Mars

Also known as: Mavors · Family: divine · Role: god · First appears: Fable 30

Mars, also known as Mavors, is a divine god. In fable 30, he is named as the father of Dercyllus, while Euripides says Mars placed a dragon to guard a spot and a neighboring stream. In fable 32, Mars and Venus are named as the father-in-law and mother-in-law of Cadmus.

In fable 39, Mars is involved with Venus, and Vulcan traps them together in invisible chains, exposing them to the gods. Later, fable 44 names Harmonia as the daughter of Mars and Venus; fable 62 says Mars and Minerva sent something to Æetes; fable 73 connects Mars with an intrigue involving Althæa; and in fable 102, Apollo reveals Mars’s intrigues with Venus.

Relationship record

Life events

Vulcan traps Mars and Venus together in invisible chains and exposes them to the gods.(Fable39)
- With: Vulcan Venus
- “When the wife and the gallant come into the same bed, being both caught through the artifice of the husband, and chains prepared by this new contrivance, they are held fast in the very midst of their embraces.”

Fable 30

child: Dercyllus (Dercyllus is identified as Mars's son.) “Other writers say that it was a son of Mars, Dercyllus by name”
with Euripides (Euripides attributes the dragon's placement to Mars.) “Euripides says, that the dragon had been set there by Mars to watch the spot and the neighboring stream.”

Fable 32

with Cadmus (Mars is described as Cadmus's father-in-law.) “Both Mars and Venus[14] had become thy father-in-law and mother-in-law”

Fable 39

with Venus (adulterous affair) “This God is supposed to have been the first to see the adultery of Venus with Mars”
courtship with Venus “This God is supposed to have been the first to see the adultery of Venus with Mars;”

Fable 44

child: Harmonia “Hermione, or Harmonia, the wife of Cadmus, was the daughter of Mars and Venus.”

Fable 62

with Æetes (Mars sent dragon's teeth to Æetes.) “which Mars and Minerva had sent to Æetes”

Fable 73

with Althæa (The footnote reports an intrigue.) “Mars was engaged in an intrigue with Althæa”

Fable 102

with Apollo (Apollo exposed Mars's intrigue with Venus.) “The Sun, or Apollo, the father of Circe, as the Poet has already related in his fourth Book, betrayed the intrigues of Mars with Venus.”
with Venus (The footnote refers to an intrigue between Mars and Venus.) “The Sun, or Apollo, the father of Circe, as the Poet has already related in his fourth Book, betrayed the intrigues of Mars with Venus.”

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Extracted from the original text of The Metamorphoses of Ovid. Made with Rho MD.