which was named after the Roman god of war, who while associated with Ares is really different as the Roman did not have the distaste for their war god that the Greeks did. Where Ares was said to be covered in blood Mars was said to wear shining armor. To name one of several.

S is for Scythia one of the few groups that along with Thrace (where he was said to have been born) had a strong cult of Ares. They were both considered barbarous and warlike beyond the norm for the time.

T is for Thebes sight of a spring dedicated to Ares and said to be guarded by one of his sons a dragon.

U is for Ulysses who never meet Ares but was a soldier on the side he supported during the Trojan War, noted for his very un-Aresian approach to war. Where his was clever as opposed to Ares who was thought crude at best.

V is for Vulture. The sacred animal of Ares, showing the lack of love the Greeks had for him. As Mars the Romans gave him the dog.

W is War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing. Say it again! While the old song went like that, both Ares and most of human history it would seem would disagree.

X is for X-Files, which is on the FOX Network which also shows Mad TV which co-stars Ares Spears showing that X is always a darn hard letter to work with.

Y is for Yearning. Which is what Ares did, yearned for freedom for 13 months when he was held captive and bound in brass chains by the giants Otus and Epialtes. Freed only under the cover of night by Hermes after a very rough lunar year.

Z is for Zeus. His father? Perhaps, at least according to Homer and some others, they also say they had no love for his loud-mouthed son. Though others say he was born to Hera because she touched a flower. Odd they never say just which one.