The myth - Ares, son of Zeus, king of the gods, and his wife, Hera, queen of the gods, were the Olympian gods of war. The Romans identified Ares with Mars, also a god of war. Aggressive and blood-thirsty, Ares personified the brutal nature of war. He was unpopular with both gods and humans. Among the deities associated with Ares were his consort, Aphrodite, goddess of love and sex, and such minor deities as Deimos (Fear) and Phobos (Rout), who accompanied him in battle. Although fierce and warlike, Ares was not invincible, even against mortals.

The worship of Ares, believed to have originated in Thrace, was not extensive in ancient Greece, and where it existed, it lacked social or moral significance. Ares was an ancestral deity of Thebes and had a temple in Athens, at the foot of the Areopagus, or 'Hill of Ares'.

The character - Ares has been instrumental in the course of Xena's destiny since her exile from her home town of Amphipolis. It was with Ares' help that Xena became the lethal force that she was when she was first introduced to us as the Warrior Princess.

As selfish and self-centered as Ares is, and always has been, Xena remains his one true weakness. Since Xena's emancipation from him, he has never let her out of his site. It has always been Ares hope that Xena would rejoin him to become the Warrior Queen he so wa nts her to be. Even in her quest for redemption, Ares is still fascinated and captivated by the Warrior Princess and will take any opportunity to be with her.. even if it means siding with her against the Olympians.


Since the birth of Eve, Xena's daughter, Ares has expressed his desire to be with Xena at all costs. Knowing the god of war the way she does, Xena disregards Ares as having alterior motives. She is forced, however, to reconsider the veracity of Ares proclamations of love when he continually passes up opportunities to destroy Eve, whose birth was to signify the Twilight of the Olympians. Ares' future with the Warrior Princess is still in question.


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