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JRTHEDEVIANTARTIST In reply to PrimordialNothingnes [2020-09-16 06:12:28 +0000 UTC]

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PrimordialNothingnes In reply to JRTHEDEVIANTARTIST [2020-10-12 22:11:12 +0000 UTC]

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HisPurpleness In reply to tylerrmclean [2016-07-08 08:07:45 +0000 UTC]

That's largely because most of those myths were written in Athens and Ares personified their hated rival state, Sparta. In all mythological adaptations, Spartans (e.g. Menelaus) are portrayed as violent, stupid and (In the case of the women such as Helen) promiscuous. Sparta wasn't big on writing so there are no existing myths praising Ares but the Romans loved him and venerated Mars high in their pantheon.
Great work though, in any case.

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xxAnimexChocolatexx In reply to HisPurpleness [2016-07-18 03:11:51 +0000 UTC]

Very true. A lot of people don't know that the myths we knew of were written by Athenians, so of course like you said, there's going to be some huge bias include it. Not only Ares suffered demonization, but also Hera to extend as well since Spartans highly regard Hera as well.

And if you think about, Ares actually treated the women with more dignity than most of the other Greek Gods. It said that he loves his mother, Hera, very much that he willing to battle 2 giants who took her and got imprison for it. He killed a man who raped (or attempt to rape depending on the source) his daughter Alcippe. And of course, he's the father of the famous Amazons. Let's not forget there's barely any myths that involve him raping or seducing a woman unlike many of the Greek gods that done so (the Roman myth doesn't count).

Ares' characterization makes since if you connect his with that of Spartans and we all know how Spartans treated their women and men in regards with war. So that kinda connects to how the myths doesn't reflect how Ares was viewed generally by the Greek, and instead it's how the Athenians viewed Spartans.

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HisPurpleness In reply to xxAnimexChocolatexx [2016-07-18 07:44:22 +0000 UTC]

Indeed. I didn't know about Ares's approach to women, you're very well-informed. It's unfortunate that, despite being named after and venerated a goddess of wisdom, the Athenian society was one of the most misogynistic in history. I did a project on some of the Athenian literature and I actually found myself grinding my teeth through reading it. I realise that it was the Ancient era but the sexism was just ridiculous even for those times.

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xxAnimexChocolatexx In reply to HisPurpleness [2016-07-18 20:44:13 +0000 UTC]

Anybody who studied world history would know Ancient Greece was notorious for its misogyny and probably the most sexist back in those time. 

Contrast to popular belief with what people believe about Athena being a feminist goddess and all - she's absolutely not and completely the opposite of it. Athena was suppose to embodiment of the whole "act masculine in spite of the body of a woman." In fact, the whole purpose of her birth myth was to prove that men are the only sex that contribute to producing offspring and more superior of it and that women doesn't contribute anything to it other than giving birth. Hence, the myth where Hera alone gave birth to a deformed Hephaestus. Additionally, Athena barely interact with women in the myths and often she hangs around with men. And whenever she does appear to women, it gets ugly (like with Arachne and Medusa). Funny how people seems to treat her and Ares these days. But hey, that's the power of how history was written affect people and this seems to be one of the text book example.

Funny you mentioned about the Athenian culture, i was recently reading about Aristotle's philosophy and his attitude reflect exactly like those Athenian (women having fewer teeth than men, fair-skinned women have better sex discharge than dark-skinned, slaves are barbarians, anyone who doesn't speak Greek are barbarians, lol).

You right about the Athenian culture, they were ridiculously sexist back then that i doubt any other Greek state cities could topple that. Hack, chucks of their myths involve blaming and demonizing women and that's saying a lot. And ancient era wasn't entirely sexist back then as not all ancient civilization were like that such as the Egyptian, Persian, Celtic and of course the Spartan like i mentioned. So it makes you wonder how exactly did they collect their root to have these type of beliefs and social restriction.

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HisPurpleness In reply to xxAnimexChocolatexx [2016-07-18 21:15:35 +0000 UTC]

Your knowledge of Ancient culture makes mine look pretty trivial in comparison. I'm quite honoured.
I'm hoping to start working on a Greek mythology-related something or other soon. Total reinterpretation of most of the things we take as obvious in Greek Mythology (Morality and godhood, how the different myths link together, etr). Your knowledge might help a great deal.
Funnily enough I was coming up with an instance, earlier today, where I planned that, owing to the fact that Ethiopia is where apes evolved into humans as australopithecines, in the hidden jungles of Aethiopia, Greece's African counterpart, the main characters find a secret civilisation of intelligent apes. I pondered this, thought this over...then realised just what portraying a civilisation of ape-men in Africa might inadvertently imply. So I made sure to add a scene before they find the ape-men where they land at Axum, Ethiopia's capital, governed by Africa's greatest heroes and heroines, equal to Greece in culture and society and ruled by the demi-god Memnon, hero, monster-slayer, military mastermind, founder of a kingdom and the son of two goddesses (Aphrodite/Eos. SHIP IT!) and he's proud of it!
How's that for progressive? (Yelling at thin-air) Eat it, you long-dead self-righteous Athenian bigots!!!
I think I need to sit down before I hurt myself...

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