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Deimos (deity)

InGreek mythology, Deimos /ˈdaɪmɒs/ (Ancient Greek: Δεῖμος, lit. 'fear'^[1] pronounced [dêːmos]) is the personification of fear.^[2] 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[edit]

InHesiod's Theogony, Deimos is the son of Ares and Cytherea (Aphrodite), and the sibling of Phobos and Harmonia.^[3] According to the Greek antiquarian Semus of Delos, Deimos is the father of the monster Scylla.^[4]

Mythology[edit]

Deimos mainly appears in an assistant role to his father, who causes disorder in armies.^{[citation needed]} In the Iliad, he accompanied his father, Ares, into battle with the Goddess of Discord, Eris, and his brother Phobos (fear).^[5] In the Shield of Herakles, Phobos and Deimos accompany Ares into battle and remove him from the field once Herakles injures him.^[6] The poet Antimachus, in a misrepresentation of Homer's account, portrays Deimos and Phobos as the horses of Ares.^[7]InNonnus' Dionysiaca, Zeus arms Phobos with lightning and Deimos with thunder to frighten Typhon.^[8] Later in the work, Phobos and Deimos act as Ares' charioteers to battle Dionysus during his war against the Indians.^[9]

Namesake[edit]

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.^[10]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

• Beekes, Robert S. P., Etymological Dictionary of Greek, 2 vols, Leiden, Brill, 2009. ISBN 978-90-04-17418-4.
• Brill’s New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. Antiquity, Volume 4, Cyr-Epy, editors: Hubert Cancik, Helmuth Schneider, Brill, 2004. ISBN 978-90-04-12267-3. Online version at Brill.
• Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: ISBN 978-0-8018-5360-9 (Vol. 1), ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3 (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. ISBN 978-0674995796. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Matthews, V. J., Antimachus of Colophon, Brill, 1995. ISBN 978-90-04-10468-6. Online version at Brill.