Deimos (deity)

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Deimos
Personification of terror
AbodeMount Olympus
Personal information
ParentsAres and Aphrodite
SiblingsErotes, Phobos, Phlegyas, Harmonia, Enyalios, Thrax, Oenomaus, and Amazons
Equivalents
Roman equivalentFormido or Metus

Deimos /ˈdmɒs/ (Ancient Greek: Δεῖμος, pronounced [dêːmos], meaning “dread”) is the personal god of dread and terror in Greek mythology. He was a son of Ares and Aphrodite, and the twin brother of Phobos. Deimos served to represent the feelings of dread and terror that befell those before a battle, while Phobos personified feelings of fear and panic in the midst of battle.

The god’s Roman equivalent was Formido or Metus.

Mythology[]

Deimos was the son of Ares and Aphrodite.[1] He mainly appears in an assistant role to his father who causes disorder in armies.[2] In the Iliad, he accompanied his father, Ares, into battle along with the Goddess of Discord Eris and his twin brother Phobos (fear).[3] In Shield of Herakles, Phobos and Deimos accompany Ares into battle and remove him from the field once he is injured by Herakles.[4] In Nonnus' Dionysiaca, Zeus arms Phobos with lightning and Deimos with thunder to frighten Typhon.[5] Later in the work, Phobos and Deimos act as Ares' charioteers to battle Dionysus during his war against the Indians.[6]

On the modern monument to the battle of Thermopylae, as well as the one at the city of Sparta, Leonidas' shield has a representation of Deimos.

Namesake[]

In 1877, the American astronomer Asaph Hall discovered the two satellites of the planet Mars. Hall named the two moons Phobos and Deimos. Deimos is the smaller of the two satellites.[7]

Notes[]

  1. ^ Hesiod, Theogony, 933
  2. ^ "DEIMOS & PHOBOS - Greek Gods of Fear, Panic & Terror (Roman Metus, Pavor)". www.theoi.com. Retrieved 2021-08-02.
  3. ^ Homer, Iliad, 4.436
  4. ^ Hesiod, Shield of Heracles 460
  5. ^ Nonnus, Dionysiaca, 2.414
  6. ^ Nonnus, Dionysiaca, 29.364
  7. ^ Hall, A (1878). "Names of the Satellites of Mars". Astronomische Nachrichten. 92: 47–48.

References[]

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