In support of Mars

[PhilusEstilius]

I have read about the Mythological story of the Gigantes however I have always been interested to know just why the Romans often depict the God Mars being supported by one of these Gigantes.
Here are pictures of a horse chamfron I made some time ago showing just what I refer to, I would like to know if anyone has any information on this subject.
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[D B Campbell]

I have always been interested to know just why the Romans often depict the God Mars being supported by one of these Gigantes.

Or is he trampling him down?

[PhilusEstilius]

Duncan.

That is an idea I suppose however it would appear that as well as the head the left hand also supports the other foot of Mars, and there is also yet another Straubing Chamfron that shows more clearly that Mars is being supported in fact his Shield is being held up for him.
This other chamfron is one that I did not get around to reproducing and as mentioned does show it is a support situation.
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[LVCIAN FIDELIS]

Not the most reliable source, but always a good place to start... Wikipedia has this to say in the entry for Ares (Mars).

Ares and the giants

In one archaic myth related only in the Iliad by the goddess Dione to her daughter Aphrodite, two chthonic giants, the Aloadae, named Otus and Ephialtes, threw Ares into chains and put him in a bronze urn, where he remained for thirteen months, a lunar year. "And that would have been the end of Ares and his appetite for war, if the beautiful Eriboea, the young giants' stepmother, had not told Hermes what they had done," she related.[47] "In this one suspects a festival of licence which is unleashed in the thirteenth month."[48]

Ares remained screaming and howling in the urn until Hermes rescued him and Artemis tricked the Aloadae into slaying each other. In Nonnus' Dionysiaca[49] Ares also killed Ekhidnades, the giant son of Echidna and a great enemy of the gods; it is not clear whether the nameless Ekhidnades ("of Echidna's lineage") was entirely Nonnus' invention or not.

[Lyceum]

I think there's something in Naevius about giants in this context? Can't recall, Republican poetry is mental anyway.

[PhilusEstilius]

Phil.

The Aloadae named Otus and Ephialtes are the wrong giants concerning the Legend of the Gigantes who were a different group of Grotesque giants who had no legs and their bodies terminated as snakes.

The Gigantes were the sons of Gaia (the earth) and were born from the drops of blood that fell on her when Cronos hacked off the genitals of his father Uranus.
Indeed it is strange how Ephialtes was one of the Gigantes but was slain by Apollo and Heracles where Apollo put an arrow in his left eye and Heracles put one into his right eye.

[LVCIAN FIDELIS]

Brian,

Thank you for the correction.

The only other thing I can think of then is that the figure is Hercules, not Mars. As he is often depicted Bearded posing heroically naked with Corinthian helm and weapon defeating a mythical beast.

But im not much of an art scholar

[PhilusEstilius]

Phil.

It is most definately Mars for he is the god who displays a spear and shield and wears a Corinthian helmet whereas Hercules would have his club and lion skin, in fact the second picture of the other chamfron I have shown does also show that it is Mars.

[PhilusEstilius]

Phil.

I have discovered from information about the Gigantes that the Gigantomachy is often confused with the Titanomachy, the war of the Titans with the Olympian gods, and also with the attempt on Olympus made by the gigantic Aloadae, Otus and Ephialtes.

[markusaurelius]

excellent reproduction by the way

[PhilusEstilius]

Thank you Markus and as you can see from the background field on that piece there was a tremendous amount of punctim dots that took over two days of solid punching to do.

I do have to admit that I got it wrong with the pole strap for this is not how these type of chamfrons were fitted to a horse.
Anyway drifting off topic a bit here as the question is why the Romans used the Gigante to support their Mars figure.

[LVCIAN FIDELIS]

Phil.

I have discovered from information about the Gigantes that the Gigantomachy is often confused with the Titanomachy, the war of the Titans with the Olympian gods, and also with the attempt on Olympus made by the gigantic Aloadae, Otus and Ephialtes.

So it is possible then that the Roman piece is a confusion of the 3 Greek stories. Interesting. Thank you for validating.

[PhilusEstilius]

Phil.

It is a bit confusing with these Greek legends for we learn in one story that a certain person was killed by so and so, but then in another situation we hear a totally different version of a story where they died from such and such.