DEIMOS AND PHOBOS
Real Names:
Deimos ("terror") and Phobos ("panic")
Occupation:
Gods of terror and panic
Legal Status:
Citizens of Olympus
Identity: The general populace of Earth is unaware of the existence of Deimos and Phobos except as mythological characters.
Other Aliases:
(Deimos) The Joker, (Phobos) Strife, Scarecrow,
Place of Birth:
Marital Status: (both) Single
Known Relatives: Ares (father), Aphrodite (mother), Nyx (foster mother), Harmonia (sister), Cupid (half-brother), Leila (half-sister), Hercules, Apollo, Hephaestus, Hermes, Dionysus (uncles), Artemis, Athena, Discord, Persephone, Helen, Eileithyia, Pandia (aunts),
Group Affiliations: ally of Nyx and Circe, formerly the Gods of Olympus
Base of Operations:
Mobile, formerly the Areopagus, formerly Olympus
First Appearance: (Deimos) (TV) Hercules, TV Series, Episode: "Fade Out," (comics) Wonder Woman II #2
(Phobos) (TV) Hercules, TV Series, Episode: "Encounter," (comics) Wonder Woman II #2
History: Deimos and Phobos are the sons of Ares and Aphrodite, two members of an extra-dimensional race of beings known as the Olympians who were worshipped as gods by the people of ancient Greece. Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus, and had a clandestine love affair with his brother Ares that was later revealed before all the gods of Olympus. She conceived Ares three children named Deimos, Phobos and Harmonia. (Some accounts claim that Discord was also one of their children, but this is erroneous.) As young gods, Deimos and Phobos often followed their father Ares in battle and were charioteers of his war wagon. At times, they also carried out his orders against his enemies. During the Trojan War, when Ares was injured by the Argive leader Diomedes, Deimos and Phobos helped to carry him away from the battlefield.
Deimos and Phobos were not particularly liked by the other gods of Olympus. They were very loyal to Ares and Discord, a goddess of strife, who was sister to Ares. Ares hated his brother Heracles for being the favored son of Zeus, the King of the Olympian Gods, and sought to destroy him or at least discredit him before their father. After Hercules had become a god, Phobos tried to blame Hercules for the death of a Cernithian Hind, a deer sacred to Artemis, but Hercules was proven innocent by the mortal warrior-goddess Xena. Phobos later teamed up with Discord to use Hind's blood to kill Hercules, but Callisto, one of Xena's most erstwhile foes, tested the Hind's blood's capability to kill gods by killing Phobos herself.
A month later, Deimos went searching for a Kronos stone to alter time and restore Phobos to life, but Ares instead used it to try and rid himself of Hercules, who then used it against them and send Ares and Deimos temporarily to the Land of Shades.
Toward the end of the Roman Empire, Zeus learned that the Romans were slaughtering Christians in the names of the Olympian Gods and decided that time had come for an end for mortals to stop worshipping gods. Manipulating prophecies that Xena's daughter Livia meant the end of the Olympians, he staged his own death but left behind spells to restore the Olympians to life after their deaths. Enchanted by an arch-angel, Xena slew Deimos and Discord among several other Olympian gods. As per the spells of Zeus, Deimos and Phobos were both restored to life shortly thereafter. Zeus soon had Hephaestus imprison Ares in an enchanted tomb in Macedonia (modern Yugoslavia) to prevent him from revealing the illusion behind the deaths of the Olympian Gods. Deimos and Phobos together raised an army to secure the power to release Ares and were killed again in battle by Hercules and Thor.
At some unknown point in the past, Deimos and Phobos were once again restored to life by Nyx, the ancient goddess of darkness, out of Darkforce energies. According to Nyx, she claimed she had been the one who had given birth to them several years before by impersonating Aphrodite, but it is unknown if she was telling them to truth, or merely fabricating lies to keep them subservient to her. Ares, meanwhile, had been released from his tomb and masterminded from behind the scenes the events leading to World War Two. Wonder Woman, an enchanted member from among the Amazons, rose to hinder his efforts. In recent years, Deimos lured Wonder Woman to Tartarus and tried to poison her with blood from the Hydra, but she defeated him and slew him by severing his head from his body.
Phobos meanwhile created the demoness Decay from the ashes of Medusa to kill Wonder Woman, but she was instead destroyed herself. He later allied with the mortal sorceress Circe who sought to destroy the gods of earth and usurp their godly powers. Circe gave Phobos the power to turn Quetzalcoatl against Superman, but upon realizing they were being manipulated, Quetzalcoatl and Superman joined forces to defeat Phobos and Circe and their allies.
Realizing Phobos was alive, Ares used him to wreak terror on Hercules in Hollywood, California with an earthquake. At the time, Hercules had been involved in acting as himself in a TV series under the name of Kevin Sorbo. Hercules' absences as he saved people certainly rattled producer Rob Tapert and his staff, but Ares and Phobos failed to put an end to Hercules' acting career.
Nyx subsequently restored Deimos to life once more to use him and Phobos as agents for entities calling themselves the Fear Lords, who wanted to spread fear across the universe. She was confronted by Doctor Strange and his allies. Due to Strange's spells, Deimos and Phobos once again reverted to nothing, but Discord captured their life forces and placed them into the bodies of Gotham City criminals known as the Joker and the Scarecrow in order to lead Gotham's criminal element into a modern Cult of Ares. Overcome by the Joker's insanity, Deimos was confronted by Wonder Woman and the Batman, who was briefly possessed by Phobos, but Wonder Woman then joined forces with Ares to stop Discord and remove their life-forces from the Joker and the Batman.
Deimos and Phobos' whereabouts are currently
unknown.
Height: (both) 5' 7"
Weight: (both) 410 lbs.
Eyes: (both) Blue
Hair: (Deimos) Blonde, (Phobos) Black
Strength Level: Deimos and Phobos both possess superhuman strength
enabling them both to lift (press) 25 tons under optimal conditions.
Known Superhuman Powers: Deimos and Phobos possess the conventional physical attributes
of the Olympian gods. Like all Olympians, they are immortal: they have not aged since
reaching adulthood and cannot die by any conventional means. They are immune to all
Earthly diseases and are resistant to conventional injury. If they were somehow
wounded, their godly life force would enable them to recover with superhuman speed. It
would take an injury of such magnitude that it dispersed a major portion of
their bodily molecules to cause them a physical death. Even then, it might be possible for
a god of significant power, such as Zeus, Poseidon and Apollo or for a number of
Olympian gods of equal power working together to revive them. Deimos and Phobos also
possess
superhuman strength and their Olympian metabolism provides them with far greater than
human endurance in all physical activities. (Olympian flesh and bone is about three
times as dense as similar human tissue, contributing to the Olympians' superhuman
strength and weight.)
Deimos and Phobos both have limited mystical powers, but they
are not quite as powerful as gods such as Apollo or Zeus. They can throw mild
lightning bolts, cast spells and teleport at will, even from Earth to Olympus.
Phobos can also stir fear in the minds of his mortal victims.
Abilities: Deimos is a master schemer in masters of deceit and
subterfuge. Phobos is not quite so bright and is often easily manipulated by
Discord.
Weapons/Paraphernalia: Deimos once wore a headdress from the hide of the
Hydra. The serpentine locks of the helmet were living serpents whose fangs held
the venom of the Hydra. It was destroyed by Wonder Woman.
Limitations: In their bodies of Darkforce, Deimos and
Phobos are semi-corporeal entities dependant on fear to exist. Without the fear
of humans to sustain them, they dissipate into nothingness.
Comments: In "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys," actor Joel
Tobeck played both Deimos and Phobos ("Strife").
Clarifications: Deimos is not to be
confused with:
Phobos is not to be confused with:
Last updated: 06/09/06