In all honesty, not my favourite god. I prefer less... well, less martial divinities, you know?
Mars, god of war,
Mars, god of battle,
Grant to me skill with weapons,
So that my foes may call me best.
Grant to me strength of arms,
So that I may fight without rest.
Grant to me a soldier's valour,
So that I may face the battle with zest.
Mars, god of battle,
Mars, god of war,
In return for the tools to win glory,
I give to you the product of my victory.
Mars, deus belli,
Mars, deus pugni,
Facultatem cum telis dona,
Sic adversarios calcem.
Armipotentiam dona,
Sic ad finem pugnem.
Valorem militis dona,
Sic ab pugnis nonhorrem.
Mars, deus pugni,
Mars, deus belli,
In remuneratione ob dona militara,
tributum ab pugna dono.
"In all honesty, not my favourite god. I prefer less... well, less martial divinities, you know?"
ReplyDeleteI think I understand where you're coming from. But I believe there are reasons for the existence of martial deities. And not all of the reason are immaturity, not noble and sadism. May be also related to the fact that Mars isn't just a martial deity, but an agricultural one as well.
Oh, there certainly are good reasons, yes. War is sometimes necessary; regimes like the Nazis or the Confederate States don’t care enough about ethics to accept a peaceful solution (else they wouldn’t be slaughtering/enslaving masses of people). And there have been plenty of occasions throughout history where force has been necessary for the people of a nation to remove a tyrant from power before another nation did it for them. On the other hand, there are plenty of people who don’t bother even looking for a peaceful or less troublesome solution before trying the brute force one—generally to their own detriment, in the end. I just don’t like primarily martial deities like Mars because they tend to emphasise the glory of war and death in battle, and diminish the blood and agony and more unpleasant aspects of warfare.
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