MarsANCIENT_Ludovisi

Ludovisi Mars, late Classical or early Hellenistic (on a model from the second half of the 5th Century BC), Rome, Museo Nazionale Romano, Palazzo Altemps.

A youthful Mars sits at repose, offering in his left hand the hilt of his sword. A Cupid plays in and around his feet. Consistent with Lucretius 1.29-40 and Ovid Ars 2.564 — desire has transformed him from "aweful chieftain" into "lover".

The Roman god Mars is a complex figure — archaically an agrarian deity with enough appeal to be wedded to Venus and enough influence to have sired with Ilia/Rhea Silvia the founder of Rome, i.e. Romulus and Remus. This depiction is a far cry from the blood-lusty Ares portrayed in Homer's Iliad and, thus, a

The inset within the photo to the right is derived from L. Corazzari's engraving after Piranesi (1783) of the Luvdovisi Mars.