"Can you give details about the story of "Ares" for this History project that is due in three days? I keep looking on all sorts of sites and end up finding the same information.
[name withheld; email edited lightly for clarity.]Sinisterly,
"
Sinister is a Latin word that means "left hand/left side." It can also be translated as awkward, wrong, or unfavorable -- as in omens, because birds, for example, flying on the left were viewed as a bad sign [see augury]. In English, sinister originally had a slightly more ominous meaning: "prompted by malice or ill-will," according to the Online Etymology Dictionary, which says sinister came into English from the French [see English Words Borrowed From the French or Latin] in the early 15th century. Today we usually think of sinister as meaning something like "evil".
Back to the letter....
Sometimes I receive email questions that rouse my curiosity and send me scrambling for facts; other times, I remember that, as I have stated emphatically on this site, I won't do your homework. Sometimes I refer writers to existing pages on this massive site that they may have missed or request that their questions be posted on the forum where people who already know the answer to questions can help them more quickly than I ever could, even if I did have time to do individualized research projects.
Why is this email different? For two reasons. One is a bit superstitious: How could I turn down a sinister request? The other is that the sinister student has a point. There really aren't great stories about Ares, other than the one about him and his lover being caught in adultery: Mars and Venus Caught in a Net.
My sinister student may have read that story. He may also have read the couple of lines from the Iliad about Ares' confinement. He may have read about Ares' failure in the story of Hera's confinement, and he may have read that the Areopagus in Athens is said to have been named for a murder committed by Ares (finally, a somewhat sinister Ares). In all of these and several others, you find disjointed little bits that fail to provide a meaty portrait of the not well-liked war god. Reading of Ares' performance in the Iliad doesn't do much more.
There is at least one inherent problem in telling the stories of gods. Since most of the immortals really can't die, there is not enough tension for anyone but a novelist to make a good story that stays true to the Greek myths, except when they run into conflict with others of their ilk or with born-to-die mortals.
What other suggestions do you have for a fully-fleshed story about Ares? Please post in the comments.
Ares picture © Clipart.com
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Comments
When I first read the title of this article, it occurred to me that the Greek equivalent of “sinister” is “aristeros.” Is it merely a coincidence that it sounds a lot like “Ares”?