Ares (mythology)

Ares, later known as Mars, was a figure from Greek mythology. By one account, he was one of the Olympians, an advanced race from the planet Olympus. On Zeus's orders, he helped Apollo drag Prometheus to a cell and confine him there. (COMIC: The Life Bringer!) By another account, Ares and his fellow gods were native to Greek Space, a dimension composed of metaphor. He was a brother of Eris, and sometimes also the father of Eros. Ares fell in love with another of his own sisters, Aphrodite, causing chaos throughout Greek Space; Iris Wildthyme was able to broker a treaty between them once she realised that "the 'being defeated and enslaved' bit" was the aspect of war that Ares liked best. (PROSE: Wandering Stars) She later encountered him again in a tavern on Mars, where he believed that he had been trapped by the Roman god Mars; however, Ares later realised that he was Mars and had just gotten confused. (PROSE: The Calamari-Men of Mare Cimmerium)

Appearance
When the Fourth Doctor encountered Ares on Olympus, he was a heavy-set shirtless man wearing a blue bandana. (COMIC: The Life Bringer!) When Iris Wildthyme encountered Ares in Greek Space, he was short, scrawny and ruddy-featured, and looked to be only fifteen years old. (PROSE: Wandering Stars) When she encountered him again in a tavern on Mars, he was more than eight feet tall, absurdly muscular, naked apart from a ragged loincloth and gladiator sandals, and with matted hair and beard; he had a Greek-style helmet, golden with a red mane. (PROSE: The Calamari-Men of Mare Cimmerium)