Ares, in Greek myth, the only son of Zeus and his wife Hera, the god of war or, rather, of warlike frenzy. He is of no great importance in mythology, although he is one of the twelve Olympian gods, and plays no very glorious part in the stories in which he appears. He is a stirrer of strife, unchivalrous, and does not always have the advantage in encounters with mortals; nor does he ever develop into a god with a moral function, like Zeus or Apollo. He is frequently associated with the goddess Aphrodite, wife of Hephaestus, and she bore him Harmonia. Their amorous intrigue was the subject of a tale told at the Phacacian court by the bard Demodocus in Homer's Odyssey. The Romans identified him with Mars, a god of greater dignity and importance.