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In ancient Roman religion and myth, Mars ((ラテン語:Mārs), (:maːrs)) was the god of war and also an agricultural guardian, a combination characteristic of early Rome.〔Mary Beard, J.A. North, and S.R.F. Price, ''Religions of Rome: A History'' (Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 47–48.〕 He was second in importance only to Jupiter and he was the most prominent of the military gods in the religion of the Roman army. Most of his festivals were held in March, the month named for him (Latin ''Martius''), and in October, which began the season for military campaigning and ended the season for farming. Under the influence of Greek culture, Mars was identified with the Greek god Ares,〔''Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia'', The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215.〕 whose myths were reinterpreted in Roman literature and art under the name of Mars. But the character and dignity of Mars differed in fundamental ways from that of his Greek counterpart, who is often treated with contempt and revulsion in Greek literature.〔Kurt A. Raaflaub, ''War and Peace in the Ancient World'' (Blackwell, 2007), p. 15.〕 Mars was a part of the Archaic Triad along with Jupiter and Quirinus, the latter of whom as a guardian of the Roman people had no Greek equivalent. Mars' altar in the Campus Martius, the area of Rome that took its name from him, was supposed to have been dedicated by Numa, the peace-loving semi-legendary second king of Rome. Although the center of Mars' worship was originally located outside the sacred boundary of Rome ''(pomerium)'', Augustus made the god a renewed focus of Roman religion by establishing the Temple of Mars Ultor in his new forum.〔Paul Rehak and John G. Younger, ''Imperium and Cosmos: Augustus and the Northern Campus Martius'' (University of Wisconsin Press, 2006), pp. 11–12.〕 Although Ares was viewed primarily as a destructive and destabilizing force, Mars represented military power as a way to secure peace, and was a father ''(pater)'' of the Roman people.〔Isidore of Seville calls Mars ''Romanae gentis auctorem'', the originator or founder of the Roman people as a ''gens'' (''Etymologiae'' 5.33.5).〕 In the mythic genealogy and founding myths of Rome, Mars was the father of Romulus and Remus with Rhea Silvia. His love affair with Venus symbolically reconciled the two different traditions of Rome's founding; Venus was the divine mother of the hero Aeneas, celebrated as the Trojan refugee who "founded" Rome several generations before Romulus laid out the city walls. The importance of Mars in establishing religious and cultural identity within the Roman Empire is indicated by the vast number of inscriptions identifying him with a local deity, particularly in the Western provinces. ==Birth== Although Ares was the son of Zeus and Hera,〔Hesiod, ''Theogony'' p. 79 in the translation of Norman O. Brown (Bobbs-Merrill, 1953); 921 in the Loeb Classical Library (numbering ); ''Iliad'', 5.890–896.〕 Mars was the son of Juno alone. Jupiter had usurped the mother's function when he gave birth to Minerva directly from his forehead (or mind); to restore the balance, Juno sought the advice of the goddess Flora on how to do the same. Flora obtained a magic flower (Latin ''flos'', plural ''flores'', a masculine word) and tested it on a heifer who became fecund at once. She then plucked a flower ritually using her thumb, touched Juno's belly, and impregnated her. Juno withdrew to Thrace and the shore of Marmara for the birth. Ovid tells this story in the ''Fasti'', his long-form poetic work on the Roman calendar.〔Ovid, ''Fasti'' 5.229–260.〕 It may explain why the Matronalia, a festival celebrated by married women in honor of Juno as a goddess of childbirth, occurred on the first day of Mars' month, which is also marked on a calendar from late antiquity as the birthday of Mars. In the earliest Roman calendar, March was the first month, and the god would have been born with the new year.〔William Warde Fowler, ''The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic'' (London, 1908), p. 35f., discusses this interpretation in order to question it.〕 Ovid is the only source for the story. He may be presenting a literary myth of his own invention, or an otherwise unknown archaic Italic tradition; either way, in choosing to include the story, he emphasizes that Mars was connected to plant life and was not alienated from female nurture.〔Carole E. Newlands, ''Playing with Time: Ovid and the Fasti'' (Cornell University Press, 1995), pp. 105–106.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mars (mythology)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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