Deimos (deity)

In Greek mythology, Deimos Template:IPAc-en (Template:Langx<ref>Beekes, s.v. δεῖμα, pp. 309–10.</ref> Template:IPA) is the personification of fear.<ref>Brill's New Pauly, s.v. Deimos.</ref> He is the son of Ares and Aphrodite, and the 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.

Genealogy

In Hesiod's Theogony, Deimos is the son of Ares and Cytherea (Aphrodite), and the sibling of Phobos and Harmonia.<ref>Gantz, p. 80; Hesiod, Theogony, 933.</ref> According to the Greek antiquarian Semus of Delos, Deimos is the father of the monster Scylla.<ref>Brill's New Pauly, s.v. Deimos; FGrHist 396 F22.</ref>

Mythology

Deimos mainly appears in an assistant role to his father, who causes disorder in armies.Template:Cn In the Iliad, he accompanied his father, Ares, into battle with the Goddess of Discord, Eris, and his brother Phobos (fear).<ref>Homer, Iliad, 4.436</ref> In the Shield of Herakles, Phobos and Deimos accompany Ares into battle and remove him from the field once Herakles injures him.<ref>Hesiod, Shield of Heracles 460</ref> The poet Antimachus, in a misrepresentation of Homer's account, portrays Deimos and Phobos as the horses of Ares.<ref>Matthews, p. 150.</ref> In Nonnus' Dionysiaca, Zeus arms Phobos with lightning and Deimos with thunder to frighten Typhon.<ref>Nonnus, Dionysiaca, 2.414</ref> Later in the work, Phobos and Deimos act as Ares' charioteers to battle Dionysus during his war against the Indians.<ref>Nonnus, Dionysiaca, 29.364</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

References

• Beekes, Robert S. P., Etymological Dictionary of Greek, 2 vols, Leiden, Brill, 2009. Template:ISBN.
• Brill’s New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. Antiquity, Volume 4, Cyr-Epy, editors: Hubert Cancik, Helmuth Schneider, Brill, 2004. Template:ISBN. Online version at Brill.
• Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: Template:ISBN (Vol. 1), Template:ISBN (Vol. 2).
• 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. Template:ISBN. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Matthews, V. J., Antimachus of Colophon, Brill, 1995. Template:ISBN. Online version at Brill.