Ares classic statue standing with his spear and shield

Ares, the Greek god of war, was a more conflicted Olympian than his Roman counterpart Mars. Homer's Iliad describes him as bloodthirsty and even cowardly, hated by his father Zeus for his love of strife; yet in the cult sites of Thebes and Sparta he was honoured as the patron of disciplined courage. The statue type of Ares standing with spear and shield reaches back to the great fifth-century bronzes of warrior gods — figures of physical authority in which the readiness for battle has not yet become battle itself.