Ares (Mars) is the god of war — specifically its violent, brutal, blood-soaked aspect, as opposed to Athena's strategic, disciplined side of war [S2][S4]. Son of Zeus and Hera, he is one of the few Olympians born of a union that required no pregnancy in the usual sense (Hera 'conceived' him, in one account, without a consort) [S4][S5]. He is a major character in the Iliad, where he is a fierce combatant but is also treated with a mix of awe and disdain — the Greeks call him 'the hound of war' [S2]. His most famous myth is his affair with Aphrodite, caught in the act by her husband Hephaestus and displayed before the assembled gods in shame [S2][S5].