As the significance of this
reverse type was unfamiliar to me, I add this account for those that share my ignorance:
The mythical and cultic
binding of Ares has long evoked interest and commentary. Most scholars seek to explain these stories and practices by Ares' supposedly "dishonored" status, and both ancients and moderns have counted Ares among the "Forces of Evil" from which poleis protected themselves by a magical, prophylactic
binding of
his statue. But this view fails to place Ares'
binding within the larger phenomenon of bound cult
statues and do not account for the surprisingly complex image of the god in epic and tragedy. A brief exposition of generally neglected evidence will establish that cult
statues, including Ares', were not chained to incapacitate their power, but to ensure their continued presence as protective powers. Moreover, for Ares in particular, literary and epigraphic evidence suggests that he was bound to the city as the avenging protector of the city's land and agent of Zeus' daughter Dike.
The
binding of Ares' cult images is not an isolated phenomenon. Several ancient authorities, clearly testify that the images of the gods were bound in an effort keep them tied to their cities. The fifth century sources on this point speak with one voice. Their consistent reference to the
binding of "Daidalian" sculptures indicates a practice considered ancient even in the fifth century B.C., and the many mythical bindings of various deities, including
Zeus, shows such rituals to be extremely archaic indeed. While it is true that liminal and potentially troublesome deities like Aphrodite,
Artemis, and
Dionysos account for the lion's share of the explicit evidence for bound cult
statues, we should remember that the power of every Greek god was a double-edged sword.
Apollo could be the bearer or averter of disease. Demeter could either insure the
fertility of crops or drive humans into a frenzy of pre-agricultural cannibalism. The cult of Ares, I would argue, was no different in this respect.
The complex rationales for Ares'
binding appear most clearly in two inscriptions from southern
Asia Minor, one from Pamphylian Syedra, and another example from
Iconium. In both cases, an oracle bade the cities to create a statue group depicting Ares bound before
Hermes and Dike. While the position of Ares as suppliant before an image of Justice could imply a malevolent and hostile relationship between Ares and the city, a closer reading of the
inscription tends to undermine this reading. The relationship of Ares and Dike
had earlier received considerable elaboration by none other than Aeschylus in
his Septem and Oresteia. In these four plays, Ares is constantly and consistently depicted as the trä
ger of cosmic, retributive justice. It is in this capacity that Ares appears alongside
Zeus and
Athena at the heart of the Athenian Ephebic oath, and similar concerns likely informed Ares'
binding at Syedra and
Iconium. Ares was bound and placed before Dike so that
his violent and retributive energies would not harm the polis. Far from diminishing the god's power, cities sought to focus Ares' potentially destructive energies outward by
binding his image to the land and subjecting him to Dike. This is the Ares found alongside
Athena on the
Shield of
Achilles and invoked in the Hymn to Ares as "ally of Themis."
