The Names of Mars

It is from the Roman god Mars that the fourth planet of the Solar System derives its present name. The origin of the name is uncertain. Possibly, along with Ares, it is connected with the Sanskrit mar and the Vedic maruts, meaning "storm divinities", or the Greek root meaning "to carry away". According to other speculation it comes from the root mar or mas, meaning the generative force, for Mars was the god of springtime and fertility before he was the god of war. Still another possible meaning of mar was "to shine". The most ancient forms of the name were "Maurs", "Mavors", and "Marmar", which were later contracted to "Mars". The god was called "Mamers" in the Oscan language, from which the Mamertine tribe derived its name. Another nominally Martian tribe were the Marsi. The name had still other forms -- "Marspiter" and "Maspiter" -- which were created by adding the word pater, meaning "father", to the name of the god, for legend had it that Mars was the father of Romulus, the first Roman. During this early period of the Roman culture, Mars was also known by the surname "Silvanus", meaning "belonging to a wood or forest". Later, Mars was surnamed "Gradivus", which has been translated as "he who precedes the army in battle". In the late 1st century B.C., the emperor Augustus erected the Temple of Mars Ultor ("Mars the Avenger") in Rome, to give thanks to the god for his victory over the assassins of his adoptive father, Gaius Julius Caesar.

Origin and Character

Just as the Greeks likened their Ares to the Egyptian war god Anhur when they encountered that older civilization, so the Romans identified their own Mars with the war god of the more established Greek culture. However, to call Mars the Roman god of war is a gross oversimplification, for he also had very unwarlike attributes. The comparison of Mars to the Greek Ares is wholly superficial, for their characters could hardly have been more dissimilar. Whereas Ares was treacherous, cowardly, lustful, savage, and malevolent, his Roman cousin was, faithful, valorous, honorable, noble, and benevolent. Thus Mars has more in common with the Norse god Tyr than with Ares.

Mars was unquestionably the most Roman of the gods, for unlike the other major deities of Rome, the worship of Mars was never much affected by foreign influences as the Empire expanded and the city became more cosmopolitan. Partially this was no doubt due to the fact that the Greeks reviled their own war god and thus he was not an important part of the Greek religion that otherwise so heavily influenced Roman worship. On the other hand, because of Mars' original character and duties in Roman tradition, they saw him as their protector rather than as the malefactor of all mankind. Also, since Mars was the father of Romulus, the first Roman, the people of Rome considered themselves to be the children of Mars -- Martians in the sense of being connected in lineage to the god. Finally, as the Roman state became more militarized, the cult of Mars assumed greater importance, surpassing even that of Jupiter. It may be said that, although Jupiter was the king of the Roman gods, Mars ascended to the prime ministry of the Roman Pantheon, thus assuming the more active role with regard to the affairs of men.

The birth of Mars differed from that of Ares in that Mars was the son of the queen of heaven alone. In a passage of Ovid, Juno conceived Mars without Jupiter's aid, using a flower with fertile properties which the goddess Flora obtained for her. Mars was literally a flower child. This botanical origin was symbolic of the Roman god's very different character and purpose, for unlike Ares, Mars did not begin his existence as a war god, but only acquired this attribute later as the Roman people felt the need for a supernatural defender of their fortune on the battlefield. Unlikely though it may seem to those who are acquainted with him only as the war god he later became, in the beginning Mars was rather the god of vegetation and fertility, which was of course very appropriate to the circumstances of his conception. He was the protector of agriculture who lived in forests and mountains. The first month of the Roman calendar, Martius, which originally began on the vernal equinox, honored the god and marked the annual return of life to the Earth, as this was the season for planting crops.

For a time Mars was both an agricultural and military deity, thus symbolizing the duality of the Roman citizen as both farmer and soldier. Eventually, Mars transferred his agricultural duties to Ceres and Liber, and his chief concern became that of protecting the Roman state in war, much as among mortals the defense of the state passed out of the hands of a militia -- temporarily raised from the agrarian citizenry to meet an immediate threat -- and instead became the responsibility of a huge standing army of professional soldiers.

Symbols

The circle with an arrow positioned diagonally upwards, , is one of the most common ideograms in Western culture. It stands for the planet Mars and for the male gender. Quite early a relation arose between this sign and the metal for weapons, iron. As a result this sign is often used on maps to indicate iron mines. The Mars sign was also used in early chemistry to represent zinc, although this metal is more often found represented with one of the symbols for Jupiter. Another symbol for Mars in alchemy was .

As the planet Mars takes a little less than two years to circle the sun, in botany the Mars sign has come to represent plants with a two-year growing cycle.

The sign has also been used as a time sign to signify morning. In the US system of hobo signs, and in the boy-scout signal systems of certain countries, it means "go this way". With the circle filled, , it is used in military contexts to denote a grenade thrower or mortar.

Sacred Animals and Plants

Several animals were sacred to Mars: the woodpecker, the horse and the wolf, whose image frequently appears in the sanctuaries of the god; it was a she-wolf who had nursed Romulus and Remus. Among the plants and trees which were dedicated to him were the fig-tree, the oak, the dog-wood, the laurel and the bean.

Associated Deities and Mortals

The character of "Quirinus", the earliest Latin war god, was eventually melded with that of Mars. His origin is uncertain, and there is also little known about his cult. He was worshipped by the Sabines, an old Italian people who lived north-east of Rome. They had a fortified settlement near Rome, the Quirinal, which was named after their god. Later, when Rome expanded, this settlement was absorbed by the city, and Quirinus became, together with Jupiter and Mars, the god of the state. He was usually depicted as a bearded man who wears clothing that is part clerical and part military. His sacred plant is the myrtle. Several etymologies are suggested for this name: that it was from an adjective meaning "wielder of the spear", that it came from the Sabine capital city of Cures, or that it derived from the curia, the ancient political subdivision of the Roman state. He has also been explained as originally being the oak-god (from quercus), and that the body of men known as the Quirites, the earliest name of the burgesses of Rome, were literally the men of the oaken spear. Combined in the phrase populus Romanus Quirites, it denoted the individual citizen as contrasted with the community. In Roman law, ius Quiritium signified full Roman citizenship. In political speeches, the general citizenry were addressed as Quirites. Rome's Quirinal Hill was named for this deity. In the time of Numa, Quirinus, like Mars, was both a war god and a nature god, alike protector of the military fortunes of the state and of the agricultural fortunes of the farmer. By the end of the Republic, he had become identified with the deified Romulus, son of Mars.

Nerio, an ancient female deity whose name meant "the strong one", may have been connected in some way with the early worship of Mars. Old Roman formulae of prayer mention a Hora Quirini, his female cult associate, afterwards identified with Hersilia, wife of Romulus. Another deity with which he was associated in his agricultural persona was Robigus, who preserved corn from the blight.

As the god of war, Mars was accompanied in battle by the warrior goddesses Bellona and Vacuna; by the gods Pavor and Pallor, who spread terror through the ranks of the enemy; by Fuga and Timor, the personifications of flight and fear; and by Honos and Virtus, who bestowed honor and instilled courage in the Roman soldiers. After the battle, the triumphant war god celebrated victory with the goddesses Vitula and Victoria. Discordia, the goddess of strife and discord whi is identified with the Greek Eris, also belonged to his retinue.

Bellona, popular among the Roman soldiers, was variously given as his wife or sister, or less often, his daughter. Originally known as Duellona, her attribute is a sword, and she is depicted wearing a helmet and armed with a spear and a torch. She could be of Etruscan origin, and is identified with the Greek Enyo.

Victoria, the Roman personification of Victory, was worshipped especially by triumphant generals returning from battle. She was held in higher regard by the Romans than was her counterpart Nike by the Greeks, and when in 382 A.D. her statue was removed by the emperor Gratianus there was much resistance in the pagan reactionary circles.

Being at first an honest farmer and later an honorable soldier, Mars did not have nearly the the plethora of paramours and progeny that Ares did. He may have taken only one mortal woman, the priestess Ilia (Rhea Silvia), on whom he fathered the twins Romulus and Remus.

Temples and Priests

The sacrarium of Mars stood on the Palatine Hill in the Roma Quadrata of Romulus, and was originally the residence of the king. In some spiritual sense, the war god was believed to reside there, and this is where his sacred spears and shields, the symbolic armory of the Roman state, were kept. At first there was only one shield, dropped from the sky by Mars to the second Roman king Numa Pompilius as a token of his benevolence, but in order to insure against theft or destruction, Numa had eleven identical shields made. The twelve shields were then placed under the stewardship of the Salii, a college of twelve priests created by Numa for that purpose. The Salii ("jumpers"), who served both Quirinus and Mars, derived their name from the procession through the streets of the city which they completed by jumping the entire way and singing the Carmen Saliare. Primitively the rites of the Salii were intended to protect the growth of plants. Mars' own priest was called the flamen Martialis.

In the Regia on the Forum Romanum, the hastae Martiae ("lances of Mars") were kept. When these lances moved, it was seen as a portent of war. Whenever war broke out, it was the consul's ceremonial duty to shake the sacred spears and shout "Mars vigila!" ("Mars, wake up!").

Despite the familial connection that the Roman people considered themselves to have with Mars, until the time of Augustus, Mars had no temples within Rome proper aside from the sacrarium in the heart of the city. The Temple of Mars Gradivus ("he who precedes the army in battle") was outside the Porta Capena, the gate through which the army marched on its way to campaigns to the south, and here too each year the Equites (knights) met to begin their procession through the city. Another site, originally only an altar, was in the Campus Martius, which was the exercising ground of the army as well as for athletes. Both of these last two sites were outside the pomerium, and this has been explained to mean that the war god must be kept at a distance. War was considered a force to be called upon when needed, rather than one which should dominate the affairs of the Roman state. In founding his temple to Mars Ultor (the "avenger" of his grand-uncle Gaius Julius Caesar) in the Forum Augusti, the emperor Augustus gave a new turn to the worship of Mars, and for the first time the Martian cult began to rival that of Capitoline Jupiter. Mars became the most prominent of the dei militares (military deities) worshipped by the Roman legions, along with Mithras, a deity of Indo-Iranian origin who was later introduced into the Empire.

Bellona had a temple on the Capitolinus (inaugurated in 296 B.C. and burned down in 48 B.C.), where, as an act of war, a spear was cast against the distant enemy. She also had a temple on the Campus Martius, where foreign dignitaries were received by the Senate. The Columna Bellica was struck with a lance as a formal declaration of war. Bellona's priests were recruited from gladiators.

Festivals

According to Plutarch, Numa Pompilius "altered the order of the months; for March, which was reckoned the first he put into the third place; and January, which was the eleventh, he made the first; and February, which was the twelfth and last, the second…. January was also called from Janus, and precedence given to it by Numa before March, which was dedicated to the god Mars; because, as I conceive, he wished to take every opportunity of intimating that the arts and studies of peace are to be preferred before those of war."

All activity of the Martian cult was confined to the warmer months, both because this was the season of growth and of warfare. The most important Martian festivals were celebrated in late winter and in the spring. The Quirinalia was celebrated on the 17th day of Februarius, the supposed day on which Romulus ascended to heaven. The Feriae Marti was celebrated on the Kalends of Martius, which on the original form of the Roman calendar was the first day of the year. The Equirriae were two festivals celebrated early in the year, on 27th of Februarius and the 14th of Martius. The name Equirria indicates horse racing, and of course horses were bred and used in Rome chiefly for military purposes. Thus the Equirriae can be understood as exercises of the war horses, accompanied with sacrifices to Mars, preparatory to the opening of the season of arms. The Quinquatria occurred on the 19th day of Martius, when both Minerva and Mars were worshipped. The sacred shields, or ancilia, were carried in procession by the Salii on several occasions during the month of Martius up to the 23rd day, when the military trumpets (tubae) were ceremonially cleansed (Tubilustrum). The Ambervalia, celebrated on the 29th day of Maius, was another festival of purification, in which Mars appeared as an agricultural god. The festival of Mars was celebrated on 1 Junius, followed by the festival of Bellona two days later. Minerva and Mars were again celebrated on the Minor Quinquatrus, occurring on the 13th of Junius. The month of Octobris was also sacred to Mars. A third equestrian festival, the Equus October, was observed on the 15th day of Octobris. The Armilustrium was held on 19 Octobris, and on this day the weapons of the soldiers were ritually purified and stored for winter. Every five years the Suovetaurilia was held. During these fertility and cleansing rites, a pig (sus), a sheep (ovis) and bull (taurus) were sacrificed. During the four months of the Italian winter, the worship of Mars was at a standstill.

Literary References

The founding of the Roman state was connected with Mars and also with Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty, through her Trojan son Aeneas. Virgil, writing in the time of the emperor Augustus, recorded in Book 1 of the Aeneid how following the destruction of Troy, Juno, the Roman Hera, bent on obliterating the last vestiges of that vanquished city, ordered up a tempest to disperse and shipwreck the fleet of the Trojan refugees led by Aeneas. At the end of the day, the goddess of love and beauty came to Jupiter with tears in her eyes, asking him if Aeneas still had his protection and was destined to found a new and greater city in Italy. The father smiled at the daughter, kissed her, and reassured her that he had not changed his mind. He describedto her the events that would come to pass in Italy over the next three centuries as the small band of Trojans struggled to build a new kingdom:

"Three full centuries
That kingdom will be ruled by Hector's race,
Until the queen and priestess, Ilia,
Pregnant by Mars, will bear twin sons to him.
Afterward, happy in the tawny pelt
His nurse, the she-wolf, wears, young Romulus
Will take the leadership, build walls of Mars,
And call by his own name his people Romans.
For these I set no limits, world or time,
But make a gift of empire without end.
Juno, indeed, whose bitterness now fills
With fear and torment the sea and earth and sky,
Will mend her ways, and favor them as I do,
Lords of the world, the toga-bearing Romans."

Ilia was also known as Rhea Silvia. Silvia, like Silvanus, means "of the forest". The name Rhea, however, is Greek (the mother of Zeus).

Mars had no overt role in the Aeneid as Ares had in the Illiad, but was perceived as a hidden force behind the actions of men, an inspiration to and protector of the Trojans who would in time beget the Romans. In Book 7, Vergil described a Martian ceremony while also extolling the military exploits of the Roman legions of his own time:

A solemn custom was observ'd of old,
Which Latium held, and now the Romans hold,
Their standard when in fighting fields they rear
Against the fierce Hyrcanians, or declare
The Scythian, Indian, or Arabian war;
Or from the boasting Parthians would regain
Their eagles, lost in Carrhae's bloody plain.
Two gates of steel (the name of Mars they bear,
And still are worship'd with religious fear)
Before his temple stand: the dire abode,
And the fear'd issues of the furious god,
Are fenc'd with brazen bolts; without the gates,
The wary guardian Janus doubly waits.
Then, when the sacred senate votes the wars,
The Roman consul their decree declares,
And in his robes the sounding gates unbars.
The youth in military shouts arise,
And the loud trumpets break the yielding skies.
These rites, of old by sov'reign princes us'd,
Were the king's office; but the king refus'd,
Deaf to their cries, nor would the gates unbar
Of sacred peace, or loose th' imprison'd war;
But hid his head, and, safe from loud alarms,
Abhorr'd the wicked ministry of arms.
Then heav'n's imperious queen shot down from high:
At her approach the brazen hinges fly;
The gates are forc'd, and ev'ry falling bar;
And, like a tempest, issues out the war.

There are several references to Mars in Book 8, one of which also mentions Bellona:

Inferior ministers, for Mars, repair
His broken axletrees and blunted war,
And send him forth again with furbish'd arms,
To wake the lazy war with trumpets' loud alarms.

The cave of Mars was dress'd with mossy greens:
There, by the wolf, were laid the martial twins.
Intrepid on her swelling dugs they hung;
The foster dam loll'd out her fawning tongue:
They suck'd secure, while, bending back her head,
She lick'd their tender limbs, and form'd them as they fed.

The dog Anubis barks, but barks in vain,
Nor longer dares oppose th' ethereal train.
Mars in the middle of the shining shield
Is grav'd, and strides along the liquid field.
The Dirae souse from heav'n with swift descent;
And Discord, dyed in blood, with garments rent,
Divides the prease: her steps Bellona treads,
And shakes her iron rod above their heads.

Livy's History of Rome records that during the Samnite wars (circa 340 B.C.), the consul Decius offered himself to the gods, including Mars, Quirinus, and Bellona:

"Janus, Jupiter, Father Mars, Quirinus, Bellona, Lares, New Gods, Native Gods, deities who have power over us and our enemies, and Gods of the Underworld: I supplicate and revere you, I seek your favor and beseech you, that you prosper the might and victory of the Roman people, the Quirites, and afflict the enemies of the Roman people, the Quirites, with terror, dread, and death. As I have pronounced the words, even so on behalf of the army, the legions, and auxiliaries of the Roman nation of Quirites, do I devote myself and with me the legions and auxiliaries of our enemies to the gods of the Underworld and to Earth."

Representations in Art

Even the most Roman of the gods bowed to the overpowering Greek influence in Roman art, in which he was hardly distinguishable from Ares. Mythology in Roman religion was never as well developed and elaborate as that of the Greeks, for very early in their history the Romans identified their gods with those of the Greeks, and they adopted Greek mythology into their own religion.

Later, the Greeks abandoned their Olympian deities of old, and the Romans in turn also attached less importance to their indigenous gods as other foreign cults, notably that of the Mithras, gained in popularity. But the most Roman of the gods was also the most enduring of the national gods, for when all the other Greek and Roman cults had faded, that of Mars was one of the last rivals to Christianity.

Mars returned to the art world during the Renaissance, and has continued to be represented to the present time. However, in times far removed from the age when Roman religion was an integral part of state functions, he has occasionally been confused with Ares. Both Van Heemskerk's and Tintoretto's paintings actually portray the Greek legend of Ares and Aphrodite caught in Hephaestos's net.

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