Deimos (deity)
Deimos | |
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Personification of terror | |
Abode | Mount Olympus |
Personal information | |
Parents | Ares and Aphrodite |
Siblings | Erotes, Phobos, Phlegyas, Harmonia, Enyalios, Thrax, Oenomaus, and Amazons |
Equivalents | |
Roman equivalent | Formido or Metus |
Greek mythology |
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Heroes and heroism |
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Deimos /ˈdaɪmɒs/ (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[]
- ^ Hesiod, Theogony, 933
- ^ "DEIMOS & PHOBOS - Greek Gods of Fear, Panic & Terror (Roman Metus, Pavor)". www.theoi.com. Retrieved 2021-08-02.
- ^ Homer, Iliad, 4.436
- ^ Hesiod, Shield of Heracles 460
- ^ Nonnus, Dionysiaca, 2.414
- ^ Nonnus, Dionysiaca, 29.364
- ^ Hall, A (1878). "Names of the Satellites of Mars". Astronomische Nachrichten. 92: 47–48.
References[]
- Hesiod, Shield of Heracles from The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA.,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
- Hesiod, Theogony from The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA.,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
- Homer, The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. ISBN 978-0674995796. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Homer, Homeri Opera in five volumes. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 1920. ISBN 978-0198145318. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Greek war deities
- Greek gods
- War gods
- Children of Aphrodite
- Children of Ares
- Personifications in Greek mythology
- Characters in Greek mythology