Mythology & Religion Power Ranking TOP100
This article introduces Rank 84: Ares from the “Mythology & Religion Power Ranking TOP100”, which ranks the gods, monsters, and heroes of world mythology, religion, and legend in order of strength.
If you want to see the full TOP100 list and the criteria behind the rankings, check out the overview article below.
Rank 84: Ares (Greek Mythology)
Overview
Ares (also written Arēs, etc.) is the god of war in Greek mythology and one of the twelve Olympians. He is the son of Zeus and Hera and is known as the deity of warfare and violence.
However, Ares is not depicted favorably in Greek mythology — he is often portrayed as a symbol of disorderly and destructive war. In fact, he is so barbaric and short-sighted that the other gods treat him as an outcast.
In the myths, he possesses the power to incite the madness of battle and intensify warfare, along with the standard Olympian traits of gigantic form and immortality.
Despite being the war god, he has a surprisingly high number of defeat episodes in the myths: he lost to Athena, he lost to the human hero Diomedes, he was beaten by the demigod Hercules, and he was captured by the giant Aloadae and imprisoned in a jar.
He almost certainly possesses powerful enough force to match all of these opponents if he fights seriously, but the problem is that he apparently lacks the intelligence to use it effectively.
In fact, for an Olympian and war god, his mythological track record is so dismally poor that one genuinely questions whether he deserves the title.
That said, regarding Diomedes — a spear wound from a human isn’t going to kill an immortal divine being like Ares. If Ares had fought seriously, growing to giant size and hurling mountains, he could have turned the tables on Diomedes.
Then again, a god having to fight seriously against a human already feels like a loss in itself.
And when you compare Apollo — who blocked all of Diomedes’ attacks without difficulty — to Ares, Ares’ inadequacy really stands out.
Why This Ranking
In terms of divine rank and raw physical ability alone, he is said to hold considerably high specs even among the gods. Deciding how to treat him in this ranking was a bit of a dilemma — but given that even with high specs he repeatedly fell behind against human heroes, I concluded he would probably lose to most gods of comparable rank, and placed him at this position.
Of course, as a deity he is immortal, so he was almost certainly never in danger of being killed by someone like Diomedes. And the fact that he fought the giants on equal or better terms in the Gigantomachy confirms that his true power absolutely surpasses any hero. Still, given that he got stabbed by a hero and ran away crying to his father Zeus — one of the most pathetically undignified episodes in all of mythology — I had no choice but to rate him as the weakest war god.
About the Book
I wrote a book that compiles this entire ranking! The reasoning behind each placement is grounded in the actual lore and episodes from each mythology, so I think it makes for a fairly convincing read.
The book also contains many columns and extras not published on this blog, so if you are interested, please check it out below.
📚 Series: Mythology Power Ranking (Individual Characters) (17/100)
