Homer Wrote A Tortoise And Hare Fable Before Aesop

By the 5th century BCE, a collection of fables featuring a cast of personified animals with moral tales to tell became associated with a legendary figure called Aesop. One of the few pieces of information that the ancients could agree upon about Aesop was that the storyteller likely lived in the 6th century BCE and that he supposedly was born in some Greek-associated region. Because of Aesop’s vague or unknown background, he is widely regarded as a semi-legendary, or possibly purely-mythical, figure. Whatever the case, somebody (or some people) wrote the timeless stories. These scattered fables, like the collected works attributed to so many of the ancient sages in East Asia, were probably compiled by students and fans, eventually resulting in a collection of Aesop’s Fables often called the Aesopica.

Of Aesop’s many fables, the tale of the hare and the tortoise is one of the most popular. In the story, a slow tortoise challenges a speedy hare to a foot race. The hare, confident in the disparity of quickness between the two animals, eagerly accepted the challenge. After the race began, the tortoise fell so far behind in the race that the hare decided to take a nap on the side of the path. The clever tortoise, however, calmly kept crawling along the race path, eventually surpassing the sleeping hare to win the race.

Interestingly enough, Homer wrote a similar story centuries before Aesop. Homer’s tale, however, did not feature animals, but instead pitted the lame-legged god, Hephaestus, against the spry and lusty god, Ares. The story in question takes place in book VIII of The Odyssey, beginning around line 260.

As the story goes, Odysseus met an incredibly talented bard named Demodocus in the blessed community of Phaeacia. While Odysseus was staying in the region, Demodocus took up a lyre and began to perform a song about an embarrassing scandal that occurred at the home of the gods on Mount Olympus. This was Demodocus’ story:

According to the bard, Hephaestus, the talented craftsman of the Greek gods, won Aphrodite’s hand in marriage after producing a series of wondrous presents. These gifts, however, were sent to Zeus, not Aphrodite, and the resulting union was an arranged marriage. Consequently, Aphrodite did not return Hephaestus’ affection and was predisposed to extramarital affairs, especially with handsome Ares, the god of war.

Unfortunately for Aphrodite and Ares, one of the ablest informants in the Greek pantheon, the sun god Helios, was a close friend of Hephaestus. Helios spotted the two lovers fooling around in broad daylight while he was doing his daily rounds. Helios immediately sent this information to Hephaestus, who, upon receiving the news, stormed off to his workshop with revenge on his mind.

Channeling his rage and sense of betrayal, Hephaestus constructed a metallic masterpiece of a net. It was made of chains so fine that they could not be easily seen by the naked eye, while also being strong enough that even the gods could not pull the links apart. With this net in hand, Hephaestus returned to his home and marched into his bedroom. There, he threw the net around the feet of the bed, and also hung other sections to the rafters. When the trap was set, the invisible spider web of chains weaved all around the bed, just waiting for some unsuspecting prey to enter the room.

With his preparations done, Hephaestus loudly announced to his wife and neighbors that he was leaving on an impromptu vacation to Lemnos. Hephaestus, however, did not go very far. Instead, he found a hiding spot and contacted Helios to keep an eye on his house.

Ares, for his part, was completely fooled by Hephaestus’ sudden departure from town. When he could no longer see Hephaestus, the god of war quickly rushed over to Hephaestus’ house, where he eagerly found his beloved Aphrodite. Within moments of their clandestine encounter, the two flushed lovebirds inevitably fluttered over to the bedroom. Yet, as soon as they lay down on the bed, their hearts, which had been beating with longing and anticipation, suddenly began to thump with a cadence of terror. As soon as they hit the bed—in whatever state of dress they were in—the trap was triggered and the net caught its prey. Like the tortoise from Aesop’s fable, Hephaestus caught his rival sleeping.

By now, Helios had already informed Hephaestus that Ares was in the house. Accordingly, the craftsman of the gods returned home where he triumphantly found his wife and her lover entangled in his net, which was so tight that the two inside where stuck exactly as they were the moment the net fell. After seeing that his trap had worked, Hephaestus sent word to all of the gods, calling them forth to witness the sad creatures he had caught in his net. The goddesses, who had an inkling of what they would find, decided not to go to Hephaestus’ house. Zeus and Hades also interestingly ignored the craftsman’s call. Yet, many other important male gods curiously wandered over to the house to see why Hephaestus was shouting.

Poseidon, Apollo and Hermes were mentioned by name as having entered the home to see the spectacle inside. The gods in attendance, all except Poseidon, immediately began laughing at the chained lovers on the bed and started cracking jokes about the situation. Between these eruptions of laughter, one of the observers commented:

“The tortoise catches up the hare. See how our

slow-moving Hephaestus has caught Ares, though no god on

Olympus can run as fast. Hephaestus may be lame, but he has

won the day by his cunning.”

(The Odyssey, Book VIII, approximately line 330)

After the other gods had made their jokes, the unimpressed Poseidon finally convinced Hephaestus to release the captives. After the net was undone, the lovers fled Mount Olympus in disgrace, with Ares huffing and puffing off to Thrace and Aphrodite going into self-exile at Cyprus, where the Graces tried to comfort the distressed goddess with gifts of new clothing and oils.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan, painted by Alexandre Charles Guillemot (1786 - 1831), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• The Odyssey (Book 8) by Homer, translated by E. V. Rieu and edited by D. C. H. Rieu. New York: Penguin Classics, 2009. 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aesop 
• https://www.biography.com/people/aesop-9176935 
• https://www.britannica.com/topic/Aphrodite-Greek-mythology  

Ares, The Underwhelming God Of War

(The Combat of Ares and Athena (cropped), by Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons)

The ancient Greek god of war, Ares, remains one of the most famous of the old Olympian gods. With an impressive title like ‘god of war,’ Ares definitely had the benefit of the brute, devilish appeal of strength and power to ensure his longevity. The violent character of Ares (or Romanized Mars) has found a home in television, cinema, novels and video games, where people enjoy observing the god of war raise all sorts of chaos and bloodshed. Yet, the ironic reality of Ares is that despite his modern depiction as the ultimate tough-guy, the Ares of Greek myth was a bit of a pushover compared to the other Olympian gods.

The god of war should be given his due before his modern image is besmirched—here are some of Ares’ undeniable victories from myth. For one, Ares was the one who subdued Sisyphos, a man who had previously overwhelmed a god of death named Thanatos. Another of his exploits occurred after Ares’ agent/offspring—the serpent Dracon—was slaughtered by Cadmus of Thebes. In response, Ares turned Cadmus, as well as his wife, into serpents. In another story, Ares’ lover, Aphrodite, had an affair with a man named Adonis. In a jealous rage, Ares turned into a boar and murdered the unfortunate mortal—which, I suppose, is a victory of sorts for Ares. One more memorable achievement of Ares was his revenge killing of Hallirhothios, a son of the ocean god, Poseidon. Hallirhothios had raped one of Ares’ daughters, and when the god of war heard about this crime, he personally hunted down and slaughtered the rapist. Poseidon put Ares on trial for murder, but the god of war was acquitted.

Now that the achievements of Ares have been discussed, let’s look at some of the god of war’s numerous failures and embarrassments. As mentioned earlier, Ares and Aphrodite were lovers, but there was a problem—in common mythology, Aphrodite was married to the smith god, Hephaestus. In one story, Hephaestus snared his unfaithful wife and the god of war in a golden net and allowed all of the gods of Olympus to ridicule the pair.

That embarrassment was for love, but Ares had multiple defeats in his area of expertise—war and battle. Ares was one of multiple gods to be injured by Heracles (or Hercules), the son of Zeus. Yet, because so many other gods were harmed by Heracles (including Hera and Hades), it is not fair to give this point too much credence. During the Trojan War, however, Ares was constantly defeated by the military prowess of Athena, and was even knocked off his feet in a one-on-one duel with her. Yet, the most humiliating story has to be Ares’ fight against the two virtually indestructible giants, Otus and Ephialtes—known as the Aloadai. When Ares faced the giants, he was simply scooped up and stuffed into a bronze jar. The goddess Artemis succeeded where Ares had failed by successfully tricking the giants into killing each other. Even after the death of the Aloadai, Ares remained imprisoned. Hermes finally saved the pitiful god of war after he had spent around 13 months trapped in his bronze jar prison.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Sources:

• The Iliad by Homer, translated by E. V. Rieu and revised by Peter Jones. New York: Penguin Classics, 2014.  
• http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Ares.html 
• https://greekgodsandgoddesses.net/gods/ares/  
• http://www.greekmythology.com/Olympians/Aris/aris.html 
• http://www.theoi.com/Gigante/GigantesAloadai.html  
• http://www.paleothea.com/Myths/OtusEphialtes.html

Ares, The Greek God of War, Was Trapped In A Bronze Jar For 13 Months

(So-called “Ludovisi Ares”. Pentelic marble, Roman copy after a Greek original from ca. 320 BC. Some restorations in Cararra marble by Gianlorenzo Bernini, 1622, photographed by Marie-Lan Nguyen, via Creative Commons 2.5 (CC2.5))

Though Ares, according to Greek mythology, was the god of war, aggression, rage and all other chaotic emotions that come from battle and bloodlust, he suffered a very embarrassing incident. This ancient mythological tough-guy was overwhelmed and stuffed in a bronze jar by two young brothers (possibly only nine-year-olds) named Otus and Ephialtes.

To be fair, these were no ordinary brothers, and they were far from human. Otus and Ephialtes were immensely powerful giants born to Poseidon and Iphimedeia. By ‘immensely powerful,’ I mean they were virtually indestructible—Hercules (strong enough to harm and embarrass multiple gods) could not place a scratch on the giant brothers and even Zeus’ feared lightning bolts had no effect.

As the story goes, Otus and Ephialtes plotted to march against Olympus and usurp power from Zeus and the gods. Along with their longing for world dominance, Otus lusted after the goddess, Artemis, and Ephialtes felt the same emotion for Zeus’ wife, Hera. Therefore, when they were not trying to break into Olympus, the giant brothers would call out for the goddesses they desired.

Ares, the god of war, charged out of Olympus to defeat the threat to the gods, but was quickly humbled by the giants. Otus and Ephialtes scooped up Ares, as if he were nothing, wrapped him in chains, and stuffed him in a bronze jar. Meanwhile, Artemis answered the call of the giants and appeared before them. After the brothers saw her, she turned into a white doe (other stories claim Apollo sent the doe), and ran in-between the two giants. The brothers, trying to incapacitate or kill Artemis, simultaneously threw spears at the doe, but missed—instead of hitting the doe, they skewered each other. Though Otus and Ephialtes were invulnerable to the attacks of gods and man, they proved to be their own weakness, because they died from their wounds.

Ares, whose only achievement during the giant brothers’ reign of terror was to be captured and imprisoned in a jar, remained in his bronze prison for thirteen months. The god of war was nearing his last breaths when Hermes (one of the most under-appreciated and underestimated of the gods) was informed of Ares’ predicament. Hermes quickly found, and saved, Ares and brought the god of war back to Olympus, where Artemis was being celebrated for her wit and valor. Ares, on the other hand, only gained from the ordeal a tale he wished everyone would forget.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Sources:

• The Iliad (Book 5, approximately line 390) by Homer, translated by E. V. Rieu and edited by Peter Jones. New York: Penguin Classics, 2014. 
• http://www.theoi.com/Gigante/GigantesAloadai.html 
• http://www.paleothea.com/Myths/OtusEphialtes.html