ENYALIOS ARES

Enyalios Ares the terrible god (Homer, Iliad, 17, 211), always engaged in duels, fights and wars,  is the inspirer of this work by italian painter Vanessa Foschi.

Ares Enyalios, greek god of bellicose fury, oil on canvas painting by Vanessa Foschi from Morciano, artist born in Rimini, Italy

Like red flame of voracious fire or flooding river that everything sweeps away, Ares, god of war, is burning, rushing, overwhelming  and fearless.

Athena (Homer, Iliad, V) calls him bloody subverter of walls.

As  foaming steed the deity is fiery .

The divinity personifies the explosive fighting spirit. The bravest ancient warriors, aetolian Tydeus, Diomedes’s father,  amongst them,  bore him in their heart (Euripides, Phoenicians, 134).

GOD OF HEAVENLY FIRE

According to John the Lydian (Liber de mensibus, II pag. 25), as Hephaestus is the embodiment of earth’s fire so Ares incarnates the heavenly one. Ethereal, generative fire that reaches all perceptible nature. For this reason myths pair Aphrodite off sometimes with Hephaestus sometimes with Ares, because through these two principles everything springs up.

SON OF ZEUS AND HERA

In the painting, Ares  son of Hera and Zeus (the shining ones, as indicates the etymology) is accompanied with little Dionysos/Bacchus, ripped at birth from the fire of the paternal thunderbolt. Horatius (Carmina, II, 19, vv. 25- 28) declares that Dionysos, even though more suitable for dances and fooling around, is the pivot that stands between peace and war. The god is sitting on a tiger.

Painted by Vanessa Foschi, diameter cm. 150. Technique oil on canvas. Written by Vanessa Foschi, June /July 2019. All rights reserved.

For more informations please contact the following e-mail: vanessa.foschi@yahoo.it

Opunzia in fiore dipinta da Vanessa Foschi nel quadro dedicato al dio Ares Enialio (Enyalios) figlio di Zeus ed Era

Torso di Ares. dio greco della furia guerresca e uva moscatello, dipinto di Vanessa Foschi artista di Morciano – Ἐνυάλιος και Διονύσος